THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA 509 



Museum. A little later came John Bartram who brought to his 

 garden near Philadelphia many plants from the wilds of the southern 

 states, over which he collected extensively. His garden with its quaint 

 old house has appropriately been reserved for a park in which some 

 of the memorials of his labors are still growing. Peter Kalm, whose 

 memory is embalmed in Kalmia, the mountain laurel, was sent on a 

 mission from Sweden primarily to investigate the American mulberry 

 in the vain hope that Sweden might have an opportunity to compete with 

 France in the silk industry. Kalm traveled through Pennsylvania, 

 New York and Canada in 1748-51 and took back many plants which 

 served as the originals of some of Linnaeus' descriptions. Near the 

 time of our revolution another acute observer lived in New York, 

 Cadwallader Colden by name, and once lieutenant governor of the 

 province. Colden was also one of the correspondents of Linnaeus, and 

 a list of his plants was published from Upsala. But the real com- 

 mencement of our botanical exploration began with two foreign botan- 

 ists, who came to this country near the close of the eighteenth century, 

 and a third at a little later period. These were Frederick Pursh and 

 Andre Michaux, and later Thomas Nuttall. Michaux was sent from 

 France to collect living plants for ornamental purposes, and as the 

 result of his exploration took back to his native country more than 

 sixty thousand woody plants. In 1793 he crossed the then wilderness 

 of the Alleghanies into Ohio, going down the river as far as Louisville. 

 Two years later he went farther and pushed up the Wabash to old 

 Vincennes, crossed Illinois to the Mississippi, which he descended as 

 far as the mouth of the Ohio, and then up the Cumberland and across 

 to Charleston; he also went into Florida, then wholly inhabited by 

 Indians. Pursh traveled less widely, but his knowledge of the Amer- 

 ican flora was more extensive because of his contact with other botanists 

 who supplied him with plants from their own collections. Both 

 Pursh and Michaux published Floras of North America so-called, 

 although the North America of their day was practically limited by 

 the boundaries of the thirteen original colonies, with mere excursions 

 into the wilderness of Indiana on the west, and Florida on the south. 

 Michaux's Flora, edited after his death by Eichard, is dated 1803, and 

 Pursh's Flora appeared eleven years later. After them came Thomas 

 Nuttall, who, true to his English instincts, was an extensive traveler. 

 He was in the vicinity of St. Louis in 1810, ascended the Missouri as 

 far as Fort Mandan in 1816, and the Arkansaw as far as Fort Smith 

 in 1818. In 1834—35 he crossed the Rockies to Oregon and California. 

 The results of his travels were published in his ' Genera of North Amer- 

 ican Plants ' and other papers. 



It was in the early days of the nineteenth century that botanical 

 activity commenced in New York. Samuel L. Mitchill was one of 



