56 COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE FOR THE 



objects of the Institute. This may readily account for the organiza- 

 tion in March, 1817, of the Washington Botanical Society, 1 at least 

 one-half of whose members were also members of the Institute. A 

 proposition to merge the smaller with the larger association was 

 brought up in October, 1817, but it failed of consummation, and the 

 Botanical Society continued its existence until 1826, when its library 

 was ordered deposited in the Washington Library and its herbarium 

 was placed in charge of Dr. McWilliams, then the president of the 

 society. The Botanical Society received a suggestion in 1817 looking 

 to the founding of a botanical garden, but it obtained no consider- 

 tion. One of its definite projects, however, was the beginning of a 

 national herbarium, which the Institute also later professed. The 

 Institute did, in fact, receive specimens of plants collected in the 

 District and elsewhere, and also a few examples of economic plant 

 products, but how extensive this collection became there is no way 

 of judging. 



Dr. William Darlington, of West Chester, Pa., a valued adviser 

 in all matters of which he had knowledge, a corresponding member 

 of the Institute, and at that time a Representative in Congress, 

 addressed the Institute through its secretary on December 14, 1819, 

 on the subject of a national herbarium, in the following letter : 



I had intended, at my leisure, to have submitted at some length to the Colum- 

 bian Institute my ideas respecting the importance of attempting to collect a 

 National Herbarium, comprising specimens of all the native and naturalized 

 plants of our country. But perceiving by the newspapers that an adjourned 

 meeting is to be beld this evening, and not knowing when the Institute may 

 again assemble, I beg leave through you, in this hasty manner, merely to suggest 

 the subject for the consideration of that body. I cannot doubt but those mem- 

 bers especially who have a taste for botanical science will admit both the 

 feasibility and the importance of the proposition. If a botanical committee 

 were directed to organize a plan and to solicit specimens, accompanied with 

 notes of the place of growth, time of flowering, &c, from the cultivators of 

 botany in the different parts of the United States and their Territories, there 

 is no question with me but we might, in a very short time, have a respectable 

 and valuable collection of our indigenous and naturalized vegetables. They 

 might easily be arranged and labeled, either according to the sexual system of 

 classification, or after the manner of Jussieu — so that any plant in the collection 

 could be found at pleasure. In my herbarium, containing nearly 1,000 species, 

 I can lay my hand on any specimen which may be desired in half a minute. 

 It would be extremely gratifying to the cultivators of natural science, to be 

 able, when they arrive at the seat of the general government, to see and examine 

 the vegetable productions of our extensive and diversified soil. Should these 

 suggestions meet the approbation of the Institute, and that body should think 

 proper to undertake the formation of an American herbarium in this city, I 

 would cheerfully contribute specimens of the plants growing in the vicinity of 

 my residence (West Chester, Penna.). And I should suppose persons could be 

 found in every district of our country who would freely undertake to do the 



*A brief account of this society is given in the appendix. 



