270 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Beck, who had contributed considerably to the knowledge of the 

 plants of that vicinity through Silliman's Journal, while the col- 

 lections of Nuttall were relied upon for the Missouri Territory. 

 It enumerates over 1,800 species, and gives notes on habits of 

 growth and localities. This catalogue was the first contribution 

 of much importance devoted entirely to the Western flora. The 

 following extract from the preface will explain the design of the 

 work : " It has for several years been the author's design to 

 publish a flora of the Western States when he shall have accum- 

 ulated a sufficiency of materials; and he takes this opportunity 

 of soliciting information from those who may choose to favor 

 him with their correspondence, and of proposing an interchange 

 of botanical specimens with all who may wish to form collections. 

 The following catalogue, though necessarily incomplete, will 

 probably aid in effecting the desired object, by exhibiting its 

 present state of advancement, thereby enabling observers located 

 in different sections of the assumed territory the more easily to 

 make additions to it." The catalogue contains descriptions of 

 thirteen new species of flowering plants, and two or three Charas. 

 Of these, two stand in our manuals, Solidago Ohioensis and Tril- 

 lium nivale. It also contains a description of Solidago Riddellii, 

 so named by Dr. Joseph C. Frank, " a most zealous and accom- 

 plished botanist," author of *' Rastadts Flora," and who was 

 deputed by some German society to travel in this country and 

 make botanical collections. Dr. Frank became intimate with 

 Riddell, and spent some time with him in Cincinnati before he 

 set out on his botanical journeys. During his stay in that city 

 he interested himself in grasses and sedges, a work commemor- 

 ated in Eragrostis Frayilcii. In 1835 Dr. Frank fell a victim to 

 yellow fever in New Orleans. 



In 1836 Dr. Riddell published a "Supplementary Catalogue of 

 Ohio Plants," which contains descriptions of seven new species, 

 of which four still stand, — Linum sulcatum, Helianthus occiden- 

 talis, Scutellaria saxatalis and Stachys cordata. That year he 

 was elected to the chair of Chemistry in the Medical College of 

 Louisiana at New Orleans, an institution which subsequently be- 

 came the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana. 

 This chair he occupied until his death. With his move to the 

 South he seems to have given up his Western flora. He at once 

 began to collect materials for a flora of the Southern States, how- 

 ever, a work which seems to have been constantly postponed on 

 account of a multiplicity of other duties. His herbarium, upon 

 which this work was to have been founded, is said to have been 

 very large and excellently arranged. In 1851 Dr. Riddell con- 



