PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 81 



the fructification of the Indian corn, was accepted in its day as a 

 valuable contribution to knowledge. 



Cadwallader Colden [b. 1688, d. 1776] was also a statesman and 

 a naturalist. A native of Scotland, he came to America in 1708, 

 and, after a short residence in Pennsylvania, settled in New York, 

 where he held the office of surveyor-general and member of the 

 King's council, and in later life was for many years lieutenant- 

 governor, and frequently acting-governor of the province. His 

 intellectual activity manifested itself in various directions, and his 

 " History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada," New York, 

 1727, was one of the earliest ethnological works printed in 

 America. He also was interested in meteorology and astronomy, 

 and as a correspondent of Linnaeus and Collinson did much to 

 advance the study of American Botany. His daughter, Miss 

 Jane Colden, was the first lady in America to become proficient 

 in the study of plants. She was the author of a Flora of New 

 York which was never published.* Governor Colden's ' k Plantae 

 Coldenhamiae," the first part of a catalogue of the plants growing 

 in the neighborhood of his country residence, "Coldenham," near 

 Newburgh, was the first treatise on the flora of New York. It 

 was published in 1744 in the Acts of the Royal Society of Upsala.| 

 A most interesting collection from the scientific correspondence 

 of Colden was published many years ago by Dr. Asa Gray.j 



Hans Sloane, a young Irish physician, [b. 1660, d. 1 753] ■» wno 

 had been a pupil of Tournefort and Magnol, visited the West 

 Indies in 1684, and after his return printed a Catalogue of Jamaica 

 Plants in 1696, and, later, a sumptuously illustrated work on the 

 natural history of Jamaica (1707-25). After his return he be- 

 came an eminent physician, and in 1727 succeeded Isaac Newton 

 as President of the Royal Society. The collection of animals and 

 plants made by Sir Hans Sloane in America was greatly increased 

 by him during his long and active life, and, having been be- 



♦Brendel in Amer. Nat., Dec, 1S79. fToRREY: Flora of New York. 



JAmer. Journ. Science, xiv. 



