80 



cultivation for years in ELastern Pennsylvania, a few miles west of the 

 Delaware River. 



Years ago it grew in the fields near Worth's Mills, south of Prince- 

 ton, from which it has totally disappeared, no trace of it being now to 

 be found in all that region. Its presence near Walnford is no doubt 

 due to the introduction from the West of seeds in grain, the most effi- 

 cient agent for plant distribution in all cultivated regions. The 

 strong roots alluded to by Dr. Lockwood are common to many her- 

 baceous perennials. 



White Plains, N. Y. O. R. Willis. 



75. Tiarella cordifolia — I should be glad to know, whether 



this plant ever seeds freely anywhere; whether there are often more 

 than one or two seeds in a capsule; whether it is often seen with 

 leaves on the scape; and whether, when the scape is foliaceous, it is 

 more or less productive than in its usual state ? Some facts noted on 

 the plant in North Carolina, and which I hoped to re-examine in 

 northern plants this season, lead me to make these inquiries. So far, 

 this year, I have only been able to observe a few cultivated plants. 

 Germantown, Philadelphia. Thomas Meehan. 



76. The Herbaria andBotanicalLibrariesof the United States, 



Vll- — The Muhlenberg Herbarium. — Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, 

 D.p., was one of the earliest American botanists, and by his careful 

 training in the schools of Germany, was specially fitted for successful 

 work m a field where qualified laborers were rare. His death, which 

 occurred May 22, 1815, at the comparatively early age of 62, was a 

 great loss to the scientific world. Among his intimate friends and 

 correspondents was Zaccheus Collins, a merchant of Philadelphia, 

 well known m his day as a promoter of good works, and as an as- 

 siduous Cultivator of natural science. The efforts of Mr. Collins, 

 seconded by the influence of Dr. Wistar, Mr. Vaughan and others* 

 secured the sum of five hundred dollars for the purchase from 

 the son, Dr. F. A. Muhlenberg, of his father's herbarium for the 

 American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, which, in 18 16, re- 

 ceived possession and still retains it. 



With good judgment, that Society has not permitted the arrange- 

 ment to be disturbed, and it remains as left by the original owner. 

 The phanerogamic plants and the ferns are enclosed in boxes or wood- 

 en books with sliding covers, and the plants are laid in sheets of the di- 

 minutive size usual in early herbaria. The lower cryptogamic 

 plants are in smaller paste-board envelopes, and are accompanied 

 with lists. The arrangement, of course, is that of the Linnaean 

 sexual system, and as this is one of the few. collections which illus- 

 trate the early history of American botany, it is hoped that this ar- 

 rangement will not be changed. The plants are mostly in fair pres- 

 ervation. 



The collection has great interest as connected with the labors of 



• .n the Colhns correspondence, in possession of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, is the rough draft of a subscriptioa-paper which gives reason to believe 

 that the contributors to the purchase were Wistar, Collins, Vaughan, Pollock, 

 bhort, Dorsey, James, Chapman and Titrhhnan. 



