Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. IO Q 



need to be carefully revised; many of his dried speci 

 mens and illustrations of genera still are to be found in 

 the herbaria of Europe and America. The task will be 

 less difficult in this than in any other branch which 

 Rafinesque cultivated, for he was first of all other things 

 a botanist, and accomplished in that subject his most 

 valuable work. In other directions little or nothing 

 anywhere remains to help the student of science in 

 forming a judgment. The best collection which illus 

 trated his work in the Unionida, that of Mr. C. A. 

 Poulson, of Philadelphia, has been scattered long since, 

 and there exists no other which would have given the 

 aid possible in that one. But many dried plants with 

 original Rafinesquian names still exist, and these should 

 be examined; then should the rules of priority rigidly 

 be enforced. 



Rafinesque s botanical work extended over the whole 

 period of his literary activity. A large number of 

 short papers appeared from time to time, in every 

 possible medium of publication. These never were 

 collected by their author, and there exists to-day no 

 complete collation in any library in the world. Some 

 of the work he did on Kentucky plants was not pub 

 lished under his name, though the most of that work 

 found its way to the scientific public through a variety 



