62 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



be sufficiently confirmed from different sides, and agrees with 

 the character of the plant, I either try it on myself or com- 

 mend it to my friends. I raise most of the grasses in my 

 garden, and experiment how often they can be cut, .and 

 whether they are readily eaten by horses or cattle." These 

 grasses numbered at the beginning of 1798 one hundred and 

 fifty-six species, including many introduced ones, and among 

 them were a large number of new species and at least one new 

 genus. This collecting and testing of grasses is mentioned in 

 other letters. An exchange seems to have been arranged with 

 Prof. Schreber, of American plants for foreign grasses ; and, 

 besides mosses, grasses of New England were obtained from 

 Dr. Cutler, especially such as grew near the sea. 



Some of these notes on the medicinal properties of plants, 

 Muhlenberg says, were furnished to Dr. Schopf for use in his 

 contemplated work on American Materia Medica. Although the 

 author of that work, which was published in 1787, acknowledged 

 indebtedness for information to several other American bota- 

 nists, he does not give Muhlenberg's name a most ungrateful 

 omission. A similar case occurred in connection with an Ameri- 

 can book. When Muhlenberg first saw a copy of Bigelow's 

 Medical Botany, he could not help remarking to his son, after 

 looking through it, " This gentleman has appropriated to him- 

 self all my explanations, without making any acknowledg- 

 ment." But he never called public attention to this, and there 

 were other such trespasses which were also let pass unnoticed. 



In July, 1785, Muhlenberg communicated to the American 

 Philosophical Society an outline of a Flora Lancastriensis con- 

 taining the results of his own observations on the plants and 

 their habits. At the same time he presented a manuscript 

 Calendar of Flowers. In February, 1/91, he communicated 

 the Index Flora Lancastriensis. This was published in the third 

 volume of the first series of the Transactions of the society. 

 It is arranged according to the Linnsean system, and contains 

 four hundred and fifty-four genera with nearly eleven hundred 

 species, including both wild and cultivated plants. Of the 

 naming of these plants, Muhlenberg remarked in a note: 

 "When I found no name in Linnaeus's system, I took a name 

 from other recently published works, or from the letters of Dr. 

 Schreber, with whom I kept up a correspondence. When I 

 found no name in this way, I was obliged to give one myself 



