Dr. Hooker on American Botany. Ill 



was come that all our promised Elysium vanished, and left 

 nothing but a blank, a doleful blank to me, and I mav sav to 

 every one of the company ; for we were happily collected, and 

 unanimity reigned amongst us. What will you think when 

 I tell you that one of our company was a very accurate 

 drawer, and he had promised me to do every thing for me, 

 and according to my direction, that I should desire ; so that, 

 in this one circumstance, my loss was irreparable. But why 

 do I dwell on the most disagreeable of all the incidents that 

 ever Providence mingled in my lot Y* 



Kalra, the celebrated pupil of Linnaeus, who was also Pro- 

 fessor of Natural History at Abo, in Finland, visited Ameri- 

 ca at the expense of the king of Sweden, in the years 1747 — 

 51. His researches extended so far as Canada, and the plants 

 which he collected served materially to enrich the Species 

 plantarum of his great master ; while the Linneean herba- 

 rium, as Sir J. E. Smith assures us, abounds in specimens 

 brought home by Kalm, and distinguished by the letter K. 

 The name of this botanist is commemorated in the beautiful 

 genus Kalmia. 



Until the year 1803, however, nothing had been published 

 containing a thoroughly scientific arrangement of anv extensive 

 portion of the northern part of the New World. The pro- 

 viding of materials for such a work was reserved for Andre 

 Michaux, a Frenchman, every way qualified for the task, and 

 who, after returning from a most successful botanizing expe- 

 dition to Persia, and bringing with him, amongst other trea- 

 sures, thecuriousi?o,sa simplicifolia and Michauxia campanu- 

 lata, was appointed to visit North America at the charges of 

 the French government, with a view to enrich France with its 

 various vegetable productions, particularly its forest trees ; 

 for which, it must be confessed, that the climate of that coun- 

 try is even better qualified than that of England. 



New York Michaux constituted the depot for the collec- 

 tions which he made through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 

 Maryland ; and he there established a garden, from whence 

 he dispatched numerous packages to France. Another depot 

 was formed at Charleston, for the reception of the productions 

 of the Carolinas and the Alleghany mountains, which he ex- 

 plored with great difficulty and danger, travelling no less than 



