ii2 The Life and Writings of 



examples are to be seen in the Medical Flora, the one 

 hundred plates of which are all in outline, but are very 

 characteristic and accurate. The plants are easily recog 

 nizable from the drawings, but are deficient in matters 

 of detail. None of the drawings made by him to 

 illustrate zoological subjects at all approach these plates 

 of plants in accuracy and value. In short, however, 

 Rafinesque could not be said to have made even clever 

 drawings of the plants which he named and described. 

 His reputation as an artist rests on a very insecure 

 foundation.* 



Summarizing the facts in the botanical writings of 

 Rafinesque, it would appear that he, among the first, 

 clearly saw that many plants, which had been forced 

 into specific and generic relationship, were really either 

 separate forms or types of new genera; that his oppor 

 tunities for wide collection rendered it clear that new 

 groupings must be made, though in this he antagonized 

 the workers of his time. It also appears that foreign 

 authors and collectors frequently found plants with the 

 generic relationships of which they were not themselves 



* Very few of Rafinesque s general drawings have been preserved. An 

 interesting instance, however, may be seen in the Medical Repository, Vol. 

 XVIII, in a letter by a Mr. Gratz, one of the former owners of Mammoth 

 Cave, relating to a mummy said to have been found in the Cave ; the draw 

 ing from which the engraving was made was by Rafinesque. 



