634 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Swamp behind the Botanic Garden," places that have long been cov- 

 ered by paved streets and brick and brown-stone blocks. When we 

 read that one rare plant is found " in sandy fields, above Canal Street," 

 we get a glimpse of what the New York of the author's youth must 

 have been. We have dwelt thus upon this catalogue, as it is the pre- 

 cursor of a list of most valuable botanical publications which we can 

 here only enumerate in chronological order : 



1820. "A Notice of Plants collected by Captain N. Douglass 

 around the Great Lakes at the Head-waters of the Mississippi." 

 (Sillimaii's Journal, vol. iv.) 



1823. "Descriptions of some New or Rare Plants from the Rocky 

 Mountains, collected by Dr. Edwin James." {Annals of the New 

 York Lyceum of Natural History.) 



1824. "A Flora of the Northern and Middle United States, or a 

 Systematic Arrangement and Description of all the Plants heretofore 

 discovered in the United States north of Virginia." Elliott's " Bot- 

 any of South Carolina and Georgia " was being published in numbers 

 at the time Dr. Torrey commenced this Flora, which, as he says in his 

 preface, was intended as a " counterpart " to Elliott's work. Like 

 Elliott's work, his was issued in numbers, and the first volume was com- 

 pleted in 1824. But one volume of this work was published, and, as a 

 portion of the edition was destroyed by fire, it is now only rarely to 

 be met with. It contains over 500 pages, and includes the first twelve 

 classes of the Limuean system, the species being described with a clear- 

 ness and minuteness and the synonymy elaborated with a care not 

 heretofore displayed in any work upon American botany. It was the 

 first w T ork in which our Northern grasses were treated in a thorough 

 manner, and students of the Graminaceos at the present day find this a 

 most useful work of reference. At an early day the author foresaw 

 that the Linnsean system must be superseded by the natural system of 

 Jussieu. This consideration, together with the loss of a large part of 

 the first volume, led him to abandon the work. In order to supply 

 the immediate wants of students, he prepared a compendium, which 

 gave brief descriptions of the plants contained in the first volume of 

 the Flora and of those which would have been included in the second 

 volume. 



1824. " Descriptions of New Grasses from the Rocky Mountains." 

 (Annals of the Lyceum.) 



1824. (Joint author with Schweinitz.) " A Monograph of the 

 North American Species of Carex." (Annals of the Lyceum.) 



1826. "Compendium of the Flora of the Northern and Middle 

 States " a full, concise, and compact work, referred to above. 



1826. "Some Account of a Collection of Plants made during a 

 Journey to and from the Rocky Mountains in the Summer of 1820, by 

 Edwin P. James, M. D., Assistant-Surgeon United States Army." 

 This paper was read before the Lyceum in 1826, but was not pub- 



