58 t'ovlUi — Joliii Jeffrey. 



Oil the 22d of November, 1849, was held at the Botanical Gar- 

 dens in Edinburgh a meetini;; of "gentlemen interested in the 

 promotion of the arboriculture and horticulture of Scotland." 

 This meeting resulted in a decision to send to western North 

 America a botanist, who should collect the seeds of trees, shrubs, 

 and other plants suitable for horticultural |)urposes, in the re- 

 gion traversed by David Douglas, " to complete his researches, 

 and to extend them into those ])arts of the country not fully 

 explored by him." It was decided to raise the necessary funds 

 through subscribers, who should share in the specimens received 

 from the collector. 



The subscriljers formed themselves into an organization, under 

 the chairmanship of Professor J. H. Balfour, designated in their 

 official proceedings as the " Oregon Botanical Association." The 

 work of their collector was called usually the " Botanical Expe- 

 dition to Oregon," sometimes the " Oregon Botanical Expedi- 

 tion." Eleven quarto circulars of one to four pages each (in 

 one case with five lithograph plates), issued to the members of 

 the association by Andrew Murray, its secretary, have been ex- 

 amined by the writer — doubtless a complete set — and from the 

 miscellaneous dates, numbers, and localities given in them the 

 itinerary of the collector has been compiled. 



November 20, 1850, Mr. Murray reported, on behalf of an ex- 

 ecutive committee, that the services of Mr. John Jeffrey had been 

 secured, and that with authentic credentials and the hearty 

 cooperation of the Hudson's Bay Company he had sailed from 

 Tjondcjn earl}'^ in June, 1850, for Hudson Bay. 



On April 7, 1851, Jeffrey wrote Professor Balfour from Jasper 

 House, in the British Rocky Mountains, on the headwaters of 

 the Athabasca River, stating that he had left York Factory, on 

 Hudson Bay, August 20, 1850, and reached Cumberland House, 

 on the Saskatchewan River, October 8, Avhere he remaine<l till 

 tlie early part of Januar}^, 1851. He had then proceeded up the 

 Saskatchewan to Edmonton House, overland to the Athabasca, 

 and up that river to Jasper House, where he arrived March 21, 

 A small and unimportant collection from the eastern side of the 

 Rockies was shii)ped about this time and reached Edinburgh 

 late in the year. 



From Jasper House Jeffrey crossed the Rocky Mountains at 

 Athabasca Pass, between Mount P>rown and Mount Hooker, and 

 coming to the Columbia River at the point where it bends ab- 



