24 PROGRESS OF BOTANY 



from Thomas Nuttall, Esq., and other investigators of American 

 plants. 



In 1801, Andre Michaux, a French botanist, published at 

 Paris an interesting work on the Oaks of North America {Histoire 

 des Chenes de VArnerique Septentrionale) ; and in 1803, the Flora 

 B or eali- Americana of the same author, ably edited by Louis 

 Claude Richard, was published in the same city. This Flora, 

 though comprising but a portion of the plants of North America, 

 is an excellent work, and remarkable for the accuracy and felicity 

 of its descriptive phrases. 



In the same year (1803), the first American elementary work 

 on Botany was published, at Philadelphia, by the late Prof. B. S. 

 Barton. Though somewhat diffuse, it was an useful and respectable 

 performance. Prof. Bartox, in those days, occasionally gave 

 courses of Lectures on Natural History and Botany, to small 

 classes in the University of Pennsylvania (one of which courses, 

 in 1803-4, the writer had the privilege of attending): and there 

 can be no doubt that he did more than any of his contemporaries, 

 in diffusing a taste for the natural sciences, among the young men 

 who then resorted to that school. 



The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clark, across this con- 

 tinent to the Pacific Ocean, which was projected about this time, 

 by President Jeffersox, was a means of introducing to the know- 

 ledge of botanists, a number of plants which were previously un- 

 known; though the principal collection made by those gentlemen 

 was unfortunately lost. That region has been subsequently ex- 

 plored, and vast additions made to our Flora, by Messrs. Nuttall, 

 Nicolet, Fremoxt, and others. 



In 1807, Doctor Samuel L. Mitchill published a Catalogue 

 of the plants around his country-seat, at Plandome, New York. 

 This catalogue, it is understood, was prepared by Dr. Eddy a 

 relative of Dr. Mitchill. 



'In 1810, F. Axdre Michaux, son of the above-mentioned A. 

 Michaux, published at Paris, his splendid History of the Forest 

 Trees of North America {Histoire des Arbres Forestiers de VArne- 

 rique Septentrionale), with elegantly coloured plates. An English 

 translation of this superb work was issued in 1817, under the title 

 of North American Sylva. 



In 1811, a Catalogue of indigenous and naturalized plants, 



