358 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



sent was plundered by pirates;* and in a letter sent by 

 Kalm, on the return of the latter to Sweden, he informs 

 Linnaeus that this traveller had been such an industrious 

 collector, as to leave him little hopes of being himself farther 

 useful. It is not probable therefore, that Linnseus received 

 any plants from Golden, nor does his herbarium afford any 

 such indication. t From Gronovius, Linnseus had received 

 a very small number of Clayton's plants, previous to the 

 publication of the Species Plantarum ; but most of the spe- 

 cies of the Flora Virginica were adopted or referred to other 

 plants on the authority of the descriptions alone. 



Linnaeus had another American correspondent in Ur John 



ctiain seminibus eorum recentibus et incorruptis, adduxit. — Linn. Ammn. 

 Acad. Vol. ill. p. 4. 



* Vid. Letter of Linnseus to Haller, Sept. 24, 1746. 



^ The^Holosteum succulentum of Linnseus {Alsine foliis elUpticis car' 

 nosis of Golden, is however marked in Linnaeus's own copy of the Species 

 Plantarum, with the sign employed to designate the species he at that 

 time possessed; but no corresponding specimen is to be found in his her- 

 barium. This plant has long been a puzzle to American botanists ; but it 

 is clear from Colden's description, that Dr Torrey has correctly referred 

 it in his Flora of the Northern and Middle States, (1824), to Stellaria 

 media, the common Chickweed. Governor Colden's daughter seems fully 

 to have deserved the praise which CoUinson, Ellis, and others, have be- 

 stowed upon her. The latter, in a letter to Linnseus, (April, 1758,) says : 

 *' Mr Golden of New York has sent Dr Fothergill a new [>lant, described 

 by his daughter. It is called Fibraurea, 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, &c. I shall send you the characters as near as I can 

 translate them." Then follows Miss Colden'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 Linnajus 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 Eng- 

 lish 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."— JE://js, letter to Linnccus, I. c. 



