1823, OCTOBER. NEW JERSEY 23 



along manifested an unremitting desire to be useful to the Society. In 

 the evening I attended a meeting of the Horticultural Society of New 

 York. I cannot refrain from mentioning the great exertions which most 

 of the efficient members have made in communicating anything worthy 

 of notice. I feel glad to see it in such a state of perfection. A great many 

 prominent inhabitants of New York have become members : De Witt 

 Clinton, Dr. Hosack, General Lewis, the Mayor of the city, &c. Being 

 the first effort to establish a society in America, they labour under many 

 great disadvantages in having no other establishments to co-operate with 

 them in their laudable exertion. The president, Martin Hoffman, Esq., is 

 a very worthy respectable gentleman. His knowledge of gardening is but 

 'limited, but he takes a very spirited interest in promoting the science. Mr. 

 Hogg, F. M. Floy, and Mr. Wilson are the chief of its practical members] 

 Presented for their inspection some fine beet of very superior quality, 

 indeed as fine as I ever saw ; carrots, very fine ; broccoli, very good ; some 

 fine specimens of Spanish tobacco ; the gentleman kindly offered the Society 

 some seeds before sailing. I was much pleased with the form of the 

 proceedings. Some bunches of grapes of European origin were presented, 

 they were considered good for America, but in my opinion were very 

 inferior to what are to be seen in England. 



Saturday, October 25th. Wrote to W. Coxe, Esq., and to Mr. Dick, 

 Philadelphia. Putting to rights specimens and seeds in the forenoon. 

 At Mr. Floy's taking up plants, &c., till midday, when I went to Flatbush 

 on Long Island, and returned late at night. 



Sunday, 26th. The fore part of the day I rectified some of the lists 

 preparatory to going to Philadelphia. To-day was cold and had much the 

 appearance of winter. Mr. Clinton was to dine at Dr. Hosack's ; I was 

 invited after dinner. I walked out to Mr. Hogg's and got to town after 

 projecting a trip to Jersey in the morning. 



Monday and Tuesday, October 21th and 28th. Meeting Mr. Hogg, 

 according to our last night's proposal, at half-past 5 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing, we crossed the Hudson River to New Jersey for obtaining Sarracenia 

 purpurea, which was our chief object. The morning was fine and inviting, 

 but before we had got to the desired spot, the rain fell in such torrents that 

 we were urged to take shelter in the first place ; towards midday on Tuesday 

 we got out> and on looking on the face of the country beheld it deluged. 

 Calculating that Sarracenia was inaccessible for the present, we bent our 

 course to an adjoining wood where we were amply repaid. Neottia repens 1 

 in great profusion ; cedar swamp, or rather anemones in the swamp ; soil 

 moderately dry, composed altogether of decayed leaves and branches of 

 cedars. By setting our feet on the ground we soon sank, the soil being 

 very soft. I took a good quantity of plants. In the same place Vaccinium 

 hispidulum* and soil not differing from Neottia. Gathered seeds of 

 Rhododendron maximum which is immensely large, fully 17 or 20 feet high ; 

 Kalmia latifolia, also vigorous ; Rhus Vernix and a climbing species, with 

 some species of Smilax, were twined round the trees. On a rising piece 



1 Goodyera pubescens, Ind. Kew. fasc. iii. p. 304. 



2 Chiogenes hispidula, A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. I. p. 26. 



