1 .30 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



a native of France, came to his city and settled on a piece of land on 

 the Gravois Eoad in South St. Louis, and began to collect botanical 

 specimens. 



Nicholas EiehP* was born in Colmar, province of Alsace, France 

 (now Germany), about 1808. His father's business was that of manu- 

 facturing cloth; not liking it, Nicholas sold it after the death of his 

 father, and divided the estate. He took his share and traveled over 

 much of Europe and America, coming as far west as St. Louis. Ta- 

 king a liking to this part of the country, he returned to his old home 

 and married. The two returned to St. Louis in the spring of 1836, 

 and settled on a piece of ground on the Gravois Eoad in Carondelet, 

 just outside the St. Louis city limits, and established a nursery. This 

 is believed to have been the first nursery in St. Louis county, if not in 

 the state of Missouri. The nursery business he carried on with success 

 and profit until the time of his death in September, 1852. Eiehl evi- 

 dently collected botanical specimens some years before he came to this 

 country, as specimens in his herbarium bear dates as far back as 1830, 

 which were collected in the vicinity of Colmar. He also collected con- 

 siderably in the vicinity of St. Louis in 1838. He had printed labels 

 made for the collections made in this year, and they number not far from 

 two hundred. Besides the specimens bearing the printed labels, there 

 are many with incomplete labels which undoubtedly were collected here 

 also. His entire collection was sold to Mr. Henry Shaw, who was at 

 that time just starting to develop his botanical garden. The larger part 

 of them were collected in Europe or were exchanged with European 

 collectors. Mr. Eiehl was a friend and admirer of Dr. George Engel- 

 mann, and was much interested in the work which he was doing. The 

 Eiehl nursery furnished Mr. Shaw the first trees which he planted in 

 his newly started botanical garden. 



In the forties Theodore C. Hilgard was collecting the native plants 

 of the vicinity of St. Louis. 



Theodore Charles Hilgard^^ was born at Zweibrucken, Ehenish 

 Bavaria, on February 28, 1828. His father, Theodore Erasmus Hil- 

 gard, was a lawyer, who in 1836 resigned from the Supreme Court of 

 the province and emigrated with his family to America, settling on a 

 farm near Belleville, 111., which at that time was the home of many 

 other educated Germans who for political reasons had preceded him. 

 Theodore was the sixth of a family of eight. The schools being poor 

 and few in number, Theodore with the other younger children received 

 his primary education from his elder sisters and elder brother Julius, 



" Information and photograph supplied by Mr. E. A. Riehl, of Alton, 

 Illinois, son of Nicholas. 



" This sketch is adapted with very slight changes from a manuscript kindly 

 furnished by Professor Eugene W. Hilgard, brother of Theodore. 



