BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS 130 
a native of France, came to his city and settled on a piece of land on 
the Gravois Road in South St. Louis, and began to collect botanical 
specimens. 
Nicholas Riehl'* was born in Colmar, province of Alsace, France 
(now-Germany), about 1808. His father’s business was that of manu- 
facturing cloth; not liking it, Nicholas sold it after the death of his 
father, and divided the estate. He took his share and traveled over 
much of Europe and America, coming as far west as St. Louis. Ta- 
king a liking to this part of the country, he returned to his old home 
and married. The two returned to St. Louis in the spring of 1836, 
and settled on a piece of ground on the Gravois Road in Carondelet, 
just outside the St. Louis city limits, and established a nursery. This 
is believed to have been the first nursery in St. Louis county, if not in 
the state of Missouri. The nursery business he carried on with success 
and profit until the time of his death in September, 1852. Riehl evi- 
dently collected botanical specimens some years before he came to this 
country, as specimens in his herbarium bear dates as far back as 1830, 
which were collected in the vicinity of Colmar. He also collected con- 
siderably in the vicinity of St. Louis in 1838. He had printed labels 
made for the collections made in this year, and they number not far from 
two hundred. Besides the specimens bearing the printed labels, there 
are many with incomplete labels which undoubtedly were collected here 
also. His entire collection was sold to Mr. Henry Shaw, who was at 
that time just starting to develop his botanical garden. The larger part 
of them were collected in Europe or were exchanged with European 
collectors. Mr. Riehl was a friend and admirer of Dr. George Engel- 
mann, and was much interested in the work which he was doing. The 
Riehl nursery furnished Mr. Shaw the first trees which he planted in 
his newly started botanical garden. 
In the forties Theodore C. Hilgard was collecting the native plants 
of the vicinity of St. Louis. 
Theodore Charles Hilgard’® was born at Zweibriicken, Rhenish 
Bavaria, on February 28, 1828. His father, Theodore Erasmus Hil- 
gard, was a lawyer, who in 1836 resigned from the Supreme Court of 
the province and emigrated with his family to America, settling on a 
farm near Belleville, Ill., which at that time was the home of many 
other educated Germans who for political reasons had preceded him. 
Theodore was the sixth of a family of eight. The schools being poor ~ 
and few in number, Theodore with the other younger children received 
his ‘primary education from his elder sisters and elder brother Julius, 
* Information a photograph supplied” by Mr. E. A. Riehl, of Alton, 
Illinois, son of Nich 
sketch is pete with very slight changes from a ni i kindly 
furnished 1 . Professor Eugene W. Hilgard, brother of Theodor 
