130 SCHIZ.EA PUSILLA. NEW JERSEY SCHIZ/EA. 



again till detected by me in company with Dr. Torrey in 1818." 

 How improbable it is that Pursh and Eddy discovered the plant 

 in 1805 may be seen from the fact that Eddy's aunt was the wife of 

 Dr. Hosack, who established the New York Botanic Garden, and 

 that Pursh went to take charge of this Botanic Garden in 1807, 

 and in all probability made the acquaintance of Dr. Eddy, then 

 very young, through his engagement with the uncle. Moreover, 

 Pursh tells us in his preface that he was absent, in 1805, in the 

 South, and in the West in 1806. Further it appears from a 

 letter of Dr. Muhlenberg to Zaccheus Collins, dated April 28th, 

 181 2, and preserved in the Library of Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, of Philadelphia : " Schizaea tortuosa was discovered last 

 year (181 1) by Mr. Pursh and Dr. Eddy." Even at this time 

 there seems to have been some wrangling as to who discovered 

 it, for in another letter the same letter-writer, referrino- to a 

 visit from C. Whitlow, says : " If all that he says in his good 

 humor can be depended on, he found the ScJiizcra tortuosa at the 

 Quaker Bridge." Even the claim of Mr. Cooper, that he and 

 Dr. Torrey were the first to re-discover the plant, may be barely 

 correct ; for in another letter in the same collection, from Mr. 

 Collins to Dr. Bigelow, of Boston, dated August 3d, 18 18, he 

 speaks of having been there the past season and of finding the 

 plant, as if not knowing that any botanist had had the same good 

 fortune before him that year. Again, Professor Eaton says the 

 plant was found by Dr. Eddy in 181 3, but as the preface to Pursh's 

 Flora was written in London that year, this cannot be. In spite 

 of all these varying statements it appears probable that Pursh 

 took a trip to New Jersey with Eddy late in the autumn of 181 1, 

 after his return from the West Indies, and before sailing for 

 Europe to prepare for his great work, and it is very likely that 

 they both found it so nearly simultaneously that either may be jus- 

 tified in claiming the discovery. Some may say that these matters 

 are of little consequence ; but if a fact is worth recording at all it 

 is worth recording accurately, and it is to impress this on the 

 student that we have given this question so much consideration 

 here. 



