118 Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 



Comte of Georgia, and from the estimable Professor Peck * 

 of New Cambridge University. 



Fortunately for the cause of science, there existed at the 

 time of which we are speaking, so many obstacles to the pub- 

 lication of scientific works in America, that Mr. Pursh was 

 led to visit England, where the reception he met with from 

 Sir Joseph Banks, and A. B. Lambert, Esq. made him re- 

 solve upon printing his book in this country. The access 

 which was granted him to the Libraries and collections of 

 these two eminent men, were alone a source of much advan- 

 tage to him. He had also the opportunity of examining, 

 amongst others, the select Herbaria of Clayton, in the Bank- 

 sian collection, from which the Flora Virginia* was formed ; 

 of Walter, from which the Flora Caroliniana was compiled. 

 in the possession of Messrs. Frazers of Sloan Square ; of 

 Catesby, part of which is in the British Museum, whilst 

 another part, together with numerous additions from Walter, 

 Michaux, J. Bartram, and a Mr. Filden, from Hudson's 

 Bay, is in the Sherardian Herbarium at Oxford ; that of 

 Plunket, in the British Museum ; of Pallas, (in the possession 

 of Mr. Lambert,) rich in the vegetable productions of northern 

 Asia, which, as is well known, bear a great affinity to those of 

 the northern parts of America ; of Mr. Bradbury, which was 

 formed in Upper Louisiana, in the possession, we believe, of 

 the Botanic Garden at Liverpool ; and of A. Menzies, Esq. 

 which was selected, duringthatgentleman 1 svoyage with Captain 

 Vancouver, upon the N. W. coast of America. Nor should the 

 various collections be omitted which are found in the gardens 

 of England, especially in the vicinity of London. 



Thus prepared, the Flora America? Septentrionalis, or a 



• We recollect when, many years ago, this gentleman did us the honour of a 

 vkit in England. He mentioned that his taite for natural history was induced 

 by the perusal of an imperfect copy of Linnasus's Systemu Naturcc, a work then 

 ecarcely known in America, and which he obtained from the wreck of a ship which 

 was lost near the spot where he resided. Professor l'eck afterwards became emi- 

 nent, particularly for his knowledge of insects ; and his communications to our 

 great entomologist, the Rev. Mr. Kirby, are highly vaulable. Many of these 

 were published by Mr. Kirby, in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society, and 

 amongst them the curious Xenos Ptckii, an insect which inhabits the joints in the 

 abdomen of the Wasp. Another insect nearly allied to this is the Stylops Me- 

 litla of Mr. Kitby's Monographia Apum Anglicc, and which inhabits the same si- 

 tuation in the body of the Honey lee. 



