THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 155 



botany to classes of young men. As a lecturer Nuttall was 

 not remarkable for eloquence, but he always imparted to 

 his hearers something of his ow^n passion for botany. 



Mr. Nuttall was called to Harvard College at the end 

 of 1822. The endowment not being sufficient to support 

 a professor, he was appointed curator of the Botanic Garden, 

 with light duties of instruction, so that the greater part of 

 his time was devoted to study and to the culture of rare 

 plants. In Cambridge, as well as in Philadelphia, he led a 

 retired life.* 



Mr. Nuttall became dissatisfied with his position at 

 Cambridge, because he considered that he was vegetating. 

 At this time James Brown, who was probably his only inti- 

 mate friend at Cambridge, suggested to Nuttall that he wTite 

 a book on ornithology. He began with great energy, and 

 in 1832 produced his " Manual of the Ornithology of the 

 United States and Canada,'^ in two volumes of about six 

 hundred pages each and illustrated with excellent wood-cuts. 

 While at Cambridge he contributed papers to various scien- 

 tific journals, and issued a text-book entitled " An Introduc- 

 tion to Systematic and Physiological Botany, f 



Mr. Nuttall visited Philadelphia in 1833, with a collec- 

 tion of plants gathered by Captain Wyeth during an overland 

 journey to the Pacific Ocean. Captain Wyeth was about to 

 start on a second expedition, for the Columbia Fishing and 

 Trading Company, and Nuttall wished to accompany him. 

 Not being able to obtain a sufficiently long leave of absence 

 from his duties as Curator of the Botanic Garden at Cam- 

 bridge, he resigned his position and spent the time before 



* See remarks of Mrs. Asa Gray in editing the papers of her husband. 

 tl827. Nuttall — An introduction to systematic and physiological botany. 

 Cambridge. Billiard and Brown, octavo, XU : 360 pp., 12 tab. 



