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The Plant World, 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



Vol. l NOVEMBER, 1897. No. 2. 



SOME EARLY AMERICAN BOTANISTS. 



AMOS EATON. 

 Bj/ F. H. Knozvlton. 



PROFESSOR AMOS EATON, who has been selected as the sub- 

 ject for the first of a proposed series of short articles on some 

 of the pioneers in American botany, is believed to have been 

 the first to attempt the popularization of botany in the United 

 States. It therefore seems especially fitting that an early number of 

 this journal, which is to be conducted along similar popular lines, 

 should contain some account of his life and work. 



Amos Eaton was born in Chatham, Columbia county, New York, 

 May 17, 1776, and died at Troy, N. Y., May 6, 1842. His family was 

 descended from one John Eaton, who came from Dover, England, 

 about 1635, and who settled in Dedham, Mass. His father. Captain 

 Able Eaton, was a successful farmer, and it is probable that the early 

 life on the farm did much to shape the later course and interests of 

 the young naturalist. 



He graduated from Williams College in 1799, having taken it is 

 said, a high standing in science. He decided, however, on the legal 

 profession, and studied law in Spencertown and New York City, and 

 was in due course admitted to the bar of the Superior Court of New 

 York. While in New York he became acquainted with and was much 

 influenced by Dr. David Hosack and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, the most 

 distinguished scientific men in the city at the time. After admission 

 to the bar he settled in Catskill, and here it was, in 1810, that he gave 

 what was probably the first course of popular lectures on botany in 

 this country. In this same year he published his hlemcntary Treatise 

 on Botany. 



As his interest in the natural sciences increased, his taste for the 

 law diminished, and finally in 181 5 he abandoned it altogether, and 



