690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the liiglier classes than was necessary, awaiting the age at 

 which he could be admitted to the university. This he entered 

 in 1769, but remained in attendance only about a year. He 

 returned to Pennsylvania in 1770, and was ordained by the 

 synod of his church and appointed assistant to his father in 

 the pastoral work " at Philadelphia, Barren Hill, and on the 

 Raritan." In 1774 he was called to be the third preacher in Phila- 

 delphia. The prominence of his brothers in the Revolutionary 

 councils exposed him to dangers from the British, as they ap- 

 proached the scene of his labors, and he fled, September 22, 1777, 

 not to return till the following year. In 1780 he became pastor 

 of the Lutheran church at Lancaster, where he spent the rest of 

 his life. Mr. Muhlenberg was married, in 1774, to Catherine, 

 daughter of Philip Hall, of Philadelphia. He had two sons ; 

 one them, Henry Augustus, won a high reputation, first as clergy- 

 man, and afterward in public affairs. The other son, Frederick 

 Augustus, became an able physician in Lancaster, Pa. 



His work in botany began during his residence in the country 

 following his flight from Philadelphia. He resumed the study ear- 

 nestly after his return to the city, and became deeply interested 

 in the less conspicuous flowering plants and the cryptogams. 

 Botanists had not been idle in the study of North American 

 plants. Even before the time of Linnaeus Dr. J. Cornutus had 

 published in Paris, in 1035, his History of Canadian Plants, and 

 John Banister his Virginia Catalogue in London in 1688. Johann 

 Friedrich Gronovius, of Leyden, had brought out his Flora Vir- 

 ginica, with the Linnsean classification, in 1739 to 1743, of which 

 his son published a second edition in 1762. To this work John 

 Clayton, who had permanently settled in Virginia, and whose 

 name is preserved in Claytonia virginica our familiar spring 

 beauty was a contributor. Other botanists who had worked in 

 this field were Mark Catesby, with his Natural History of Canada, 

 Florida, and the Bahama Islands (1731-1743), and his Hortus 

 Britannise Americanus (1763-1767) ; Julius von Wangenheim, 

 with his German Description of Some North American Trees 

 and Shrubs, with reference to German Forests (1781) ; Humphry 

 Marshall, with his Arbustrum, or Catalogue of American Trees 

 and Shrubs (1785) ; and Walter, with his Flora Caroliniana. The 

 works of Linnaeus also had much matter of American origin, 

 communicated to him by Peter Kalm, Clayton, John Mitchell, Cad- 

 walader Colden, and John Bartram. Most of these works, and 

 others by the older European botanists, were used by Muhlenberg 

 in his studies. 



More strictly contemporary with him were the two Michaux 

 Andrd (1801-1803) and Frangois Andr^ (1805-1813) ; while in the 

 works of Pursh (1814), Shecut (1806), Le Conte (1811), and Bige- 



