1888.] * [Sargent. 



North America, and upon the " Histoiredes Cliencs de V Ameriqne," wluch, 

 if Richard did not write, he or some author of greater literary skill thau 

 Michaux possessed must have recast and corrected. The work upon the 

 Oaks did not appear till 1801, when Michaux had left France for Mada- 

 gascar, while the Flora was not published until 1803, a year after 

 his death. Two shorter memoirs are ascribed to the pen of Michaux— an 

 article upon the Date Palm and its Cultivation, read before the National 

 Institute of France and published in the Journal de Physique, and a paper 

 containing the results of his observations upon the Ginseng communicated 

 to the Agricultural Society of Charleston. 



The reputation of Michaux, however, does not depend upon his literary 

 attainments and achievements ; he worked in the field and in the forest 

 and not in the closet. Not one among the self-sacrificing explorers and 

 collectors of the plants of this continent better deserves the gratitude and 

 appreciation of the world of science. No one of them has ever seen more 

 clearly, or has endured more willingly and uncomplainingly the perils 

 and hardships of the frontier and the wilderness. His eye always detected 

 the rarest and the most interesting plants — the ambition and long the 

 despair of the plant-hunters who have now for a century been following 



in his footsteps.* 



C. S. S. 



MicifAux, THE Younger, to the American Philosophical Society, 



Philadelphia. 



Pendant pies de onze ans que mon Pere a presque chaque annee visits 

 une partie de I'Union, il n'a cesse d'eprouver dans ses voyages la bien- 

 veillance la plus marquee de la part des habitants des endroits ou il faisoit 

 quelque sejour. Le plaisir quMl en ressentoit etoit du a la bonle de son 

 caraciere et a sa se^ ere morality. Partout on ne cessoit d'admirer son zele 

 ardent pour ajouter aux progres des sciences naturelles et plus particu- 

 lierement de la Botanique. 



Campant presque toujours dans les bois, c'etoit la nuit a la lueur du feu 

 que mon pere ecrivoit les remarques qu'il avoit faltes dans le jour. 



Si ces journaux que j'ofFre a la societe Philosophique de Philadelphie 

 (a la quelle j'ai I'honneur d'appartenir) ne renferme rien qui soit utile aux 

 Botanistes Am^ricains a venir, au moins ils pourront §tre assures d'avoir 

 sous les yeux, les notes tracees par la main d'un homme qui consacra une 

 grande partie de son existence au progres de la Botanique : L'existence 

 qu'il perdit (si je puis m'exprimer ainsi), lea armes a la main dans des 

 laborieuses recherches, sur les c6tes de I'lsle de Madagascar. 



F. ANDRE MICHAUX. 



Paris le 15 Janvier, I824.. 



P. S. — Les deux cahiers de 1785 (septembre) a 1787 ont ete perdus dans 

 son naufrage sur les c6tes de Hollande. 



* It is only two years since Short ia was discovered in or near Michanx's original locality. 

 His other plants have, I believe, all been found, with the exception of lllicium paroi- 

 florum (since collected, however, by Charles Wright in Cuba). 



