THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 103 



ginseng, on the curing of which he wished to try some 

 experiments. The procuring of the roots was undertaken 

 by Dr. Marshall. It occupied about twenty days, and 

 necessitated his going into the Alleghanies for them. He 

 returned with about a hundred weight of ginseng roots, 

 and charged for them an English crown a pound. 



Dr. Marshall soon began a correspondence with scien- 

 tific men in Great Britain and Europe on his own account^ 

 especially with Dr. Lettsom, of London. In these letters he 

 sends descriptions of new or rare plants that he has founds 

 and occasionally ventures to suggest a name. One of these 

 descriptions (that of the Talinum tereti folium) is especially 

 praised by Dr. Darlington, who says that it was written 

 long before the plant was generally known to the botanists 

 or published in the books, and adds that " from diffidence or 

 want of opportunity to publish many of the discoveries, 

 much of the credit really due to Bartram, Marshall, and 

 Muhlenberg, has been ascribed to or appropriated by Euro- 

 pean botanists." 



x4.bout this time we find Dr. Marshall in correspondence 

 with Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, of Lancaster, Pa. It was 

 due to the influence of this distingushed botanist that 

 Marshallia, a genus of plants of which there are several 

 species in the South, was named in honor of Moses Mar- 

 shall, as the following correspondence will show. The first 

 letter is from Muhlenberg to Dr. Marshall : 



" Dear Sir : — I beg leave to inform you that the new 

 edition of the Genera Linneei is safely arrived. I am 

 happy to see that the editor, my friend, Dr. Schreber, has 

 done what I requested of him. He has given your name 



