1 22 Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 



teem and respect which his writings had already taught us to 

 entertain towards him. For many years previous to the pub- 

 lication of his Flora, the author was engaged in visiting very 

 extensively the territories of the United States, particularly 

 the southern and western ones. " For nearly ten years/' 

 he says in his preface to his Journal of Travels into the Ar- 

 kansas territory, " I have travelled throughout America, 

 principally with a view to becoming acquainted with some 

 favourite branches of natural history. I have had no other end 

 in view but personal gratification ; and in this I have not been 

 deceived ; for innocent amusement can never leave room for 

 regret. To converse, as it were with nature, to admire the 

 wisdom and beauty of creation, has ever been, and I hope 

 ever will be, to me a favourite pursuit ; and to communicate 

 to others a portion of the same amusement and gratification 

 has been the only object of my botanical publications." 



The " Genera of Noi-th American Plants''' is entirely ill 

 English ; and it appears that it was the design of the writer 

 to have arranged it according to the natural orders. But 

 out of deference to public opinion, in a country where the ar- 

 tificial system of Linnaeus had almost exclusively been studi- 

 ed, Mr. Nuttall adopted that method. He has, however, 

 made a great many valuable remarks upon the natural orders, 

 following several of the genera, and has recommended the 

 adoption of some new ones. He has well defined the charac- 

 ters of the order Monotropea?, to which he has properly 

 referred the highly curious Pterospora. As, however, the 

 well-known genus Pyrola belongs unquestionably to the same 

 family, the term Pyroleos might perhaps have been considered 

 as more appropriate. The characters of the genera (which 

 he here extends to 807, exclusive of any cryptogamia,) have, 

 as may be inferred from the title, occupied a greater share of 

 attention from Mr. Nuttall. He has added to the essential 

 characters, those taken from the habit of the plant, and he 

 has noticed their geographical distribution. In the enume- 

 ration of species, he has included all that have been described 

 by other authors, sometimes made observations upon them, 

 and added a very considerable number of new individuals, 

 which have been discovered by himself or his friends. This 

 book may therefore be well said to form an era in the history 



