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ties with the aromatic caraway and anise. The work of Eaton has 

 passed through several editions. Our indefatigable and learned 

 Bigelow, about the same time, published his valuable and most in- 

 teresting work upon the Plants of Boston. This learned work has 

 passed through several editions. His more splendid work upon 

 Medical Botany, was commenced not far from the year 1815, con- 

 taining elegant coloured engravings of several of our most valuable 

 medical plants. This, next to Wilson's Ornithology, was considered 

 the most splendid work upon natural history which had been pub- 

 lished in America. Barton, of Philadelphia, about the same time 

 commenced a Medical Flora upon much the same plan, with superb 

 engravings, in quarto. This, with that of Bigelow, was discontinued 

 for the want of patronage, after the publication of three volumes. 

 Muhlenberg, Pursh, Bartram, and the elder Barton, had published 

 interesting works upon the subject of botany, and also Elliott, of 

 South Carolina. 



I had examined these works with great attention, and also several 

 foreign works, and among the rest, Sowerby and Curtis. I became 

 enamoured with the study of botany, and about the year 1816, in 

 connection with Edward Hitchcock, now President of Amherst Col- 

 lege, and Dr. Dennis Cooley, now of Michigan, who was then a stu- 

 dent in the office of my father and myself. With them I examined 

 the valleys and the mountains of my native town of Deerfield, for 

 the purpose of discovering and investigating their vegetable and 

 mineral productions. Our meadows, containing about two thousand 

 acres, receive the deposit and wash of the Green Mountains in Ver- 

 mont, as in a basin, as the Deerfield River in its meanderings, 

 washes the base of those mountains for forty or fifty miles, and wafts 

 on its tumultuous waves the seeds of various plants from those 

 mountains, and deposits them in this fertile basin. Hence this little 

 alluvial tract is peculiarly rich in botanical productions. Nearly 

 one thousand species were found within the borders of this town in 

 a single season, including those which were naturalized. Extensive 

 herbariums were formed from these, and those of Dr. Cooley and 

 Dr. Hitchcock were among the earliest and most valuable in the 

 country. Both these gentlemen, I believe, still continue to add to 

 their extensive collections. Dr. Hitchcock was much assisted in his 

 early investigations upon this subject, by Miss Orra White, of Am- 

 herst, now his wife, one of our most distinguished naturalists, who, 

 with her own hand, painted many of the plants collected with almost 

 inimitable beauty. She still cultivates alm^f all the branches of 



