70 Muhlenbergia, Volume 4 
MUHLENBERG AND HIS WORK IN LANCASTER 
COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA 
By A. A. HELLER 
The following short sketch was read some years ago before 
the Linnaean Society of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and although 
dealing with a local subject more especially, it may be of inter- 
est to present a few facts concerning the eminent botanist from 
whom this jonrnal derived its name. 
The name of Muhlenberg is familiar to all students of sys- 
tematic botany, but few realize the importance of his work, and 
the position that the flora of Lancaster and the surrounding ter- 
ritory should hold in the category of the botany of the eastern 
United States. 
Gotthilf Heiurich Muhlenburg was born in New Provi- 
dence, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, in 1753, and died in 
Lancaster in 1815. At the early age of ten years he was sent 
to Germany to be educated. After an absence of seven years 
he returned to America, and in 1774 became pastor of a charge 
in Philadelphia. In 1780 he removed to Lancaster, where he 
spent the remainder of his life as pastor of the Lutheran church, 
now Trinity church. 
He became interested in botany while living in Philadel- 
phia, and assiduously prosecuted the study after his removal to 
Lancaster, for in 1785 he presented to the American Philosoph- 
ical Society an outline of a “‘Flora Lancastriensis.” In 1791 he 
communicated to the same Society his ‘Index Flora Lancastri- 
ensis,” a work containing 454 genera and nearly 1100 species, 
all from within a radius of three miles of Lancaster. This list, 
however, included some cultivated plants. In 1796 a Supple- 
ment to the Index was issued, containing 44 additional genera 
and 62 species of flowering plants, 9 of which were newly de- 
scribed species of grasses. It also contained 26 genera and 226 
species of cryptogams, thus giving a total of nearly 1400 species 
for the county in 1796. 
