152 THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



which he dedicated to his friend Thomas Nuttall, with high 

 compHments, the printer who was engaged upon it asked 

 the professor who was that Xuttall so frequently referred to 

 in his work, adding that he had once worked with a printer 

 oi that name, who spent the greatest part of his time in 

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

 same man. Professor Torrey rejoined that his surmise was 

 correct; the printer of former times had proved a most 

 arduous laborer in the field of science, and was now a 

 distinguished botanist and an officer of one of the first 

 scientific institutions of the country." 



It seems that Nuttall was ignorant of the tenets of 

 botany when he landed in the United States. He used to 

 tell the following stor}?- of himself. AValking in the fields 

 outside of Philadelphia the morning after his arrival, he 

 noticed a common green-brier (Smilax rotundifolia). " Egad ! " 

 he said, " there is a passion-flower," and he cut some portions 

 of it, which he brought home for study. His friends at the 

 boarding-house could not satisfy him, but referred him to 

 Professor Barton, whose residence was near. With his spec- 

 imen Nuttall called upon Dr. B. S. Barton, who received 

 him courteously, and explained the diff'erence between the 

 genera Smilax and Passiflora. Noticing the intelligent inter- 

 est of the young man, Professor Barton taught him some of 

 the general principles of botany. This lesson made Nuttall 

 a botanist, and Barton became his friend and patron. It 

 was then eai^ly spring, and during the next season Nuttall 

 took frequent rambles, eagerly gathering specimens, which 

 he carried to Barton, who showed him how to prepare 

 them for the herbarium. Later, he extended his excursions, 

 going down into the lower part of the peninsula between 



