2o6 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



"When, in 1824, Prof. Torrey was preparing for publica- 

 tion his Flora of the Northern and Middle States, which he 

 dedicated to his friend Thomas Nuttall, with high compli- 

 ments, the printer who was engaged upon it asked the pro- 

 fessor who was that Nuttall so frequently referred to in his 

 work, adding that he had once worked with a printer of that 

 name, who spent the greatest part of his time reading 

 books, and he would not be surprised if he were the same 

 man. Prcf. Torrey rejoined that 'his surmise was correct; 

 the printer of former times had proved a most arduous 

 labourer in the field of science, and was now a distinguished 

 botanist and an officer of one of the first scientific institu- 

 tions of the country.' " 



That Nuttall knew nothing of botany when he landed in 

 the United States is shown by an anecdote that he used to tell 

 of himself. Taking a walk in the outskirts of Philadelphia 

 the morning after his arrival, he noticed a common greenbrier 

 (Smilax rotundi folia). " Egad ! " said he to himself, " there is 

 a passion-flower"; and he plucked some branches of it, which 

 he brought home for inquiry. His fellow-boarders could not 

 satisfy him, but referred him to a certain Prof. Barton, a great 

 botanist, whose residence was near. With his treasured branch 

 in his hand, Nuttall called at once upon Prof. Benjamin S. 

 Barton, who received him courteously and pointed out the dif- 

 ference between the genera Smilax and Passiflora. Then, per- 

 ceiving the intelligence of the young man, Prof. Barton went 

 on to tell him some of the general principles of botany and 

 how much pleasure could be derived from its pursuit. This 

 conversation made Nuttall a botanist, and Barton became his 

 friend and patron. It was then early spring, and throughout 

 the season of flowers he took frequent rambles over the neigh- 

 bouring fields, eagerly gathering specimens, which he brought 

 to Barton, studying them with him and preparing them for the 

 herbarium. Soon he began to extend his excursions, going first 

 down into the lower part of the peninsula between the Dela- 

 ware and Chesapeake Bays, and later to the coasts of Virginia 

 and North Carolina. When occupied with his favourite pur- 

 suit, serious discomfort could not distract him. At one time, 

 while collecting in the southern swamps, his face and hands 

 became covered with mosquito bites, so that when he ap- 

 proached a human habitation the people of the house would 



