301 



placed him in his canoe and rowed him down the Missouri 

 River to the first settlements of the white men. 



Nuttall returned to Philadelphia from this journey up the 

 Missouri, in the beginning of 1811, bringing with him ample 

 treasures of plants, seeds, minerals, and other objects of 

 natural history. For eight consecutive years, he remained 

 settled in our city, occupying his summer months in botanical 

 excursions to the banks of the Ohio, through the dark forests 

 and brakes of the Mississippi, to the distant lakes of the 

 northern frontier, through the wilds of Florida, &c. During 

 the inclement season, he employed his time in studying his 

 collections, and preparing his materials for his admirable 

 work, " The Grenera of tJie North American Plants.''' 



Naturally reserved, little fond of company, and absorbed 

 by his studies, his circle of acquaintance was very limited. 

 Professor Barton, Messrs. Zaccheus Collins, Reuben Haines, 

 Correa de Serra, a few other devotees of science, and three 

 or four families of Philadelphia and Germantown, were the 

 only persons whom he visited. To them he frequently spoke 

 of his mother and a favorite sister, for whom he expressed 

 great tenderness ; otherwise, his habitual intercourse was with 

 the principal horticulturists of the vicinity, with William Bar- 

 tram, Col. Carr, with McMahon, to whom he dedicated his 

 genus 3Iaho7iia, and others. The seeds of the numerous new 

 species of plants, which he had brought with him from his 

 explorations, he raised himself, and cultivated in their con- 

 servatories, with the view to study them more accurately, 

 and distribute them to correspondents at home and abroad. 

 He visited them alternately, spending sometimes with them 

 several days at once. Col. Carr, the only surviving member 

 of these old horticulturists, tells me that Mr. Nuttall had a 

 room expressly reserved for him at his house, called NuttalVs 

 room, which he occupied occasionally for a whole week. 



In 1817, Mr. Nuttall, already a fellow of the London 

 Linnean Society, was elected a member of the American 

 Philosophical Society, and corresponding member of the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. This double 

 election placed him at once in contact with the learned com- 



