THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 153 



Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, and then to the coasts of 

 Virginia and North Carolina. 



About this time he met John Bradbury, a Scotch natu- 

 ralist, who had come to xlmerica to collect objects of natural 

 history. Later, Bradbury, accompanied by Nuttall, left 

 Philadelphia for the far West. Proceeding to St. Louis, they 

 left that city on the last day of December, 1809, crossed the 

 Kansas and Platte Rivers, passed through the Mandan 

 villages, where Lewis and Clark had wintered during 

 1804-'05, and ascended the Missouri River still' higher, 

 returning after a journey full of the greatest fatigues and 

 dangers, well recompensed by materials and information. 



Nuttall spent the next eight years in Philadelphia, 

 during the winter months overhauling and studying the 

 collections made by him in summer excursions to various 

 parts of the country east of the Mississippi, from Florida 

 to the Great Lakes. As a close student, naturally reserved, 

 Nuttall's social intercourse was limited. Prof Barton, 

 Zaccheus Collins, Reuben Haines, M'Mahon, for whom he 

 named his genus Mahonia, William Bartram, and Colonel 

 ■Carr, were almost his only acquaintances. A room was 

 expressly reserved for him in Colonel Carr's house. During 

 this time he prepared the descriptions for his " Genera of 

 the North American Plants." * 



The reputation of Mr. Nuttall, as a botanist, prin- 

 cipally rests upon this work printed in 1818. Prof. Torrey, 

 in the preface to his Flora, declared that the " Genera " of 

 Nuttall had contributed more than any other work to 

 advance the accurate knowledge of the plants of this 



* 1818. Nuttall — TTie genera of North American plants, and a catalogue 

 of the species to the year 1817. Philadelphia, 2 vols., octavo, I: viii, 312 pp. II: 

 254, 14 pp. 



