144 TJIK BOTANISTS OF I'll I I.ADKLI'IIIA. 



CHARLES J. WISTER. 



Charles J. Wister was born in 1782. dying July - _!:!rd, 



*/ o i/ 



l*t '>.">. Kleeted n member of the American Philosophical 

 Society in LSI 1, he took a deep interest in its welfare.* He 

 \vasa friend and contemporary of Thomas Xuttall, with 

 whom he botani/ed. JJis son, W. Wynne Wister, was 

 taken by him to hear Mr. Xuttall's lectures in the German- 

 town Academy, wliere he received an inspiration for the 

 science which lasted a lifetime. 



CONSTANTINE SAMUEL RAFINESQUE [SCHMALTZ]. f 



Perhaps no American botanist has been so misrepre- 

 sented and misunderstood as Constantine Samuel Rafmesque. 

 Vain, ambitious and eccentric to the last degree, he was the 

 first teacher of science west of the Appalachians, and one of the 

 pioneer naturalists of the United States. Though a volumi- 

 nous writer in French, Italian and English, 011 all kinds of 

 subjects, including religion, ethnology, sociology and natural 

 science, his publications were, in the main, quite limited in 

 the number of copies, and are now mostly rare. In the 

 bibliographical list given in the sumptuous quarto of Dr. 

 Call, nearly 450 titles are quoted of articles, pamphlets and 

 books written by Rafinesque, of which 141 are on botanical 

 subjects. Most of them are rubbish, pure and simple, and 

 yet it must be said that American botany owes him a great 

 deal more than modern systematists generally admit. 



* For a short obituary notice, see The Gardener's M-m/h/i/ (Meelian), VII. 

 I'. li71. 



t Ana (Irny Bulletin, Vol. IV, No. 1., p. 6. Most of the material for this 

 article, by <;. 11. Hicks, was obtained from the " The Life and Writings of Rafinesque." 

 No. 10, FilsonClub Publications. Richard Kllsworth Cull, Louisville, Ky., Is'.i.V 



Botanical Gazette VIII : 177. I'.'l. (Inrdi-n <in>l F-n-cxt, IV: Mil. 



l'l>u!ar Science Monthly, l.ssi;, p. -jrj, Science, JV. A'., I : :>l. 



