188S.] O [[Sargent. 



flourishing comliiion ; tliey were stocked with the rarest Americin 

 plants collected during y«iii"5 of Uibor and hardship ; and with many 

 of those plants of ili'3 old world which Michaux was tlie first to intrn. 

 duce into the United Stales. His services to tliis country in this way 

 were considerable. The tallow tree, Stillingia sebifera, now often culti- 

 vated and somewhat naturalized in the Southern States, and the beautiful 

 Albizzia Julibrissin, were first planted in the United States by him. The 

 possibility of improving the condition of this country by the introductii n 

 <tf the Olive and other foreign trees was a subject which always deeply 

 interested Michaux, and his knowledge of botany and of the agriculture 

 of the Old World was invariably placed at the disposal of the people among 

 whom liis travels carried him. It is said that he first taught the settlers 

 in the Alleghany mountains the value of the Ginseng, and showed them 

 how to prepare it for the Chinese market — a service which gained for him 

 a membership in the exclusive Agricultural Society of Charleston. 



His movements for several years had been impeded, and the success of 

 his journeys interfered with by the lack of financial support from the 

 French government, and Michaux found, on his return to South Carolina, 

 that his resources were entirely exhausted. An obscure botanical traveler, 

 almost forgotten in a distant land, had litile hope of recognition from Paris 

 during the closing years of the last century, and it was now evident that 

 he could depend no longer on support and assistance from France. lie 

 determined, theiefore, rather than sell the trees which he longed to see 

 flourishing on French soil, to return to Paris. 



]\[ichaux sailed from Charleston on the thirteenth of August, 1796. Tlie 

 voyage was tempestuous and ended in disaster. On the eighteenth of 

 September the vessel encountered a severe storm off the coast of Holland. 

 She was blown upon the shore and the crew and passengers, worn out by 

 exposure and fatigue, would have perished but for the assistance of the 

 inhabitants of the little village of Egmont. Michaux fastened himself to 

 a plank and finally was waslied ashore, unconscious and more dead than 

 alive. His baggage was lost, but his precious packages of plants whicli 

 were stored in the hold of the vessel were saved, though saturated with 

 salt water. He remained in Egmont for several weeks to regain his 

 strength and to dry and rearrange his plants, and did not reach Paris 

 until January. He was received with great distinction and kindness by 

 the botanists of the Museum, but a bitter disappointment awaited him. 

 An insignificant number only of the six thousand trees which he had sent 

 to France during the eleven years he had passed in America remained 

 alive. The storms of the Revolution and of the Empire had swept through 

 the nurseries of Rimbouillet, and Michaux's American trees were de- 

 stroyed or hopelessly scattered. 



Tliis was the greatest disappointment of his life, but he was not discour- 

 aged. All his influence was employed to secure from the French govern- 

 ment another commission to return to America for a fresh supply of 

 material for the Rambouillet nurseries. He was not, however, to see the 



