190 The Evolution of Botany. 



never underestimated during the progress of development 

 of the other departments. 



A special word about the American botanists and their 

 work will be in order. One of the earliest, if not the first, 

 description of North American plants w#s by a French bot- 

 anist, Jac. Cornubus, who, it is believed, never was in Amer- 

 ica, but described the plants from specimens sent to him 

 from Canada. 



John Josselyn published in 1672 a work called New Eng- 

 land Earities. His book is interesting in its statement that 

 " barley frequently degenerates into oats." 



In 1680 the Rev. John Banister wrote the Catalogue of 

 Plants of Virginia. 



John Bartram, the founder of the first botanical garden 

 in America, investigated the plants of America with inde- 

 fatigable labor through a long course of years, and with 

 amazing success. He probably detected and described more 

 plants than any of his contemporaries. 



Dr. Cadwallader Golden, an able and sagacious botanist, 

 collected and described the plants in the region around his 

 residence Coldenham, near Newburg, N. Y. and published 

 his PlantaB Coldenhamige in 1744. Dr. Colden had a com- 

 panion and assistant worthy of special commendation in his 

 accomplished daughter Jane. She was the pioneer woman 

 botanist of this country. In a letter from the distinguished 

 botanist, Peter Collinson, to Linnaeus, the former writes: 

 " I but lately heard from Mr. Colden. He is well ; but, 

 what is marvelous, his daughter is perhaps the first lady 

 that has so perfectly studied your system. She deserves to 

 be celebrated." In another: "Last week my friend, Mr. 

 Ellis, wrote you a letter recommending a curious botanic 

 dissertation by Miss Jane Colden. As this accomplished 

 lady is the only one of the fair sex that I have heard of who 

 is scientifically skillful in the Linnaean system, you no doubt 

 will distinguish her merits, and recommend her example 

 to the ladies of every country." 



Dr. John Mitchell, Dr. A. Garden, Dr. A. Kuhn, Hum- 

 phrey Marshall, Dr. Hosack, Dr. Cutler, Thomas Walter, and 

 Will Bartram, all wrote descriptions of local floras. B. S. 

 Barton, Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, De Beauvois, and others be- 

 gan to contribute valuable papers on botany to the Trans- 

 actions of the American Philosophical Society toward the 

 end of the eighteenth century. Thomas Nuttall also con- 

 tributed to the Transactions. 



