CHARLES JOHN MAXIMOWICZ. 375 



ation he received the appointment of Director's Assistant at the 

 Dorpat Botanic Garden, whence he was removed in 1852 to the 

 curatorship of the Imperial Botanic Garden in St. Petersburg. 

 The next year he was commissioned as botanist and collector 

 for the Garden to accompany the frigate Diana upon an expedi- 

 tion around the world, but the voyage was interrupted by the 

 breaking out of the war with France and England, and Maxi- 

 mowicz left the ship upon reaching the Russian colony that had 

 been recently established near the mouth of the Amur on the 

 coast of Mandshuria. He here devoted himself to a botanical 

 exploration of the then little known region bordering the Amur 

 River, which he carried on assiduously under many difficulties for 

 over two years, returning to St. Petersburg through Siberia in 

 1857. The critical study of his collections, and of such other 

 material as had been received from the same territory, occupied 

 him for two years longer, the results being embodied in his Primi- 

 tice FlorcB Amurensis. In this elaborate work he gave not only 

 a detailed account of the plants, but a general view of the physical 

 and botanical features of the country, the distribution of trees, and 

 a comparison of the flora with others most nearly related to it. In 

 acknowledgment of its scientific merits, he was awarded the Demi- 

 doff prize of five thousand roubles banco. He was now again sent 

 to Eastern Asia to continue his botanical researches, and for four 

 years travelled through Mandshuria, reaching the frontiers of 

 Korea, and through the Jaj)anese islands of Jesso, ISTipou, and 

 Kiusiu, returning to Europe in 1864. 



From this time till the end of his life his main purpose was the 

 preparation of a Flora of Japan and Eastern Asia. As Chief Bot- 

 anist and Curator of the Herbarium at the Imperial Botanic Gar- 

 den, and, after the death of Ruprecht, as Director of the Museum 

 and Herbarium of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, he was 

 burdened with official duties which continually interrupted and 

 delayed the carrying out of this design, but it was never given up. 

 Many contributions were published, chiefly in the Memoirs and 

 Bulletins of the Imperial Academy, which were more or less di- 

 rectly related to this work, and which are often of interest to 

 American botanists on account of the close relationship of the East 

 Asiatic and the North American floras, and the consequent neces- 

 sity of his taking into consideration American as well as Asiatic 

 forms. Among these contributions may be noted revisions of the 

 Asiatic Ehamnece (1866), HijdranrjecB (1867), and Rhododendrece 



