120 Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 



ing the year 1816, accompanied by our valued friend Dr. 

 Francis Boott, Dr. Bigelow examined the botany of the 

 White Mountains in New Hampshire, and published an ac- 

 count of it in the Nexv England Journal of Medicine and 

 Surgery for that year. This was one among many other 

 journies made by these gentlemen in the New England States, 

 with a view to the publication of a Flora of that district. 

 The design, however, has been relinquished, and the princi- 

 pal cause, since it has arisen from Dr. Boon's naturalization 

 among us, we ought not to regret. Science, however, has 

 been a sufferer ; for, from our personal knowledge of this 

 srentleman, we are satisfied that he wouid have been a most 

 able and zealous coadjutor in such an undertaking. A very 

 extensive collection of the plants of that country has been li- 

 berally presented to us by Dr. Boott, which has satisfied us, 

 that in the art of preserving specimens, no one has ever ex- 

 ceeded, or perhaps ever equalled him ; and the names are 

 very frequently accompanied by valuable notes. 



It is delightful to see a man, of the talents and rank in life 

 of Mr. Elliott of Charleston, the excellent President of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society of South Carolina, deeply 

 engaged in important public affairs; yet cheerfully devoting 

 his leisure hours to the promotion of the arts and of science, 

 and actually engaged in publishing a Flora, under the unas- 

 suming title of a Sketch of the Flora of South Carolina and 

 Georgia, which he commenced in 1816. This is arranged 

 according to the Linnaean system, having specific characters 

 both in Latin and in English, and very copious notes and de- 

 scriptions. A work thus conducted cannot fail to be of great 

 importance to the student of American botany ; the more so, 

 since the author has written from his own personal observa- 

 tion, depending little upon the assistance of others, and in a 

 capital where science has not been so much cultivated as in 

 the northern States. In a letter now before us, the author 

 says, " No one in Europe can, probably, appreciate correct- 

 Cambridge, a second edition of the Florida Bosloniensis, containing about twice 

 the number of plants enumerated in the first edition, and also many valuable 

 remarks, particularly on the useful natures and qualities of the species. Dr. 

 Bigelow is also the author of a valuable work, entitled, American Mcdkal Bo- 

 tany, begun in 1817, of which three parts have reached us. 



