VOL. XI, PP. 57-60 MARCH 23, 1897 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE ITINERARY OF JOHN JEFFREY, AN EARLY 



BOTANICAL EXPLORER OF WESTERN 



NORTH AMERICA. 



BY FREDERICK V. COVILLE. 



Among the botanical explorers who have done important work 

 in North America, John Jeffrey is one of the most obscure. It 

 has been known that he was a Scotchman, that about the year 

 1850 he was sent to our northwest coast by patrons of botanical 

 science in Edinburgh, and that he made important collections; 

 but it is not known* in what town or in what year he was born 

 nor in what country or in what year he died. One very rare 

 pamphlet, issued in the year 1853, which contains descriptions 

 of Pinus jeffreyi and a few other new species, and has been seen 

 by few American botanists, indicates that he had visited the 

 coastal region of Oregon and the mountains of northern Califor 

 nia. It has not been known that ten other pamphlets or circu 

 lars regarding his work are in existence, and that Jeffrey traveled 

 from Hudson Bay to the Rocky Mountains of British America 

 and the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and from the mouth of the 

 Gila River, in Arizona, to the Fraser River, in British Columbia. 



Through the kindness of Professor Isaac B. Balfour, of Edin 

 burgh, and Professor C. S. Sargent, of the Arnold Arboretum, a 

 mass of documents, both manuscript and printed, relative to 

 Jeffrey and his work has been placed in my hands for examina 

 tion, a courtesy which I have to acknowledge with grateful ap 

 preciation. From these papers the following sketch has been 

 chiefly drawn : 



* According to Britten and Boulger, Biographical Index of British and 

 Irish Botanists, 1893, p. 93. 



12 BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XI, 1897 (57) 



