AN EARLY AMERICAN BOTANIST. 47 



An Early American Botanist. 



BY SUSY C. FOGG. 



It is no surprise that botany should be among the oldest 

 of the natural sciences, for, after the contour of a land- 

 scape, is there anything that engages the eye more quick- 

 ly than its vegetation ? 



In a new country, also, the first settlers are confronted 

 with the serious problem of getting a continuous and nour- 

 ishing food supply, a relentless spur toward investigating 

 and making use of every available natural production. 



The delight of the early botanist at being placed in the 

 midst of so rich a flora as that of the North American con- 

 tinent must have been strongly offset by the dangers and 

 difficulties of travel and communication in those days to- 

 gether with the scarcity of books of reference and the de- 

 fects of the old systems. When all is considered it is mar- 

 velous that our early scientists were able to compile lists 

 and make collections which should be of permanent value. 



In looking over an old volume, I read that "One of the 

 earliest productions if not the very first, descriptive of 

 North American plants, was a quarto volume, printed at 

 Paris in the year 1635, entitled Canadensium Plantarum 

 aliarumque nondum editarum Historia ; by a French bot- 

 anist, named Jac. Cornutus. This author, it is believed, 

 was never in America, but described the plants from spec- 

 imens sent to him from Canada." 



Another work, entitled "New England's Rarities," ap- 

 peared from the hand of John Josselyn, an Englishman who 

 gathered his observations while living for a time in Mas- 

 sachusetts. This book must have been truly interesting 

 reading ; the mention of frogs a foot high makes our pres- 

 ent day types appear so pitiably small and shriveled, and 

 the statement that "Barley frequently degenerates into 



