BRIEF MEMOIR OF BERNARD M'iMAHON. Xlli 



the last century. In the autumn, I think, of 1799, he passed 

 some weeks at my native village of Dilworthtown, in Chester 

 County, in order to avoid the ravages of yellow fever, in Phila- 

 delphia, where he resided ; and in that rural retreat I first knew 

 him. I renewed the acquaintance in 1802, 3, and 4, while attend- 

 ing the medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, by 

 which time he had established his nurseries of useful and orna- 

 mental plants : and I ever found him an obliging, intelligent, and 

 instructive friend. He was a regularly educated gardener, of 

 much experience, and great enterprise. He gave the first decisive 

 impulse to scientific horticulture in our State ; and to him we are 

 mainly indebted, among other favors, for the successful culture 

 and dissemination of the interesting novelties collected by LEWIS 

 and CLAEKE, in their journey to the Pacific. When, in 1818, Mr. 

 NUTTALL published his Genera of North American Plants, he 

 named a beautiful shrub " in memory of the late Mr. BERNAED 

 M'MAHON, whose ardent attachment to Botany, and successful in- 

 troduction of useful and ornamental Horticulture into the United 

 States, lay claim to public esteem :" and although the genus has 

 been reduced by later botanists to a section of JBerberis, it is gene- 

 rally known by and I trust will long retain the popular name 

 of MAHONIA. 



It was a well- deserved tribute of respect, from one who inti- 

 mately knew, and could justly appreciate the merits it commemo- 

 rated : and I am happy in the opportunity, even at this late day, 

 to add my own humble and inadequate testimonial to that of so 

 accomplished a judge of botanical worth, as THOMAS NUTTALL. 

 Very truly yours, 



WM. DARLINGTON. 



