(!(> BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



many such are mentioned in the writings of Gesner, Clusius and 

 Aldrovandus, Lister. Laet and Willughby.* 



Creatures of remarkable appearance, which could be preserved 

 with ease were the first to become known. Among fishes, tor 

 instance, those with a hard, inflexible integument, such as the 

 trunk-fishes. Every species of the family Ostraciontid.ee was 



known in Europe as early as 1685 : most of them probably a 

 century before. We know that Columbus caught a trunk-fish and 

 described it in his " Voyages." 



Professor Tuckerman has traced in a most instructive manner 

 the beginnings of European acquaintance with American plants. 

 finding traces of the knowledge of a few at a very early period : 



•• Dalechamp, Clusius. Lobel, and Alpinus — all authors of the 

 sixteenth century — must be cited occasionally in any complete 

 svnonomv of our Flora. The Indian corn, the side-saddle 

 flower (Sarracenia purpurea and S./fava), the columbine. 

 the common milk-weed {Asclepias coruufi), the everlasting 

 (Antennaria margaritacea) and the Arbor vitce, were known 

 to the just mentioned botanists before 1600. Sarracenia Jlava 

 was sent, either from Virginia, or possibly from some Spanish 

 monk in Florida. Clusius's figure of our well-known northern 

 S. purpurea was derived from a specimen furnished to him by 

 one Mr. Claude Gonier, apothecary at Paris, who himself had it 

 from Lisbon, whither we may suppose it was carried by some 

 fisherman from the Newfoundland coast. The evening primrose, 

 Oenothera biennis, was known in Europe, according to Lin- 

 naais. as early as 1614. Polygonum sagittatum and ara folium 

 (tear thumb) were figured by DeLaet, probably from New York 

 specimens, in his Novus Ordis, 1633. Johnson's edition of 

 Gerard's " Herbal." 1636, contains some dozen North American 

 species, furnished often from the garden ot' Mr. John Tradescant 

 and John Parkinson, whose " Theatrum Botamcum" (1640) is 

 declared by Tournefort to embrace a larger number of species than 

 any work which had gone before. It describes a still larger 

 number. f 



* In Xehemiah Grew's " Catalogue and description ot" the natural and 

 artificial Rarities, belonging to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham 

 College, Whereunto is subjoined the comparative Anatomy of Stomachs 

 and Guts," London, 16S1, are descriptions and figures of many American 

 animals. 



t Archceologia Americu/iu, iv. pp. 1 16-1 17. 



