[Reprinted from Tue Poputar Science Montuty, December, 1908.) 
A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS, 
MISSOURI? 
By Dr. PERLEY SPAULDING 
LABORATORY OF gener PATHOLOGY, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
HE history of botany in St. Louis extends back nearly to the be- 
ginning of her political history. The city was founded in 1764, 
and while it is not as old as most of the other large cities of this 
country it seems to have been one of the earliest settlements made in 
the great northwestern region, comprising what was once known as 
Upper Louisiana. Boston, New York and Philadelphia were already 
large cities for that time and were centers of botanical activity. In 
1795 when Michaux visited the Illinois Territory, Cahokia, Kaskaskia 
and St. Loujs were the principal places west of Vincennes and as late 
as 1800 St. Louis had a population of less than 1,000. At about this 
time the fur traders changed their headquarters from Cahokia and 
Kaskaskia to St. Louis, causing a corresponding increase in population 
and commercial influence of the latter town. 
The Jesuit missionaries were the first white persons to visit the 
Mississippi Valley and the adjoining country; they undoubtedly ex- 
plored the Missouri Territory, but probably not so extensively as they 
did the Illinois Territory. They were versed to some extent in the 
art of medicine and knew the plants which were generally used for 
medicinal purposes. ‘Fhey learned the uses of plants new to them- 
selves from their Indian wards, and in this way they must have ob- 
tained a considerable knowledge of the plants of the Missouri country. 
How much farther they may have carried their botanical studies is 
unknown to the writer. During the period between the founding of 
St. Louis and the first visit of Michaux to Cahokia there were un- 
doubtedly persons who studied the botany of the St. Louis district. 
Whether they formed any collection of the plants is not now known 
and there seems to be no records of any such study. 
For all practical purposes André Michaux may “) = to have 
been the first botanist to work in the vicinity of St. Lou 
Botany has passed through a number of distinct ial at St. 
Louis, as in other places; it can not be said to have had a “ pharma- 
ceutical ” period, as that stage was nearly past in the general history 
of the science when the city was founded. The medical properties of 
1 Published by permission of the Secretary of Agriculture. 
MISSOURI BOTANICAL 
GARDEN LIBRARY 
