12 JOURNAL OF THK 



refinements of domestic life; but which now, by impoverishment, 

 resulting from disastrous civil conflict, and consequent change of 

 social customs and duties, and by the invasion of lude manners and 

 looser ethics, have entirely disappeared. + * * "jsir. Croom was 

 then on one of his annual journeys from Newbern, N. C, the resi- 

 dence of the family, to his plantation in the adjoining county of 

 Leon; but previously to settling in that county, he had rented a 

 plantation on the west bank of the Apalachicola river, opposite the 

 calcareous cliffs at xVspolaga, on the east bank, which at that time 

 were covered by a dense grove of Torreya, and it was here probably 

 in 1833 that he first saw it." 



This glimpse of Dr. Curtis' contemporary is one of the very few I 

 have seen, and hence its insertion here. 



In Wilmington Dr. James F. McRee, Sr. , also cultivated botany with 

 assiduity, and the two botanists worked together effectively. Dr. 

 McRee's country residence was at Hilton, the country seat of Cor- 

 nelius Harnett, near the junction of the North East Cape Fear with 

 the main stream. It was at this house that Harnett received a visit 

 from Josiah Quincy,, and where plans were laid for the prosecution 

 of active hostilities against Great Britain. Here Dr. McRee cultiva- 

 ted with great care and with rare success the indigenous trees and 

 shrubs he collected in the course of his extensive journeys in the 

 pursuit of his calling. Dr. McRee added 34 species to Curtis' cata- 

 logue, annotated by him, besides several which were printed in the 

 catalogue proper, and all through the writings of Dr. Curtis may be 

 fi)und appreciative allusions to his scientific attainments. No proper 

 memorial has ever been made of this pioneer scientist. 



Before railroads brought their freights speedily to our doors, and 

 the art of printing had so multiplied books, there could be found 

 upon the shelves of Dr. McRee's library the most recent and expen- 

 sive works on the science of medicine in which he was a great master, 

 but side by side with them he had a natural history collection in 

 volumes of such rare value that to day — the day of numerous and 

 valuable books — it would be considered exceedingly choice. Until 

 a late day in his life his herbarium was kept in order by replacing 

 new specimens, but as his health failed and the war brought sorrows 

 and cares to his home, his herbarium fell into neglect, and finding 

 no cultured hand to preserve its scientific treasures, it was aban- 

 doned, and its crumbling remains now lie neglected in the dusty 

 garret of a former slave, and the best of the books doubtless found 

 their way through the intervention of plunderers, to Northern book- 

 stalls, if they did not go down off Cape Fear in the ill fated steamer 

 Oen. Lyons, with thousands of dollars belonging to others of our 

 citizens. 



