X PtlEFACE. 



to the practical botanist) was of the greatest im- 

 portance to me. 



Soon after my return from the last-mentioned jour- 

 ney, I had the pleasure to form an acquaintance with 

 Meriwether Lewis, Esq., then Governor of Upper Loui- 

 siana, who had lately returned from an expedition across 

 the Continent of America to the Pacific Ocean, by the 

 way of the Missouri and the great Columbia rivers, ex- 

 ecuted under the direction of the Government of the 

 United States. A small but highly interesting collec- 

 tion of dric/d plants was put into my hands by this 

 gentleman, in order to describe and figure those I 

 thought new, for the purpose of inserting them in the 

 account of his Travels, which he was then engaged 

 in preparing for the press. This valuable work, by the 

 unfortunate and untimely end of its author, has been in- 

 termpted in its publication ; and although General Da- 

 niel Clark, the companion of Mr. Lewis, (to whom I 

 transmitted all the drawings prepared for the work,) un- 

 dertook the editorship after his death, it has not, to my 

 knowledge, yet appeared before the public, notwith- 

 standing the great forwardness the journals and mate- 

 rials were in when I had the opportunity of perusing 

 them. 



The collection of plants just spoken of was made 

 during the rapid return of the expedition from the Pa- 

 cific Ocean towards the United States. A much more 

 extensive one, made on their slow ascent towards the 

 Rocky mountains and the chains of the Northern An- 

 des, had unfortunately been lost, by being deposited 

 among other things at the foot of those mountains. The 

 loss of this first collection is the more to be regretted. 



