20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1836, 



among them a copy of De Candolle's "Organogra- 

 phie " and " Theorie Ele*mentaire." These or at least 

 the former came from Professor Lehmann, 1 of Ham- 

 burg, with whom for a year or two I had corresponded 

 and exchanged plants, or received books in exchange 

 for plants. I had made a still earlier exchange with 

 Soleirol, a French army surgeon, who had collected 

 in Corsica. While at home I blocked out and partly 

 wrote my " Elements of Botany." He turned to New 

 York in the autumn ; went into cheap lodgings, ar- 

 ranged with Carvill & Company to take my book. I 

 think they gave one hundred and fifty dollars, which 

 was a great sum for me. We got it through the press 

 that winter. John Carey had then come down to New 

 York, and was a great help to me in proof-reading, and 

 the little book was published in April or May, 1836. 



I think it was in the autumn of 1836 that the Ly- 

 ceum of Natural History, New York, having with a 

 great effort erected their hall, on Broadway just below 

 Prince Street, I was appointed curator ; had a room 

 for my use, some light pay, proportioned to light 

 duties, and this was my home for a year or two. 

 There I wrote my papers, " Remarks on the Structure 

 and Affinities of the Ceratophyllacea3 " (which dates 

 February 20, 1837), not a very wise production, and 

 some of the observations are incorrect ; also the better 

 paper, really rather good, " Melanthacearum Ameri- 

 cse Septentrionalis Revisio," published in 1837. 



Dr. Torrey had planned the " Flora of North Amer- 

 ica," but had not made much solid progress in it. I, 

 having time on my hands, took hold to work up in a 

 preliminary way some of the earlier orders for his 

 use. This was to pass the time for a while, for in the 

 1 J. G. C. Lehmann, 1793-1860 ; professor at Hamburg. 



