490 ricker: botanical activity in district of Columbia 



for a time every two weeks. The dues were five dollars a year, 

 and to enforce attendance a fine of one dollar for regular meet- 

 ings and fifty cents for special meetings was levied against mem- 

 bers who did not attend and could not give a satisfactory ex- 

 cuse. The aims were, quoting from the constitution, "to col- 

 lect, arrange, preserve and describe all the vegetable produc- 

 tions within the limits of the District .... to publish 

 quarterly, if deemed necessary, whenever the Society shall have 

 obtained a full knowledge of all the vegetable productions of 



the said District a Flora with colored plates " At 



one time every member attending was required to bring a plant. 

 The thirteen charter members consisted of John Boyle, W. A. 

 Bradley, Dr. John A. Brereton, Samuel Elliot, Jr., William 

 Elliot, J. W. Hand, Dr. Henry Huntt, Major James Kearney, 

 Rev. Dr. James Laurie, Dr. Alexander McWilliams, J. M. 

 Moore, John Underwood, and George Watterson. During the, 

 life of the Society six other members were elected and a seventh 

 name is given on a committee, but there is no record of this per- 

 son's election. These were, however, mostly expelled for non- 

 attendance, and on May 6, 1822, Boyle, Brereton, Wm. Elliot, 

 Kearney, McWilliams, and Underwood were the only remain- 

 ing members. Jacob Bigelow of Boston, William Darlington of 

 New Jersey, and William P. C. Barton of Philadelphia, promi- 

 nent botanists of that time, were elected honorary members. 

 After 1822 only one meeting a year was held until March 27, 

 1826, when the books belonging to the Society were ordered 

 deposited in the Washington Library and Dr. McWilliams was 

 authorized to take charge of the herbarium, after which the 

 Society adjourned sine die. There is apparently no record of the 

 ultimate disposition of the library and herbarium. The library 

 contained at least 24 volumes listed in the Proceedings of the 

 Society. We are informed by both the District Public Library 

 and the Library of Congress that the copies of these works in 

 their libraries bear no indication of ever having belonged to the 

 Botanical Society of Washington. The plan of publication by 

 the Society never materialized, but the Society did pubhsh in 

 1819 a Florula Columbiensis of 14 pages, and listing 293 species. 

 What was practically a second edition of this list was published 



