66 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



At the same time a complete description of the plants grow- 

 ing around Lancaster had been ready to print for years ; like- 

 wise a complete description of all the other North American 

 plants which Muhlenberg had himself seen and arranged in his 

 herbarium. These descriptions were consequently based en- 

 tirely on his own knowledge, and had, therefore, especial 

 value. Unfortunately, they have not been published. 



A part of one of these works, comprising the grasses, was 

 printed in 1817, two years after the author's death, under the 

 title Descriptio uberior Graminum (Fuller Description of Grass- 

 es). This manuscript was presented by Zaccheus Collins, a 

 friend of Muhlenberg, to the American Philosophical Society 

 in 1831. 



The valuable herbarium, for which Muhlenberg collected 

 and sorted for a full third of a century, was bought by a num- 

 ber of his friends for a little more than five hundred dollars, 

 and was presented to the American Philosophical Society in 

 February, 1818. It was then in good condition, but has, un- 

 fortunately, not been well taken care of, and has become so 

 decayed as to have little if any more than historical value. 



In considering the question of the importance to science of 

 these labours of a whole lifetime, we should think first of the 

 greater clearness which they led to in the descriptive botany 

 of North America. Although Muhlenberg printed but little, 

 and although he often lost the claim to priority through being 

 anticipated in publication by less reserved botanists, yet we 

 find in Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 

 States about one hundred species and varieties which were first 

 established as such by him, and besides them a nearly equal 

 number which were either assigned afterward to other genera, 

 or with which, on the principle of priority in publication, the 

 names given by other botanists were retained. This is really 

 an admirable result, considering the zeal of collectors and 

 hunters before and during Muhlenberg's time, and the limited 

 extent of the field which he was able personally to examine. 

 His services have also been freely recognised by later botanists. 

 A golden-rod was given by Torrey and Gray the name Solidago 

 Muhlenbergii ; Grisebach named a centaury Erythr&a Muhlen- 

 bergii ; a small willow was called by Barratt Salix Muhlen- 

 bergii ; and Gray gave the name Muhlenbergii to a species of 

 reed or sedge. Two mosses of the genera Phascum and 



