Some Earhf PhiladelpJtia Botanists — l.fonord. )^5 



In spite of all that is unfavorable concerning the labors of 

 Rafinesqne, Mr. Thos. Meehan, the well known botanist of Ger- 

 man town, in the Botanical Gazette above referred to (Feb. 1883,) 

 would have us a little more charitable with the memory of an 

 able worker so long since passed away. He would have us re- 

 member that other botanists have also manufactured species, that 

 other men have been and are still egotistical, and that Rafinesque 

 endured rarely paralleled misfortunes, and sacrificed a large for- 

 tune for the sake of science. ' 



Truly we may well be sadden^ and made forgetful of his 

 faults when we read, on the authority of Mr. Meehan, who re- 

 members the contemporaries of Rafinesque, that the eccentric 

 botanist lived, in his latter days, in a dingy garret, with scarcely 

 a loaf of bread to eat, working for science as he understood it, to 

 the very last. On September 18, 1842, he died on a cct, with 

 scarcely a rag to cover him, and without a solitary friend to stand 

 by him in his last houiS. Bringhurst, a kind-hearted undertaker^ 

 committed his body to the earth, and for years a pine board with 

 C. S. R. was all that marked his last resting place. 



Mr. Meehan concludes his brief defense, as follows: "Let us 

 meet in spirit around his unhonored grave in old Ronaldson 

 cemetery, remembering his sacrifices, grateful for what he did 

 and tried to do, and not forgetting that we too are human as 

 was he.'' 



DARLINGTON. 



Wm. Darlington. M. D., the noted botanist of West Chester, 

 Pa., was born in Birmingham, Pa., April 28, 1782, and died in 

 West Chester April 23rd, 1803. 



At 22 years he received the degree of M. D. from the Univer- 

 sity of Penna. For two years thereafter he studied languages and 

 botany, and in 1816 went as ship's surgeon to Calcutta. His first 

 literary attempt grew out of this voyage in the shape of Letters 

 from Calcutta, published in the Analectic Magazine. 



On returning the Dr. settled down to practice in his adopted 

 town. West Chester. Incidentally to his career as a botanist ought 

 to be mentioned the fact that in 1812 he became a major of a vol- 

 unteer regiment, and that he served as a member of Congress in 

 1815-17 and 1819 to '23. 



In 1812 Dr. Darlington founded at West Chester an Academy, 

 ill! Athemeum, and a prosperous Society of Natural History, of 



