SHOUT ON WESTERN BOTANY. 107 



nal of his travels in America during the years 1809-10-11, 

 in which is contained a great deal of interesting information, 

 on the Botany of the Missouri country. 



It is now time that we notice more particularly a work, 

 whose publication forms a considerable epoch in the annals 

 of American Botany, and wijose autlior on several occasions 

 we have already mentioned. 



Frederick Pursh, a German by birth, and educated at Dres- 

 den, left that country in 1799, with the determination, as lie 

 states, not to return, until he had explored North America to 

 the utmost of his means and abilities. From the time of his 

 arrival until the year 1811, when he returned to Europe, he 

 seems to have been variously engaged, and at different points 

 of the Eastern and Southern States, in prosecuting his design; 

 hut his most extensive explorations were made during the 

 years 1805 and 1806, in one of which he visited and examined 

 the Northern States, and in the other, the Southern from 

 New Hampshire to Georgia. 



"Both of these tours," as he says in the preface to his work, 

 "I made principally on foot, the most appropriate way for at- 

 tentive observation, particularly in mountainous countries; 

 travellinsr over an extent of more than three thousand miles 

 each season, with no other companions than my dog and gun, 

 frequently taking up my lodgings in the midst of wild moun- 

 tains and impenetrable forests, far remote from the habitations 

 of men." It does not appear, however, that Pursh ever cros- 

 sed the Alleghanies or descended into the Western Valley ; 

 consequently in the present inquiry we would not be so much 

 interested in tracing his footsteps, or noticing his labours, ex- 

 cept that they resulted in the publication of a work, by far 

 the most comprehensive which has ever yet appeared on the 

 subject of American Botany. 



In 1811, after an absence of twelve years, Pursh returned 

 to Europe with an ample stock of materials towards a Flora 

 of North America, which, in 1814, he published in London, 

 under the title Flora Americce Septenlrionalis. In tlie compi- 

 lation of this work he seems to have availed himself industri- 



