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Botanical Gazette. 



Vol. VIII. AUGUST, 1883. No. 8. 



Some North American Botanists. 

 VIII. John Leonard Riddell. 



There is little on record concerning the personal history of 

 Professor Riddell. He early became a resident of the West, 

 where, with the exception of an acquaintance with Sullivant, and 

 possibly with Short, he was in almost complete isolation from the 

 botanists of the time. He subsequently took up his residence in 

 the South, where his botanical acquaintances, and the opportuni- 

 ties for reference and consultation seem to have been even less 

 than in the West. The South and West of fifty years ago pre- 

 sented little opportunity for study aside from their comparatively 

 unexplored floras. 



John Leonard Riddell was born in Leyden, Massachusetts, 

 February 20, 1807. He died in New Orleans October 7, 1865. 

 When less than a year old he was taken by his parents to Pres- 

 ton, Chenango county, New York, where his father obtained a 

 farm. During portions of the years 1826 and 1S27 he attended 

 Oxford Academy, and afterwards the Rensselaer School at Troy, 

 where he obtained the degrees of A. B., and A. M. For several 

 years from 1830 he gave lectures on various scientific topics in 

 many places in the United States aud Canada. These lectures 

 attracted some attention, and in 1835 he received the appoint- 

 ment of Adjunct Professor of Chemistry and Lecturer on Botany 

 in the Cincinnati Medical College. This institution subsequently 

 gave him the degree of M. D. While at Cincinnati he published 

 a "Synopsis of the Flora of the Western States," a 12mo pam- 

 phlet of 116 pages, enumerating the plants known to occur in the 

 territory which "extends from the Alleghany mountains in West 

 Virginia to the Platte river in Missouri Territory, and from the 

 southern boundary line of Tennessee to the latitude of Detroit." 

 This catalogue was in great part a compilation. The Kentucky 

 plants were given almost entirely upon the authority of Dr. 

 Short, those about St. Louis upon the authority of Dr. Lewis C. 



