Vol. XI, pp. 57-60 March 23, 1897 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE ITINERARY OF JOHN JEFFREY, AN EARLY 



BOTANICAL EXPLORER OF WESTERN 



NORTH AMERICA. 



BY FREDERICK V. COYILLE. 



Amonjj; the botanical explorers who have done important work 

 in North America, John Jeffrey is one of the most obscure. It 

 has been known that lie was a Scotchman, that a])0ut the year 

 1850 he was sent to our northwest coast by patrons of botanical 

 science in Edinburgh, and that he made important collections; 

 but it is not known* in what town or in what year he was born 

 nor in what country or in what j^ear he died. One very rare 

 pamphlet, issued in the year 1853, which contains descrij^tions 

 of Plnus jeffreyi and a few other new species, and has been seen 

 by few American botanists, indicates that he had visited the 

 coastal region of Oregon and the mountains of northern Califor- 

 nia. It has not been known that ten other pamphlets or circu- 

 lars regarding his work are in existence, and that Jeffrey traveled 

 from Hudson Bay to the Rocky Mountains of British America 

 and the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and from tlie mouth of the 

 Gila River, in Arizona, to the Eraser River, in British Columbia. 



Through the kindness of Professor Isaac B. Balfour, of Edin- 

 burgh, and Professor C. S. Sargent, of the x\rnold Arboretum, a 

 mass of documents, both manuscript and printed, relative to 

 Jeffrey and his work has been placed in my hands for examina- 

 tion, a courtesy which I have to acknowledge with grateful ap- 

 preciation. From these i)apers the following sketch has been 

 chietlv drawn : 



*According to Britten and Boulger, Biographical Index of British and 

 Irish Botanists, 1893, p. 93. 



12— Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XI, 1897 (57) 



