1785.] TO HUMPHRY MARSHALL. 555 



SAMUEL VAUGHAN* TO II. .MARSHALL. 



Philadelphia, 30th April, 1785. 



Sir: 



The day after your departure, I laid your Botanical Catalogue 

 before the Society for Promoting Agriculture, and on Friday, 

 before the Philosophical Society. They each were sensible of the 

 merit and utility of the work, and wished it might be published; 

 but the present state of their finances did not authorize them to 

 undertake the publication. 



I then left the manuscript with Air. Crukshaxk, desiring him 

 to let me know the expense of furnishing one thousand, completely 

 printed and sewed in pamphlets ; and though I called upon him 

 several times, it was but this day that I received his answer, that 

 by computation they would come to 70 or 80. After some time 

 he agreed to undertake it for 70, including an alphabetical index 

 of the names in English, which will be absolutely necessary, and 

 which I am now making out. 



As this work will give much original botanical information of the 

 New World, be of public utility, also reputable and serviceable to 

 you, by collecting for the curious, I am very anxious for its imme- 

 diate publication ; therefore, would venture, in behalf of my friends 

 here and in Europe, to subscribe for fifty or sixty copies, and also 

 use my interest for procuring other subscriptions ; but sorry to find, 

 on inquiry, that a work of this kind is not likely (on this Continent) 

 to meet with the encouragement it deserves. I, however, wish to 

 see you, as soon as you can make it convenient, in order to devise 

 means for expediting my wishes. 



* Samuel Vaughan, an English gentleman who resided some years in the city 

 of Philadelphia, and, at the date of these letters, was one of the Vice Presidents 

 of the American Philosophical Society. He is said to have been a man of some 

 eccentricity of character, but withal possessing much intelligence and enlightened 

 public spirit. 3 He was the father of the late John Va i i , 11 \ s . so long the librarian 

 of the Philosophical Society, and so well known, in Philadelphia, for his active 

 participation in many literary and charitable institutions, as well as for his kind 

 and ever-ready attention to all visiters and strangers, whose position or necessi- 

 ties gave them a claim upon his hospitality or benevolence. 



a See Dr. Parke's letter of September 4, 1786, p. 530. 



