ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. I9 



ments of botany to which Br. von Sehweinitz devoted his chief at- 

 tention, the prodigious number of facts which he has accumulated, 

 the vast amount of minute and delicate investigation demanded by 

 the nature of the objects of his study, the labor of preparing for 

 the press the materials which he had brought together; when we 

 recollect that, with the exception of Dr. Muhlenburg, of Lancaster, 

 no American botanist had ventured far upon this wide and unex- 

 plored dominion of nature; and when we remember that this science 

 was his relaxation, not his profession, his occasional pursuit, not 

 his daily duty, we are forcibly struck with the high order of his tal- 

 ents for the pursuit of science, and cannot but regret that more of 

 his time and energies could not have been devoted to his favorite 

 occupation. 



The botanical works of Dr. von Sehweinitz indicate not only great 

 industry and perseverance in the collection of facts, but a judicious 

 method in the prosecution of his labors. The synoptical tables at- 

 tached to his several monographs are evidences of the importance 

 attributed to this feature in his productions. His analytical table 

 to facilitate the determination of the Carices affords another strik- 

 ing illustration of the benefit to be derived from a systematic pur- 

 suit of scientific studies. And since this analytical table was doubt- 

 less the result in part of his own inductive studies, it proves that of 

 those studies he was able to make a legitimate and profitable use, 

 by arranging all his facts under appropriate general heads, and to 

 point out to future inquirers in what path to pursue the labors which 

 he himself has so happily followed. His monograph of the Carices 

 of North America, soon after published, gave proof of the utility 

 of this methodical arrangement. 



Among the most extensive and, in a scientific point of view, the 

 most important of his labors, are those which relate to the Fungi. 

 Four of his principal works refer to this abstruse branch of botany. 



Three of them, the " Conspectus Fungorum Lusatise," the "Syn- 

 opsis Fungorum Carolin^e Superioris," and the ''Synopsis Fungo- 

 rum in America Boreali Medea Degentium," are all, as their titles 

 impart, written in the Latin Language. 



It may in the next place appear singular that so great a part of 

 his exertions should have been devoted to the cryptogamous plants. 

 But to this preference he had, by birthright, a sort of hereditary or 

 derivative national title, since it is to German, Danish and Swedish 

 botanists that we owe by far the greater part of our knowledge of 

 that difficult department. 



Von Sehweinitz had in his collection of Fungi fine specimens of 



