252 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



and literary history of our State," says Dr. Moultrie, one of his 

 cotemporaries, " and to Mr. Elliott is due the praise of having 

 established it as such." The Revieio continued its honored career 

 of usefulness for over thirty years afterwards, and only went 

 down during the dark disasters of the war. 



The versatility as well as the vigor of Mr. Elliott's mind may 

 be seen in the variety of attainments in which he excelled. Be- 

 ginning life as a legislator, in which capacity he served for many 

 years, he took prominent and leading parts in many of the im- 

 portant measures of that time. As stated above, the "Free 

 School " system of the State was one of his favorite measures. 

 His advocacy of the Bank bill, and the ability displayed in elu- 

 cidating financial matters, caused his election to the Presidency 

 of the Bank of the State, which he retained by annual re-elec- 

 tion to the day of his death. And it was while administering 

 the affairs of the bank (a business, we may venture to believe, 

 uncongenial to his tastes and to the development of his natural 

 inclinations and abilities), that he found time for literary and sci- 

 entific pursuits, which of themselves would have placed him in 

 the foremost rank among men of letters. 



To the readers of the Gazette, Mr. Elliott is chiefly known 

 as a botanist. His " Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and 

 Georgia," as he modestly calls it, but which really was so nearly 

 complete as to leave little to be added afterwards, was undertaken 

 to supply a need which then existed for a more full and more ac- 

 cessible representation of the Southern flora. Though Southern 

 plants had been collected and described by Michaux, Pursh and 

 other casual visitors, there had been no special work devoted to 

 the subject since the publication of Walter's Flora Caroliniana. 

 That was only a beginning, and was necessarily imperfect, and 

 it was written in Latin. Mr. Elliott added about 180 1 genera 

 and over 1,000 species to Walter's contribution, and his " Sketch ' ; 

 continued to be the chief authority among Southern botanists for 

 this latitude until the appearance of Chapman's Flora of the 

 Southern States, in 1860. The first volume of the " Sketch," 

 dedicated to Dr. Henry Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, was pub- 

 lished in 1821; the second volume, dedicated to Dr. James 

 Macbride, of South Carolina, in 1824. They were originally 

 published in parts, and the interval between the volumes is thus 

 explained. 



1 These figures are inserted on the authority of Dr. Moultrie. I have not a 

 copy of Walter's Flora at hand to verify the statement. 



