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122 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 
one of the most enterprising, indefatigable, and persevering men 
that ever embarked in the cause of botany and natural science. 
He died at Sloane Square, April 26. 1811, in his 60th year, 
leaving his wife, who died a few years afterwards, and two sons 5 
John, the eldest, who had been his companion in all his latter 
voyages to America and Russia, and who is now a respectable 
nurseryman at Ramsgate, and James Thomas, also living. 
Of John Lyon, another botanieal collector, very little is known. 
He is said to have been a natural son of William Lyon, Esq., 
of Gillogie, Forfarshire, who was afterwards a merchant in Lon- 
don. When he went to America is uncertain; Pursh, who had 
the management of the gardens of William Hamilton, Esq., at 
Woodlands, near Philadelphia, informs us that, when he resigned, 
in 1802, Lyon succeeded him, and remained there till 1805. 
During this period Lyon, we are told by the Messrs. Lod- 
diges, sent home several] plants and seeds; and the year after he 
left Mr. Hamilton’s service (1806), he brought an extensive 
collection to England; the plants composing which were partly 
disposed of by. private contract, but were chiefly sold by 
auction in a garden at Parsons’ Green, Fulham. The catalogue 
of these plants fills 34 closely printed pages, it enumerates 
650 lots, and the sale occupied four days. Several of the lots 
were composed of large quantities of one-year-old seedlings in 
pots; and ten lots at the end of the sale consisted each of 50 
different sorts of seeds. This, it is believed, was by far the 
preatest collection of American trees and shrabs ever brought 
to England at one time, by one individual. It contained scarcely 
any herbaceous plants; and the trees and shrubs were chiefly 
such as had been already introduced. In the Hortus Kewensis 
fourteen new plants are mentioned as having been introduced 
by Lyon in 1806, which, doubtless, formed part of the import- - 
ation of that year. Sa 
‘Mr. Lyon appears to have soon after gone out again, and 
explored the southern states of North America; viz., the Caro- 
linas, Georgia, and Florida; and, in 1811 and 1812, he again 
brought over a large collection of plants in cases, which arrived 
in very fine condition, and were disposed of by public auction at 
Chelsea. Six plants are mentioned in the Hortus Kewensis as 
having been introduced by Lyon during these years. . 
Mr. Nuttall separated some of the species of Andrémeda, and 
formed of them a new genus, which he named Lyonza. To © 
commemorate the name of the late Mr. John Lyon, an inde~ 
fatigable collector of North American plants, who fell a victim 
to a dangerous epidemic amidst those savage and romantic 
mountains which had so often been the theatre of his labours.” 
(Gen. of N. American Plants, Boston, 8vo, 1820, 1. p. 266.) 
The genus was, however, named before Mr. Lyon’s death, as 
