i36 Account of Mr. John Banister. 



States by the names of Virginia Snake-root, Black 

 Snake-root, &:c. 



The principal work of Mr. Banister is the catalogue 

 already mentioned. Placed as this is, in the vast work 

 of Mr. Ray, it is seldom seen, and little known. Even 

 Haller, so far as I can find, does not refer to it, nor men- 

 tion the author's name, in the Blhliotheca Botanical, a 

 work peculiarly consecrated to the history of Botan- 

 ists. But Banister's merits were of a very superior 

 kind. The great and good Mr. Ray has borne the most 

 ample testimony to themf. Mr. Lawson, too, in his 

 work on Carolina, mentions him with much respectf . 

 Sir Joseph Banks, if I do not mistake, printed, some 

 years since, a separate edition of the Catalogue, which 

 he distributed among: his friends. 



o 



" Banister increased the list of martyrs to natural his- 

 tory." But there are different accounts of the manner 

 of his death. " In one of his excursions (says Dr. Piil- 

 teney), in pursuit of his object, he fell from the rocks, 

 and perished." I have been informed, by one of his 

 descendants, that he was killed by the falling of a tree, 

 near the foot of which he was picking up a plant. 



I have not been able to ascertain the precise time of 

 Banister's death. He was, it is certain, living in the 



* Bibliotheca Botanica, cjua scripta ad Rem Herbariam facien- 

 tia a rerum iniliis rccensenlur. Auctore Alberto von Haller. Ti- 

 guri : 1772. 



t See note A. 



\ See note B. 



