136 Notices of European Herbaria, 



Gronovius Linnseus had received a very small number of Clayton's 

 plants, previous to the publication of the * Species Plantarum ;' but 

 most of the species of the * Flora Virginica' were adopted or referred 

 to other plants on the authority of the descriptions alone. 



Linnaeus had another American correspondent in Dr. John 

 Mitchell*, who lived several years in Virginia, where he collected 

 extensively ; but the ship in which he returned to England having 

 been taken by pirates, his own collections, as well as those of Go- 

 vernor Golden, were mostly destroyed. Linnaeus however had pre- 

 viously received a few specimens, as, for instance, those on which 

 Proserpinaca, Polypremum, Galax, and some other genera, were 

 founded. 



There were two other American botanists of this period, from 

 whom Linnaeus derived, either directly or indirectly, much informa- 

 tion respecting the plants of this country, viz. John Bartram and 

 Dr. Alexander Garden, of Charleston, South Carolina. The former 

 collected seeds and living plants for Peter CoUinson during more 

 than twenty years, and even at that early day extended his labori- 

 ous researches from the frontiers of Canada to Southern Florida, 

 and to the Mississippi. All his collections were sent to his patron 

 CoUinson t, until the death of that amiable and simple-hearted man 



' Flora of the Northern and Middle States' (1824), to Stellaria media, the 

 common Chickweed. Governor Golden 's daughter seems fully to have 

 deserved the praise which CoUinson, Ellis, and others have bestowed upon 

 her. The latter, in a letter to Linnaeus (April 1758), says : " Mr. Golden 

 of New York has sent Dr. Fothergill a new plant, described by his daugh- 

 ter. It is called Fihraurea, gold-thread. It is a small creeping plant, 

 growing on bogs ; the roots are used in a decoction by the country people 

 for sore mouths and sore throats. The root and leaves are very bitter, etc. 

 I shall send you the characters as near as I can translate them." Then 

 follows Miss Golden's detailed generic character, prepared in a manner 

 which would not be discreditable to a botanist of the present day. It is a 

 pity that Linn?eus did not adopt the genus with Miss Colden's name, which 

 is better than Salisbury's Coptis. " This young lady merits your esteem, 

 and does honour to your system. She has drawn and described 400 plants 

 in your method : she uses only English terms. Her father has a plant 

 called after him Coldenia ; suppose you should call this (alluding to a new 

 genus of which he added the characters) Coldenella, or any other name that 

 might distinguish her among your genera." — Ellis, Letter to Litinaiis, I. c. 



* To him the pretty Mitchella repens was dedicated. Dr. Mitchell had 

 Bent to Gollinson, perhaps as early as in the year 1740, a paper in which 

 thirty new genera of Virginian plants were proposed. This Gollinson sent 

 to Trew at Nuremberg, who published it in the ' Ephemerides Acad. 

 Naturae Guriosorum' for 1748 ; but in the mean time most of the genera 

 had been already published, with other names, by Linnaeus or Gronovius. 

 Among Mitchell's new genera was one which he called Chamcedaphne : 

 this Linnaeus referred to Lonicera ; but the elder (Bernard) Jussieu, in a 

 letter dated Feb. 19, 1751, having shown him that it was very distinct both 

 from Lonicera and Linncea, and in fact belonged to a different natural order, 

 he afterwards named it Mitchella. 



t Mr. Gollinson kept up a correspondence with all the lovers of plants 

 in this country, among whom were Governor Golden, Bartram, Mitchell, 

 Clayton, and Dr. Garden, by whose means he procured the introduction of 



