BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 



253 



and his work about St. Louis seems to have been simply a continuation 

 along similar lines to that already done in Europe. Although he lived 

 in St. Louis and in later years in East St. Louis, he seems to have been 

 somewhat of a hermit, and was not understood, or even comparatively 

 well known, by his neighbors. He seems to have been an enthusiast 

 upon botany, and his botanical collection was apparently his one lux- 

 ury and hobby. 



Heinrich Karl Daniel Eggert^^ was born March 3, 1841, in the 

 town of Osterwieck, Prussia. He was educated at a seminary in Hal- 

 berstadt, and became a teacher in the public schools of the neighboring 



Fig. 18. The Eggert House in East St. Louis, Illinois ; pi-actically as it was 

 at the time of the death of Henry Eggert. 



city of Magdeburg. He early became interested in the study of plants, 

 and before leaving Europe he had made botanical collections in the 

 Harz Mountains and on short journeys to Kreuznach and in Bohemia. 

 Dissatisfied with the small salary of a German school teacher, Eggert 

 came to x\merica in 1873, and for a few months worked on a farm in 

 southern New York. From N^ew York he went to St. Louis, where he 

 remained for a number of years and then removed across the river to 

 East St. Louis, where he lived the rest of his lifetime. 



The first work which he seems to have taken up in St. Louis was 

 that of carrying papers for the local press. He carried papers for about 

 twenty years, handling both a morning and an evening one. He 

 worked early and late, never sparing himself and always living by him- 

 self in a secluded manner. Comparatively few persons ever saw the in- 



^^ Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 13: 51-52, 1902. 



