122 THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



during these years of southern residence shows that not- 

 withstanding the interruptions caused by professional labor, 

 and by war's rude alarms, he lost no opportunity for 

 botanical research, and for the acquisition of new material. 



Near the close of 1817 he received an appointment as 

 surgeon of the U. S. frigate " Congress," which was to visit 

 Buenos Ayres and other South American ports. 



His knowledge of natural history led to this appoint- 

 ment, and it was accepted with the hope that his failing 

 health might be restored. His ship touched at Rio Janeiro, 

 Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, Maldonado, San Salvador, and 

 Margarita. At all these places he made diligent use of his 

 limited opportunities for collecting, and in the Philadelphia 

 Academy are preserved many of the plants so collected. 



From this voyage he returned in July, 1818, rejoining 

 his family at Wilmington. He now bent all his energies 

 to the study of the material collected during his Southern 

 residence, with a view to publication, under the proposed 

 title : " Miscellaneous Sketches of Georgia and East Florida, 

 to which will be added a descriptive catalogue of new plants, 

 with notices of the w^orks of Pursh, Elliott and Nuttall, to 

 which will be added an appendix containing some account 

 of the vegetable productions on the Rio de la Plata, etc." 

 In September he writes Darlington : " I have to inform you 

 that I go on slowly and, I hope, the more surely. It will 

 not do to hurry — there has been too much hurrying among 

 our botanists. But you may rely upon it that nothing but 

 death or disease will prevent me from going on steadily. 

 Both interest and knowledge increase as I go along." The 

 Southern Cyperacesc now specially engaged his attention. 

 His letters to Darlington and Collins at this time are full of 



