BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 495 



manuscript for his " Flora Americans Septentrionalis." Pursh pub- 

 lished the most interesting of these plants in an appendix to his work, 

 and this seems to have discouraged Bradbury from publishing as ex- 

 tensively upon them as he probably would have otherwise done. In 

 1817 Bradbury published his journal of travels on the Missouri in the 

 years 1809-10-11, and in an appendix to this gave a list of the rare 

 and most interesting plants of his collections. He did not, however, 

 issue a complete list, and so far as now known no such list has ever 

 been published. The second edition of his travels was issued in 1819, 

 and in the editor's preface it is stated that Mr. Bradbury had already 

 returned to St. Louis and taken up his residence there. Baldwin, who 

 passed through St. Louis in 1819 with the Long expedition, mentions 

 meeting Mr. Bradbury there at that time. His name is given in the 

 St. Louis city directory for 1821, 5 but no definite information regard- 

 ing him after this date has yet been found. 



During the early part of the nineteenth century it was the policy 

 of the national government to send expeditions of a military character 

 to explore the unknown sections of the western country. Shortly after 

 Bradbury made his tour of the Missouri, an expedition was fitted out 

 and placed under the command of Major S. H. Long. This was in- 

 tended to make more complete and detailed exploration of the Missouri 

 and its main tributaries, and to make more accurate scientific observa- 

 tions of the country passed through. The necessity of having com- 

 petent scientific men accompany the expedition was recognized, and 

 several such men were appointed for the purpose. 



The botanist of the expedition was Dr. William Baldwin. 6 He was 

 a son of a minister of the. Friends in Pennsylvania, being born in New- 

 lin, Chester County, in 1779. He studied medicine at the University 

 of Pennsylvania and took his degree in 1807. Meanwhile he had be- 

 come interested in the study of botany, and upon settling in Wilming- 

 ton, Delaware, to commerce practising his profession, he collected ex- 

 tensively in the vicinity. Pulmonary weakness forced him to remove to 

 Georgia in 1811, where he served as surgeon to a gunboat flotilla during 

 the war of 1812. He kept up his collecting and study of the plants 

 of this new region, and because of his ability as a botanist he received 

 an appointment as surgeon to the U. S. frigate Congress, during a 

 cruise to various South American ports. Baldwin made extensive col- 

 lections and notes wherever opportunity offered, and he returned with a 



5 Learned by the aid of the St. Louis Historical Society. 

 « Thwaites, R. G., " Early Western Travels," Vol. 14. 



Darlington, William, " Reliquiae Baldwinianse," 1-346, 1843. 



Redfield, John, Bot. Gctz., 8: 233-237, 1883. 



Harshberger, J. W., "Botanists of Philadelphia," 119-125, 1899. 



