BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS “49 
Soon after his arrival he went on a visit to the west to see whether 
he had best practise his profession there. On the way he sustained-a 
severe shock to his spine in a steamer accident. It took him several 
weeks to recover somewhat, but he never fully recovered. He was dis- 
appointed in the outlook and returned to the east, where he took up 
practise in Philadelphia. There he became a friend of Elias Durand, 
a druggist and botanist, who in the latter capacity was requested to 
elaborate the botanical collections made by Heermann while with the 
Williamson Pacific Railroad Expedition. Durand proposed to Hilgard 
that they should collaborate in this work, and the latter being by na- 
ture an expert draughtsman, he not only described, but drew the illus- 
trations of a large number of the “ Plante Heermaniane ” accompany- 
ing the final report of the expedition. The strain of this work seemed 
to develop the spinal injury into a serious inflammation, from which he 
was prostrated for months. After recovery which was, however, never 
complete, he resolved to begin practise in St. Louis, and removed there 
in 1855. 
He continued to practise in St. Louis from that time until 1870, 
much handicapped by the spinal weakness which obliged him to refuse 
much lucrative practice. His spare time was chiefly devoted to botani- 
cal studies, now more especially to the eryptogams, whose development 
he studied under the microscope, in the use of which he became very 
expert. In these studies he found that the then current classification 
and nomenclature of these organisms was seriously at fault, many 
merely developmental forms being classed as separate species, genera 
and even orders. He also worked zealously in devising a system of 
arrangement of the phanerogams which would express their mutual 
cross relations, the best graphic presentation of which on a flat surface 
he found in the pentagrammatic form. Comparative anatomy siine as 
homotaxy of organs and structural parts also formed a favorite subject 
of investigation. Most of his work on these subjects was published in 
the Proceedings of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, of which he was 
a charter member; also in the Proceedings of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science and in the St. Lowis Medical Reporter. 
He also helped in the organization of the “Humboldt Institute 
library which for some time had a very useful cultural influence. In 
1865 he married Miss Georgina Koch, daughter of Mr. A. Koch, of 
Zeuglodon fame. No children came of this union. 
As the state of his health precluded his acting as an army surgeon, 
he remained at St. Louis during the war in hospital and private prac- 
tise. After the war medical practise seemed to become more and more 
incompatible with his strength, and he gave it up and joined his brother 
Eugene at the University of Mississippi, where at that time a lecture- 
ship of botany was contemplated. But it failed of realization, and he 
