690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



self. Taking a walk in the outskirts of Philadelphia the morning 

 after his arrival, he noticed a common greenbrier {Smilax rotun- 

 difolia). " Egad ! " said he to himself, " there is a passion-flower " ; 

 and he plucked some branches of it, which he brought home for 

 inquiry. His fellow-boarders could not satisfy him, but referred 

 him to a certain Prof. Barton, a great botanist, whose residence 

 was near. With his treasured branch in his hand, Nuttall called 

 at once upon Prof. Benjamin S. Barton, who received him courte- 

 ously and pointed out the difference between the genera Smilax 

 and Passiflora. Then, perceiving the intelligence of the young 

 man. Prof. Barton went on to tell him some of the general prin- 

 ciples of botany and how much pleasure could be derived from its 

 pursuit. This conversation niade Nuttall a botanist, and Barton 

 became his friend and patron. It was then early spring, and 

 throughout the season of flowers he took frequent rambles over 

 the neighboring fields, eagerly gathering specimens, which he 

 brought to Barton, studying them with him and preparing them 

 for the herbarium. Soon he began to extend his excursions, going 

 first down into the lower part of the peninsula between the Dela- 

 ware and Chesapeake Bays, and later to the coasts of Virginia 

 and North Carolina. When occupied with his favorite pursuit, 

 serious discomfort could not distract him. At one time, while 

 collecting in the southern swamps, his face and hands became 

 covered with mosquito bites, so that when he approached a human 

 habitation the people of the house would not at first admit him, 

 believing that he had the smallpox, and it was with great diffi- 

 culty that he convinced them of the contrary. 



Returning from this trip, he made the acquaintance of Mr. 

 John Bradbury, a Scotch naturalist, who had come to America to 

 collect objects of natural history in the interior. Nuttall eagerly 

 offered to accompany Bradbury, and his proposition was accepted. 

 Proceeding to St. Louis, they set out from that city on the last 

 day of December, 1809, crossed the Kansas and Platte Rivers, 

 passed through the Mandan villages, where Lewis and Clarke had 

 spent the winter of 1804-'05, and ascended the Missouri River still 

 higher, returning after an experience full of the greatest fatigues 

 and dangers. They were pursued and robbed by the Indians, and 

 Bradbury, who was captured by them, only saved himself from 

 being killed by taking his watch to pieces and distributing the 

 works among them. Nuttall, overcome by fatigue and hunger in 

 the wilderness, laid himself down to die, but was found by a 

 friendly Indian, who took him in his canoe down the Missouri to 

 the first settlement of white men. In spite of these misadven- 

 tures, he was able to bring with him on his return, in the begin- 

 ning of 1811, ample treasures of seeds, plants, minerals, and other 

 natural objects. 



