SHORT ON WESTERN BOTANY. 101) 



investigation. In 1811, he accompanied Bradbury on liis 

 then perilous voyage up tlie Missouri; soon afterwards lie 

 travelled extensively in the Arkansas territory — then an un- 

 known region. In 1816, we had the pleasure of meeting with 

 this gentleman in this country, and enjoyed the happiness of 

 making with him several herborizations, in the neighbourhood 

 of this place and Cincinnati. At that time, in adch'tion to iiis 

 zeal for botanical acquisitions, he was much interested in the 

 examination of the aboriginal relics of this region, antl we 

 assisted him in taking plans and measurements of an exten- 

 sive fortification at the confluence of the great Miami and 

 Ohio rivers, and of another in this vicinity. 



In 1818, this Botanist published his Genera of North Amer- 

 ican Plants^ the result of personal collections and observations 

 made during nine years active research, throughout most of 

 the States and Territories of the union ; during which time 

 he more than once visited the Western section of it. Though 

 differing essentially in character and scope from the works of 

 Michaux and Pursh, since it professes only to give generic 

 characters, together with a mere catalogue of species, and 

 detailed descriptions of such only as are new, yet the Genera 

 of Nuttall is not a less useful or excellent production than 

 either of the former; whilst in point of accuracy and minute- 

 ness, it is even more so. The testimony of the public to tiiis 

 assertion is manifested in the fact, that a second edition of it 

 has been long demanded. 



By this work the American Flora has been enriched with 

 many acquisitions of interest, utility, and beauty, made by its 

 author in every portion of the Union. Time would fail me 

 were I to attempt an enumeration of them, but I cannot pass 

 them by without a notice of a few of those — the more exclu- 

 sive natives of our Western woods. Among these are the 

 early flowering Erigenia bulbosa the first harbinger of our 

 spring— the beautiful parti-coloured Collinsia verna, dedicated 

 to his friend and fellow-botanist, Zaccheus Collins of Phila- 

 delphia the Phalangium esculentum, as ornamental as the 



cultivated Hyacinth, and having a large edible and nutritious 



