116 SHORT ON WESTERN BOTANY. 



ing entirely across the' continent, from the mouth of the 

 Columbia to Hudson's Bay, has been explored by three 

 of the ablest and most zealous collectors that England has 

 ever sent forth ; while a zone of similar width, extending at 

 right angles with the other, from Canada to the Polar Sea, 

 has been more cursorily examined by these expeditions. 



The botanical results of these labours are now publish- 

 ing in London, under the title of Flora Boreali- Americana, 

 by that able and distinguished Naturalist, Sir William J- 

 Hooker. The British Government, actuated by a most 

 laudable desire of encouraging our science, has lent a liberal 

 aid to the undertaking, and has granted one thousand pounds 

 to be applied towards defraying the expense of the engrav- 

 ings alone. About one half of this splendid work has 

 reached us, and when completed, it will be an invaluable 

 acquisition to the American botanist.* It will, indeed, iden- 

 tify the names of Douglas and Drummond, of Richardson 

 and Hooker, with the cause and progress of Western Ameri- 

 can Botany. 



The order of our inquiry next leads us to notice the 

 further labours of one of the naturalists of this expedition, in 

 a different quarter of the Continent. Having published in 

 England, a work exclusively on the subject of the American 

 Mosses, chiefly the result of his late researches, in 182o- 

 6—7, Mr Drummond again sailed for America, at the ui- 

 stance, and through the liberal pecuniary aid chiefly of Sir W. 

 J. Hooker and Dr Graliam, for the purpose of exploring the 

 less known parts of the Southern and Western United States. 

 Commencing his tour again at New York, in the spring oi 

 1831, he passed through Philadelphia and Washington, 

 where every facility was atForded him by naturalists and 

 official agents, for a successful prosecution of his undertaking. 

 He crossed the AUeghanies on foot, descended the Ohio 

 from Wheeling to its mouth, and thence up the Mississippi 

 to St Louis. Here, and in the neighbourhood, he remainea 



* The Flora Boreali- Americana was finished early in this )'ear( 1840 j, 

 and constitutes two 4to volume?, illustrated by 240 plates. — Ek. 



