246 ESSAYS. 
to this country — to Baltimore and Philadelphia — at the close 
of the last century, when he must have been only twenty-five 
years old. He was able to make the acquaintance not only 
of Muhlenberg, who survived until 1815, and of William 
Bartram, who died in 1828, but also of the veteran, Humphrey 
Marshall, who died in 1805. His early and principal patron 
was Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, who supplied the means for 
most of the travels which he was able to undertake, and who, 
as Pursh states, “for some time previous had been collecting 
materials for an American Flora.’ Pursh’s personal explora- 
tions were not extensive. From 1802 till 1805 he was in 
charge of the gardens of William Hamilton, near Philadelphia. 
In the spring of the latter year, as he says, he “set out for 
the mountains and western territories of the southern States, 
beginning at Maryland and extending to the Carolinas (in 
which tract the interesting high mountains of Virginia and 
Carolina took my particular attention), returning late in the 
autumn through the lower countries along the sea-coast to 
Philadelphia.” But, in tracing his steps by his collections? 
and by other indications, it appears that he did not reach the 
western borders of Virginia nor cross its southern boundary 
into the mountains of North Carolina. The Peaks of Otter 
and Salt-pond Mountain (now Mountain Lake) were the 
highest elevations which he attained. Pursh’s preface con- 
tinues: “The following season, 1806, I went in like manner 
over the northern States, beginning with the mountains of 
Pennsylvania and extending to those of New Hampshire (in 
which tract I traversed the extensive and highly interesting 
country of the Lesser and Great Lakes), and returning as 
before by the sea-coast.” The diary of this expedition, found 
among Dr. Barton’s papers and collection in possession of the 
American Philosophical Society, has recently been printed by 
the late Mr. Thomas Potts James. It shows that the journey 
was not as extended or as thorough as would be supposed ; 
that it was from Philadelphia directly north to the Pokono 
Mountains, thence to Onondaga, and to Oswego, — the only 
point on the Great Lakes reached, — thence back to Utica, 
1 In herb. Barton and herb. Lambert. 
