6o PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



deeply interested in the less conspicuous flowering plants and 

 the cryptogams. Botanists had not been idle in the study of 

 North American plants. The field of the present Middle 

 Atlantic States had been explored with considerable energy 

 before Muhlenberg's time. New species of plants had been 

 discovered and additional information had been gained con- 

 cerning species already known. The scientific value of these 

 observations, attested by the herbariums which still exist, and 

 by what Muhlenberg furnished for publication, is enhanced 

 and interest is added to them by a careful perusal of Muhlen- 

 berg's correspondence, a part of which he kept and is now pre- 

 served by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. These let- 

 ters some from European naturalists and others from Ameri- 

 can were written in the last sixteen years of the eighteenth 

 century and the first and part of the second decades of the nine- 

 teenth, and are often annotated with Muhlenberg's remarks. 

 Of his own letters only a few copies are present, chiefly those 

 which he wrote between 1791 and 1794 to Dr. Manasseh Cut- 

 ler, of Ipswich, Mass. Further, a number of letters from 

 various students, together with notebooks, botanical notices, 

 descriptions, and outlines in Muhlenberg's handwriting are in 

 the possession of his descendants, or have been handed over 

 by them to scientific societies ; while in the works of Pursh 

 (1814), Schecut (1806), Le Conte (1811), and Bigelow (1814) 

 is incorporated matter borrowed from the results of his re- 

 searches. 



The notebooks bear witness to the earnestness with which 

 Muhlenberg took up and pursued his botanical studies from 

 the beginning. During the year 1778 may be found numerous 

 descriptions of plants like that of Eupatorium purpureum, 

 trumpetseed or gravel root; to which are added such notes 

 as " is probably Eupatorium (altissimuni)" Doubtful remarks 

 of the kind abound. " It is probably Actea ? " " It may be 

 Azalea?" "Perhaps it is Convallaria ? " It is evident from 

 such notes that Muhlenberg had not advanced far in acquaint- 

 ance with the wild plants in the summer of 1778. In the same 

 year he seems to have drawn up a plan of studies by the sys- 

 tematic execution of which he could hardly fail to acquire the 

 desired knowledge. 



It was not long before Muhlenberg became engaged in 

 correspondence with other botanists. Dr. Johann David 



