182 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
extract the following obituary of one whom we formerly numbered 
amongst the contributors to this Journal.—Enp.] 
* Charles Andreas Geyer was born at Dresden, in Germany, on the 
30th of November, 1809. His father, a market-gardener of very mo- 
derate means, could devote but little time, and still less money, to the 
education of his son; but the natural abilitics of the boy excited the 
attention ‘of a kind-hearted Cantor, Mr. Mark, who caused him to be 
instructed in Latin. Under the well-known equestrian statue of Au- 
gustus the Strong, at Dresden, young Geyer was wont to sit, selling 
the produce of his father’s garden, and at the same time endeavouring 
to master the difficulties of the new language. In 1826 he entered the 
Garden at Zabelitz as apprentice; in 1830 he again removed to Dres- 
den, where he was engaged as assistant in the Botanic Garden and other 
horticultural establishments. At that time Geyer had a numerous circle 
of friends, amongst whom was Professor Reichenbach, my father, for 
whom he always entertained a high regard, and whose lectures on botany ` 
he attended with great regularity. Every one seemed to like the pro- 
mising youth, a circumstance for which his extremely prepossessing ap- 
~ pearance, his simple, pleasing manners, may in a great measure account. 
_ Twas at that time quite a child, but I still remember his handsome 
features. He was active,—a capital swimmer, an excellent pedestrian. 
“In February, 1834, he left Dresden for North America, to satisfy 
his thirst for exploring new countries. There his life was a very che- 
quered one. During the summer months he used to collect plants ; 
during the winter he was employed in various ways; at one time he 
entered a printing-office as compositor, and, always ‘ going ahead,’ he 
wrote, a few months afterwards, the leading articles for the very news- 
Ba the type of which he had, a short time before, assisted in putting 
v . The first great journey Geyer made was in 1835, when he visited, 
E with a single companion, the plains of the Missouri, where he received 
-very ill treatment from the hands of the Indians, and whence he re- 
turned with broken health to New York. In 1836 and the following 
years he accompanied Mr. Nicollet on his surveying expedition between 
the Missouri and the Mississippi. In 1840 he investigated the flora 
of St. Louis, where he became intimately acquainted with Dr. Engel- 
mann. In 1841 he joined Colonel Fremont’s expedition to the Desmoin 
river, in the Lower Iowa country. In 1842 he explored the territory 
of Minois, and in 1844 went with Sir W, Stewart to the Oregon ter- 
