Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. 



of the dairy ! What sound sleep at night after a long day s walk ; 

 what soothing naps at noon under a shaded tree near a purling 

 brook. Every step taken into the fields, groves and hills, appears 

 to afford new enjoyments. Landscapes and plants jointly meet in 

 your sight. Here is an old acquaintance seen again ; there a novelty, 

 a rare plant, perhaps a new one, greets your view ; you hasten to 

 pluck it, examine it, admire, and put it in your book. Then you walk 

 on thinking what it might be, or may be made by you hereafter. 

 You feel an exultation, you are a conquerer, you have made a con 

 quest over Nature, you are going to add a new object or a page to 

 science. To these botanical pleasures may be added the anticipa 

 tion of the future names, places, uses, history, &c. of the plants 

 you discover. For the winter, or season of rest, are reserved the 

 sedentary pleasures of comparing, studying, naming, describing, 

 and publishing.&quot; 



There are occasional idioms in his composition, and 

 these are constant reminders of foreign parentage and 

 education, yet occurring often enough to cause us to be 

 patient with the grammatical faults of Rafinesque. On 

 the whole his English is very good; but the brevity of 

 his descriptive work renders strict compliance with es 

 tablished usage quite impossible. The chief fault in his 

 scientific writings consists in extreme brevity of descrip 

 tion; evidently his original descriptions were hastily 

 drawn, many or most of them in the field, and these 

 formed the bases of his future published work. In this 

 way may be explained very many crudities ; they are 

 verbatim renditions of original field notes. 



