BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 3r>9 



Mitchell,* who lived several years in Virginia, where he col- 

 lected extensively ; but the ship in which he returned to Enn;- 

 land having been taken by pirates, his own collections, as uell 

 as those of Governor Golden, were mostly destroyed. Lin- 

 Hieus however had previously received a few specimens, as, 

 for instance, those on which Proserpinaca, Pohjpremim, Galaxy 

 and some other genera, were founded. 



There were two other American botanists of this period, 

 from whom Linnaeus derived, either directly or indirectly, 

 much information respecting the plants of this country, viz., 

 John Bartram and Dr x\lexander Garden of Charleston, 

 South Carolina. The former collected seeds and living plants 

 for Peter Collinson during more than twenty years, and, even 

 at that early day extended his laborious researches from the 

 frontiers of Canada, to Southern Florida, and to the ISIissis- 

 sippi. All his collections were sent to his patron Collinson, f 



* To him the pretty 3IitcheUa repens Mas dedicated. Dr Mitchell had 

 sent to Collinson, perhaps as early as in the year 1740, a paper in which 

 thirty new genera of Virginian plants were proposed. This Collinson 

 sent to Trew at Nuremberg, who published it in the Ephemerides Acad. 

 NaturcE Ctiriosorum for I74S; but in the mean time, most of the genera 

 had been already published, with other names, by Linnaeus or Gronovius. 

 Among Mitchell's new genera was one which he called Chayncedaphne : 

 this Linnaeus referred to Lonicera, but the elder (Bernard) Jussieu, in a 

 letter dated Feb. 19, 1751, having shown him that it was very distinct both 

 from Lonicera and Limicea, and in fact belonged to a different natural 

 order, he afterwards named it Mitchella. 



t Mr Collinson kept up a correspondence with all the lovers of plants 

 in this country, among whom were Governor Golden, Bartram, Mitchell, 

 Clayton, and Dr Garden, by whose means he procured the introduction of 

 great numbers of North American plants into the English gardens. " Your 

 system," he writes Linnaeus, " I can tell you obtains much in America. 

 Mr Clayton and Dr Colden at Albany, on Hudson's River, in New York, 

 are complete professors, as is Dr Mitchell at Urbana, on Rapahanock 

 River, in Virginia. It is he that has made many and great discoveries in 

 the vegetable world." — " I am glad you have the correspondence of Dr 

 Colden and Mr Bartram. They are both very indefatigable, ingenious 

 men. Your system is much admired in North America." Again, " I have 

 but lately heard from Mr Colden. He is well, but, what is marvellous, his 

 daughter is perhaps the first lady that has so perfectly studied your system. 



