GOTTHILF HEINRICH ERNST MUHLENBERG. 6/ 



Funaria were named after Muhlenberg by Schwartz ; two 

 lichens of the genera Umbilicaria and Gyrophora by Acharius; 

 and a fungus of the genus Dothidea by Elliott. 



About half of the plant-names given by Muhlenberg which 

 are now recognised belong to the reeds and the grasses, 

 Cyperacea and Graminece, in the study of which he was sup- 

 ported by Schreber. One of the first new genera of grasses 

 observed by him, to which belong seven species in the North- 

 ern floral region of the United States, and a still larger num- 

 ber of other species in the other States and Territories, was 

 given the name Muhlenbergia by Schreber. At least five spe- 

 cies of this genus, which have not become domiciled east of the 

 Mississippi, are known in Colorado. 



It is recorded by one who knew him, in Sprague's Annals 

 of the American Pulpit, that " in person Dr. Muhlenberg was 

 of medium stature, of a florid complexion, of a robust frame, 

 and great physical strength. There are various traditions, 

 some of them amusing enough, illustrative of this latter 

 quality. On one occasion when a beggar had obtruded himself 

 into his study, and had begun to take on insolent airs, the 

 doctor took him up and removed him from the premises with 

 perfect ease, greatly to the amusement of those who were look- 

 ing in. He was a great pedestrian, and often walked from 

 Lancaster to Philadelphia, a distance of sixty miles, without 

 suffering from fatigue." His grandson, Frederick A. Muhlen- 

 berg, for many years professor in the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, gives the following statement as to what manner of man 

 he was : 



" His private journal is now before me, and the variety of 

 subjects in it which engaged his reflections is remarkable, and 

 shows the inquiring character of his mind and his power of 

 accurate discrimination. Here are found, for instance, care- 

 fully prepared descriptions of plants, birds, minerals, or other 

 objects of Nature, which he had met with in his walks, and the 

 uses to which they might be applied for the benefit of himself 

 or others. Here he gives his decision upon the medicinal 

 properties of plants or the value of the inks made out of their 

 juices, and there records an attempt of his, and a successful 

 one, as early as the year 1779, to make molasses from corn- 

 stalks. In other parts of the journal we meet with observations 

 on the weather, such as thunderstorms, dark days, remarkable 



