RICKER: botanical activity in district of COLUMBIA 491 



by William Elliot in 1822 in his Washington Guide. The list 

 was furnished by Dr. Brereton and comprised 458 species, and 

 the same list was repeated in editions appearing in 1826 and 

 1830; the 1837 edition had a few additions by William Rich. 



One of the members of the Society, Dr. John A. Brereton, 

 together with William Rich, also published between 1825 and 

 1830 three parts of the American Botanical Register with 24 

 colored plates, but these contain no reference to the District. 

 William Rich was a brother of Obadiah Rich^ of Georgetown, 

 who published in 1814 a synopsis of the genus of American 

 plants which at that time Muhlenberg considered to be an 

 American edition of Persoon's "Genera." It is uncertain 

 whether this referred to Persoon's Synopsis, 1805-1807, or his 

 edition of Linnaeusa Systema Vegetabilium, 1797. Neither of 

 these men belonged to the Botanical Society of Washington, but 

 both were members of the Columbian Institute^ of George- 

 town, organized in 1516, which was more directly interested in 

 agriculture and horticulture. The Botanical Society of Wash- 

 ington was invited to join the Columbian Institute in Novem- 

 ber, 1817, and agreed, providing the Institute would so alter its 

 constitution as to admit the Society to the Committee on Bot- 

 any and Agriculture, but this request was apparently refused. 

 Dr. Alexander McWilliams submitted a list of District plants 

 to the Columbian Institute in 1826, but the list was not published. 



Following the dissolution of the Botanical Society of Wash- 

 ington in March, 1826, another organization known as the 

 Botanical Club, according to Dr. Brereton's preface, was formed, 



* Obadiah Rich, born at Truro, Massachusetts, in 1783, was a member of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at least from March 5, 1805, to January 

 30, 1810. Under date of April 16, 1812, William Bentley, of Salem, Massachu- 

 setts, wrote a letter introducing him to Thomas Jefferson. In 1815 he was ap- 

 pointed U. S. consul at Valencia, Spain. From this until 1827 most of his time 

 was spent there and at Madrid, and in the latter year he tried to sell his valu- 

 able collection of books to the Library of Congress, but failing in this most of 

 them went to the New York Public Library. He settled in London in 1828 and 

 died there January 20, 1850. For this note I am indebted to Dr. J. H. Barn- 

 hart, of the New York Botanical Garden, and to Dr. R. H. True, of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



8 For a history of this Institute see Richard Rathbun in U. S. National Mu- 

 seum Bulletin 101 : 1-85. 1917. 



