305 



to the Susquehanna, and up its west branch as far as the 

 crossing of the Alleghany ridge. 



Mr. Nuttall, aware that he was doing little for science, did 

 not relish much his residence at Cambridge ; he used to say- 

 that he was only vegetating, like his own plants. At last, 

 his friend, Mr. Brown, induced him to write a work on Orni- 

 thology, a science which he had been cultivating almost since 

 his arrival in this country. He set to work with great zeal, 

 and, in 1832, produced his " Manual of the Ornithology of 

 the United States and Canada.'' That work, framed on 

 Temminck's admirable treatise on European Ornithology, was 

 published at Cambridge, in two volumes of about six hundred 

 pages each, illustrated by excellent wood-cuts. It is written 

 in elegant and graceful language, and is a production very 

 creditable to Mr. Nuttall, and an evidence of the energy and 

 perseverance with which he could apply himself, almost simul- 

 taneously, to the study of several branches of natural sciences. 

 About the same time, appeared his ^^Introduction to Sys- 

 tematic and Physiological Botany^'' a rare little book, which 

 was favorably reviewed in Silliman's Journal. During his 

 residence at Cambridge, he also published in the above journal 

 the following papers, viz. : " A Catalogue of Plants from 

 Florida;'' '^ Remarks on the Minerals of Paterson and 

 Sparta^ Neiv Jersey ;" and his '''Reply to Mr, Seyhert." In 

 the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, his " Re- 

 marks and Inquiries concerning the Birds of Massachusetts." 

 In the Transactions of the Philosophical Society, '•'A De- 

 scription of a new Species of Sarracenia." And in the 

 American Journal of the Medical Sciences, " An Account of 

 the Jalap Plant as an Ipomoea," appended to a paper on the 

 subject by Dr. R. Cox. 



Towards the beginning of 1833, Mr. Nuttall returned to 

 Philadelphia, bringing with him a collection of plants gath- 

 ered by Capt. Wyeth, during a journey overland to the 

 Pacific. Capt. Wyeth was soon to start on a second expedi- 

 tion, and Nuttall had decided to accompany him ; but, not 

 succeeding in obtaining a prolonged leave of absence from 

 the college authorities at Cambridge to perform this long 



VOL. VII. — 2 o 



