SKETCH OF GOTTHILF H. E. MUHLENBERG. 689 



SKETCH OF GOTTHILF HEINRICH ERNST 

 MUHLENBERG. 



THE late Prof. J. M. Maisch, in his memorial oration on 

 Muhlenberg as a Botanist,* laid stress upon the frequency 

 with which his name is met in works of descriptive botany as 

 that of the person who first recognized as separate and scien- 

 tifically designated some particular genus or species. Waiving 

 all considerations of credit for priority or of personal fame, the 

 leading aim in all Muhlenberg's botanical work seems to have 

 been to assure the precise and accurate definition of the plant 

 with which he was for the moment dealing. 



Names of the Muhlenberg family are conspicuous in the his- 

 tory of this country. Its founder in America, Pastor Heinrich 

 Melchior Miihlenberg, who came to Philadelphia by way of 

 Charleston, S. C, in 17-43, was known as the patriarch of the 

 Lutheran Church in the United States. His eldest son, Johann 

 Peter Gabriel, also a minister in his earlier life, was a major 

 general in the Revolutionary War, Vice-President of Pennsyl- 

 vania, six years a member of the House of Representatives of 

 the United States, a United States Senator, and an officer of the 

 revenue. Another son, Friedrich August, who also began his 

 career in the pulpit, was a member of the Continental Congress, 

 a member and Speaker of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and a 

 member of the House of Representatives of the first four Con- 

 gresses, during two of which he was Speaker. 



The third son, Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, the 

 subject of the present sketch, was born in New Providence, 

 Montgomery County, Pa., November 17, 1753, and died in Lan- 

 caster, Pa., May 23, 1815. He attended schools in his native place 

 and in Philadelphia, whither his family removed in 1761. When he 

 was ten years old he was sent with his brothers to Halle, in order 

 to finish his academic studies and to prepare for the ministry. Ar- 

 rived in Holland, the brothers proceeded directly to Halle, while 

 young Henry set out in the care of an attendant for Einbeck, 

 his father's native place, where many of his relatives still lived. 

 Deserted on the journey by the man to whose protection he had 

 been confided, this boy, left without money in a strange land, 

 bravely pushed forward on foot and thus finally reached his des- 

 tination. After his visit to Einbeck he entered a school in Halle, 

 in which he continued about six years. He spent a longer time 



* Delivered before the Pioneerverein of Philadelphia, May 6, 1886, and published ia 

 Dr. Fr. Hoffmann's Pharmaceutische Rundschau, June, 188G ; also separately. It is the 

 principal source whence we have drawn the matter of this sketch. 

 VOL. XLV. 51 



