﻿PLANTAE LINDIIEIMERIANAE. 



135 



of a cultured man, though in a mild, almost shy-sounding 

 voice, which ill accorded with his rough exterior, and whose 

 answer to my direct question, confirmed my supposition. It 

 was the botanist, Mr. Ferdinand Lindheimer from Frankfort- 

 on-the-Main. Residing in Texas for a considerable time he 

 had by several years' zealous plant-collecting acquired a 

 permanent scientific reputation, as regards the botanical 

 knowledge of Texas, which had before been almost totally 

 unknown and had been visited transiently but once before by 

 an EngUsh botanist named Drummond. 



"After Lindheimer had received at the German schools 

 and universities the best available scientific education and spec- 

 ial training in the ancient classics, he taught for a time in one of 

 the higher educational institutions, but his dissatisfaction 

 with the political condition of his native land for more than 

 a decade and perhaps also his thirst for adventure drove him 

 beyond the sea. He went first with several congenial com- 

 panions to Mexico and lived there for some time in the 

 neighborhood of the charmingly situated Jalapa upon the 

 produce of a pine-apple and banana plantation, and went 

 later to Texas, in order to take part as a volunteer in the lat- 

 ter part of the Texas war for independence against Mexico. 



"After the close of this war he endeavored to live for some 

 time as a farmer and to improve a farm, but this manner of 

 life also did not appeal to him, and he decided, particularly 

 at the urging of a friend in St. Louis, to gratify his inclina- 

 tion from earliest youth, a cherished delight for botany, and 

 at the same time make it a means of hvelihood. He bought 

 a two-wheeled covered cart with a horse, loaded it with a pack 

 of pressing-paper and a supply of the most indispensable pro- 

 visions, namely, flour, coffee and salt, and then set forth into 

 the wilderness, armed with his rifle and with no other^ com- 

 panion than his two hunting dogs, while he occupied himself 

 with coUecting and pressing plants and depended for his sub- 

 sistence mainly upon the results of the chase, often passing 

 whole months at a time without seeing a human being. 



"When, then, in the late fall of 1844, the first large train of 

 German immigrants under the leadership of Prince Solms 

 arrived in Texas, Lindheimer joined them and was joyfully 



