BOTANICAL GAZETTE.' 253 



The descriptions of species, worded in concise form, and em- 

 bodying the prominent and distinguishing characters, are printed 

 in Latin and English in parallel columns, with additional full 

 English notes, in which are given the habitat, time of flowering, 

 local names, and often the reputed medicinal properties, and other 

 points of historical interest. These appended notes have often 

 furnished the means of identifying his species. The whole work 

 exhibits great care and scientific accuracy in its preparation. The 

 arrangement is by the Linnsean system, the one mostly in use by 

 the botanists of that day. The more natural classification of 

 Jussieu was then rapidly gaining favor, and was altogether so 

 much more satisfactory, that Mr. Elliott, before the conclusion of 

 his volume, saw the necessity of remodeling his work, and makes 

 allusion to it in the Preface to the second volume. With this de- 

 sign, he had in preparation a Prodromus founded on the Natural 

 Orders of Jussieu, which he was to have annexed to the " Sketch. " 

 It was but half finished when death closed his earthly labors. 



Dr. Moultrie, to whom I am indebted for many of the data 

 contained in this paper, says of him : " Nor was it to Botany, 

 Mineralogy and Geology, that his intelligent and spreading 

 curiosity was confined. There was scarcely a department of 

 Natural History which had not received a portion of his atten- 

 tion. No one was so well acquainted with the Icthyology of 

 South Carolina and Georgia. In early life he formed a collec- 

 tion of all the present known species, with a view to their de- 

 scription and publication, but the want of books and that in- 

 herent diffidence which made him mistrustful as to what others 

 may have done before him, caused him to postpone the under- 

 taking. He was not less interested in Conchology and the 

 Natural History of Insects. In each of these departments he 

 had made no inconsiderable progress. It is, perhaps, not gen- 

 erally known, that in addition to his various other attainments, 

 he was a very good draftsman, and that to the pen of the Phi- 

 losopher he also united that of the Poet. The testimonials of 

 this latter gift are probably sufficient, as I have been informed,, 

 to form a volume, and fully equal to what might have been ex- 

 pected from the flowing harmony and melodious fullness of his 

 prose writings." 



Mr. Elliott's name is still held in honored remembrance by 

 those of a later generation who only know him by his literary 

 labors. The " Elliott Society," of Charleston, established in- 

 1853, was a fitting tribute to the memory of one who had done 

 so much for science. — H. W. Ravenel. 



