138 BOTANY OF THE 
Notes and Observations on the Botany, Weather, &c., of the United 
States of America, made during a tour in that country, in 1846 
and 1847. By Ww. Arnoro Broomrretp, M.D., F.L.S., &c. 
An indifferent state of health rendering a change of scene, 
climate, and occupation absolutely necessary, I determined towards 
the middle of 1846, on visiting the United States of America; a 
country I had long wished to see ; as well on account of the great 
moral and political experiments of which it is the theatre, as of 
the analogy its vegetation bears to that of Europe, our own island 
of Great Britain included. 
Tt is not without hesitation that I have condensed and thrown - 3 
together for the public eye, the desultory notes and observations 
of a twelvemonth’s travel, over a soil, where the harvest to be 
gathered seems to reproach the reaper with indolence or negligence 
by the small amount of fruits he has brought into the garner. 
The list of genera, and still more of species, noted on the way, 
will, I apprehend, seem very meagre, and requires explanation 
before proceeding further. It must be borne in mind that I did 
not visit America purely for botanical purposes : the primary object 
was renovation of health, and all exertion, mental and bodily, in- 
compatible with the attainment of that desirable end, I was com- 
pelled to renounce, often under the strongest temptations (not 
always successfully combated), to yield up the dictates of ere 
to the fascinating interest of the moment. 
To the task of making a large and indiscriminate collection was 
opposed another consideration, no less weighty than the foregoing. 
Experience had, on former occasions, taught me that the arduous 
and mechanical occupation of a plant-collector was a great con- 
sumer of that time, which, in traversing thinly-peopled or still un- 
trodden regions, may be properly and advantageously spent in 
accumulating novelties for after-examination and the benefit of - : 
science. But the traveller, passing through densely-peopled 
countries, besides that he can hope to add little that is mew to the 
common stock of scientific gatherings, finds his attention legitimately d 
