100 SHORT ON WESTERN BOTANY. 



is none in which successful results appear to give more un- 

 mingled pleasure. Labor ipse voluptas, is the motto which 

 is always inscribed on his banner.* 



Amidst this ample range which Botany now opens to our 

 view, we must on the present occasion necessarily restrict our 

 researches within very narrow bounds, and we, tneretore, 

 propose devoting this paper to a sketch of the progress ot 

 Botany in Western America. In doing this, we will advert 

 to the labours of those only who have been instrumental in 

 forwarding the march of this science, and promoting its dis- 

 coveries in the more recently explored and newly settleu 

 portions of our continent : and for the sake of greater conve- 

 nience will mention them in the order of chronological occur- 

 rence. 



The first scientific botanist who visited this portion of tbe 

 Union, was Andre Michaux, the elder, who having studied 

 the science under the great Jussieu, and other eminent 

 teachers, having visited various portions of France on botani- 

 cal excursions, and accompanied the Persian consul to the 

 East, where he spent two years in the exploration of its 

 vegetable treasures, may be supposed to have been well 

 qualified for the task to which he was selected by his royal 

 master, Louis the Sixteenth — that of exploring the conti- 

 nent of North America. In 1785 he sailed from France, on 

 this mission, and for ten years was industriously engaged m 

 examining various portions of the Continent, from Hudson s 

 Bay, to the Bahama Islands; and from the Atlantic seaboard, 

 to the banks of the Mississippi. For the purpose of assisting 

 him in transporting his collections of living plants and roots 

 to Europe, he formed establishments at New York, and 

 Charleston in South Carolina, for their cultivation ; and 

 spent a considerable portion of his time in the latter city* 

 when not engaged in his excursions. These establishments 

 were soon brought into a flourishing condition, and besides 

 eiFecting the objects for which they were especially instituted, 



* Elliott in the Southern Review, No. viii. 



