BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 141 



this century, say eighty years ago, contains 1530 species, in 528 

 genera. No very formidable number; as to species (speaking 

 without a count) little over half as many as are described in my 

 Manual of the Botany of the Northern States, which covers less 

 than half of Michaux's area. 



Eleven years afterward, namely, in the year 1814 (the pref- 

 ace is dated December, 1813), appeared the second Flora of North 

 America, namely the Flora Americce Septentriona Us, by Fred- 

 erick Pursh. This was not confined to the author's own collec- 

 tions, but aimed at completeness, or to give "a systematic arrange- 

 ment and description of the plants of North America, containing, 

 besides what have been described by preceding authors, many new 

 and rare species, collected during twelve years 1 travels and resi- 

 dence in that country. 1 ' 



It appears that Pursh was born at Tobolsk, in Siberia, of 

 what parentage we do not know. He himself tells us, in his 

 preface, that he was educated in Dresden, and that he came to this 

 country — to Baltimore and Philadelphia, — at the close of the last 

 century, when he must have been only twenty-five years old. He 

 was able to make the acquaintance not only of Muhlenberg, who 

 survived until 1S15, and of ■Wm. Bartram, who died in 1823. but 

 also of the veteran Humphrey M irshall. who died in 1805. His 

 early and principal patron was Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, who 

 supplied the means for most of the travels which he was able to 

 undertake, and who, as Pursh states, ''for some time previous had 

 been collecting materials for an American Flora.' 1 Pursh's per- 

 sonal explorations were not extensive. From 1802 till 1805 he 

 was in charge of the gardens of Wm. Hamilton, near Philadelphia. 

 In the spring of the latter year, as he says, he "set out for the 

 mountains and western territories of the Southern States, begin- 

 ning at Maryland and extending to the Carolinas (in which tract 

 the interesting high mountains of Virginia and Carolina took my 

 particular attention), returning late in the autumn through the 

 lower countries along t)xe sea-coast to Philadelphia. 1 ' But, in 

 tracing his steps by his collections and by other indications, it 

 appears that he did not reach the western borders of Virginia 

 nor cross its southern boundary into the mountains of North 

 Carolina. The Peaks of Otter and Salt-pond Mountain (now 

 Mountain Lake,) were the highest elevations which he attained. 

 Pursh's preface continues: "The following season, 1806, I went 

 in like manner over the Northern States, beginning with the 

 mountains of Pennsylvania and extending to those of New 

 Hampshire (in which tract I traversed the extensive and highly 

 interesting country of the Lesser and Great Lakes), and return- 

 ing as before by the sea-coast." The diary of this expedition, 

 found among Dr. Barton's papers and collections in posses- 

 sion of the American Philosophical Society, has recently been 

 printed by the late Mr. Thomas Potts James. It shows that the 



