THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 147 



travelers. Rafinesque, himself, never saw any of the j^lants 

 mentioned in this work, but this did not deter him from 

 publishing therein thirty new genera and 196 new species. 



This eccentric botanist was a passionate lover of nature 

 and had very lofty scientific ambitions, together with an 

 inordinate desire to see his own name attached to plant 

 binomials. Many of his erratic ways are to be attributed 

 to his desultory early training. He was, however, a keen 

 observer and no mean thinker.* In 1833, twenty-six years 

 before " Darwin's Origin of Species " appeared, Rafinesque 

 had already pointed out the fact of evolution, though at the 

 time nearly all scientists believed in the fixity of species. 



He received many honors from various learned societies, 

 and his reputation as a scientist extended throughout 

 Europe. The genus Rafinesquia (Nuttall) of the Compositae, 

 and Opuntia Rafinesqxdi, Engelmann, commemorate his 

 name among plants. 



Among the genera founded by Rafinesque, which are 

 universally accepted by American botanists, may be men- 

 tioned : Adlumia, Cladrastis, Cymopterus, Osmorrhiza ( Wash- 

 ingtonia),Lepachijs {Ratibida), Erechtites, Steironema, Ihjsanthes, 

 Blephilia, Clintonia, Pelfandra and Eatonia. The last edition 

 of " Gray's Manual " recognizes nineteen of his genera, while 

 the recent " Check List " of the Botanical Club of North 

 America, covering the same territory, credits him with 

 fort3^-seven in all. In Britten and Brown's "Illustrated 

 Flora," fifty of Rafinesque's genera are recognized. 



Rafinesque was quicker to discover the relationships and 

 difference among plants than most of his contemporaries. 



* A history of the portraits of Rafinesque will be found in Call's " The Life 

 and Writings of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, pp. 64, 67. 



