142 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



journey was not as extended or as thorough as would he sup- 

 posed; that it was from Philadelphia directly north to the Po- 

 kono Mountains, thence to Onandaga, and to Oswego, — the only 

 point on the Great Lakes reached, — thence back to Utica, down 

 the Mohawk Valley to Saratoga, and north to the upper part 

 of Lake Champlain and to the lesser Green Mountains in the 

 vicinity of Rutland, but not beyond. Discouraged by the late- 

 ness of the season, and disheartened — as he had all along been 

 — by the failure and insufficiency of remittances from his pat- 

 ron, Pursh turned back from Rutland on the 22d of September, 

 reached New York on the 1st of October, and Philadelphia on 

 the 5th. The next year (1807) Pursh took charge of the Bot- 

 anic Garden which Dr. Hosack had formed at New York and 

 afterward sold to the State, which soon made it over to Columbia 

 College. In 1810, he made a voyage to the West Indies for the 

 recovery of his health. Returning in the autumn of 1811, he 

 landed at Wiscasset, in Maine, u had an opportunity oi visiting 

 Professor Peck of Cambridge College, near Boston," and of see- 

 ing the alpine plants which Peck had collected on the White 

 Mountains. At the end of the latter year or in 1812 he went to 

 England with his collections and notes; and at the close of 1813, 

 under the auspices of Lambert, he produced his Flora, consulting, 

 the while, the herbaria of Clayton, Pallas, Plukenet,- Catesby, Mor- 

 ison, Sherard, Walter, and that of Banks. Evidentaly such con- 

 sultations and the whole study must have been rapid. The des- 

 patch is wonderful. One can hardly understand the ground of the 

 statement made by Lambert to my former colleague, Dr. Torrey, 

 that he was obliged to shut Pursh up in his house in order to keep 

 him at his work. 



I do not know how Pursh was occupied for the next four years, 

 nor when he came to Canada. But he died here at Montreal, in 1820, 

 at the early age of forty-six. More is probably known of him 

 here. If I rightly remember, his grave has been identified, and a 

 stone placed upon it inscribed to his memory. A tradition has 

 come down to us — and it is partly confirmed by a statement which 

 Lambert use to make, in reference to the vast quantity of beer lie 

 had to furnish during the preparation of the Flora — that, in his 

 latter days, our predecessor was given to drink, and that his days 

 were thereby shortened. 



In Purslfs Flora we begin to have plants from the Great 

 Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Coast, although 

 the collections were very scanty. The most important one which 

 fell into Pursh's hands was that of about 150 specimens, gathered 

 by Lewis and Clark on their homeward journey from the mouth 

 of Columbia River. A larger collection, more leisurely made on 

 the outward journey, was lost. Menzies in Vancouver's voyage 

 had botanized on the Pacific coast, both in California and much 

 farther north. Some of his plants were seen by Pursh in the 



