498 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Long was a hurried one, although it was made overland from St. Louis 

 to Council Bluffs and but few plants were collected near St. Louis. 

 James remained with the expedition until its close. His efficient labors 

 are proved by the subsequent publications founded upon his observations 

 and collections. The present Pikes Peak was first named James's Peak, 

 by Major Long, but for some unexplained reason the earlier name has 

 not remained in use. 



The next two years after the return of the expedition were spent in 

 compiling his results, which were published in 1825, and were of much 

 historical and scientific value. During the next six or seven years he 

 served as a surgeon in the regular army at extreme frontier posts, and 

 here he studied the Indian languages and translated the New Testa- 

 ment into the Ojibwe tongue. He also published a biography of John 

 Tanner, a man who was captured by the Indians while a child, and was 

 brought up by them. When the medical department of the army was 

 reorganized he resigned and returned to Albany, where he was associate 

 editor of a temperance periodical. Upon leaving this he went west and 

 settled near Burlington, Iowa, where he spent the last days of his life 

 in agricultural pursuits. On October 25, 1861, he was run over by a 

 wagon and injured so seriously that he died three days later. 



The genus Jamesia, of the Saxifrage family, was named in his honor 

 by Torrey and Gray. 



The results of the exploring expeditions seem to have directed at- 

 tention to the Missouri country, so that a number of men of ability 

 came to that section and made botanical explorations of greater or less 

 extent. Before the Long expedition had finished its work an amateur 

 botanist, Dr. Lewis C. Beck, was collecting about St. Louis. 



Dr. Lewis Caleb Beck 8 was born in Schenectady, New York, on 

 October 4, 1798. In 1817 he graduated at Union College; he then 

 studied medicine and began to practise at Schenectady in 1818. He 

 moved to St. Louis in 1820 and lived here until 1822. During this 

 time he collected quite extensively and later published a list of his col- 

 lections. His introductory note is self-explanatory and is as follows : 



During my residence in Missouri, in the years 1820, 1821 and 1822, a por- 

 tion of my time was occupied in the investigation of the vegetable productions 

 of that and the adjoining state. Upon my return I was so fortunate as to 

 receive, uninjured, the collections which I had made. 



Until the present season (1826), however, I have not had leisure to examine 

 them with the necessary attention, and to revise my notes upon the recent 

 plants. This work I have now commenced, and submit to you the first part, 



"Appleton's "Cyclopedia of American Biography," 1: 213, 1887. 

 Anonymous, Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 2d series, 16: 149, 1853. 

 March, Dr. Alden, Gross's "Amer. Med. Biography," 679-696, 1861. 

 Beck, L. C, Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 10: 257-264, 1826; 11: 167-182, 

 1827; 14: 112-121, 1828. 



