JANE GOLDEN AND THE FLORA OF NEW YORK. 13 



"I have a daughter who has an inclination to reading, and a curiosity for 

 natural philosophy or natural history, and a sufficient capacity for attaining a 

 competent knowledge. I took the pains to explain Linnffius's System, and to 

 put it in an English form for her use, by freeing it from the technical terms, 

 which was easily done by using two or three words in place of one. She is now 

 grown very fond of the study, and has made such a progress in it as I believe 

 would please you if you saw her performance. Though perhaps she could not 

 have been persuaded to learn the terms at first, she now understands in some 

 degree Linnaaus's characters, irotwithstanding that she does not understand 

 Latin. She has already a pretty large volume in writing, of the descriptions of 

 plants. She was shown a method of taking the impression of the leaves on 

 paper with printer's ink, by a simple kind of rolling press, which is of use in dis- 

 tinguishing the species. No description in words alone can give so clear an idea, 

 as when assisted with a picture. She has the impression of three hundred plants 

 in the manner you'll see by the samples. That you may have some conception 

 of her performance and her manner of describing, I propose to enclose some 

 samples in her own writing, some of which I think are new genus's. One is the 

 Panax foliis tcrnis ternatis, in the Flora Virg. . . . Two more I have not found 

 described any where ; and in the others you'll find some things particular, 

 which I think are not taken notice of by any author I have seen. If you think, 

 Sir, that she can be any use to you, she will be extremely pleased at being 

 employed by you, either in sending descriptions, or any seeds you shall desire, 

 or dried specimens of any particular plant you should mention to me. She has 

 time to apply herself to gratify your curiosity more than I ever had ; and now 

 when I have time, the infirmities of age disable me." 



The "pretty large volume in writing" is now in the Department 

 of Botany in the British Museum. After the writer's death it 

 passed into the hands of F, von Wangenheim, then into those of 

 Godfrey Baldinger, and finally became the property of Banks. An 

 account of the MS. is prefixed by Wangenheim, and a title-page 

 was added by Baldinger, of which the following is a transcript : — 



FLORA 

 NOV.— EBORACENSIS. 



Plantas in Solo Natali 



collegit, descripsit, 



delineavit, 



COLDENIA, 



Cadwallader Coldens 



Filia. 



Divitiis Bibliothecae 



Josephi Banks 



adiecit 



Ern. Godofr. Baldinger, 



olim in Acad. Jenensi Prof. Bot. 



et Med. Theoret. ; in Acad. Goettingensi 



Med. Pract. ; in Academia Marburgensi 



Ord. Medicor. Prof. Primarius. 



Anno 1801. 



The prefatory note by Wangenheim is published in the account 

 of the MS. given in Schrader's Journal fur die Jjutunik for 1800 

 (Gottingcn, 1801), p. 468. The following is a translation : — 



