BOTANICAL COLLECTIONS IN CALIFORNIA. ;,:,.-, 



desciilunl in the supplement to the " Botany of Captain Becchey's Voyage," and those from (lie- 

 g)n and Washington Territory in Hooker's "Flora Horcali-Aini-ricana." Hooker's, LindU-y's 

 and Bentham's herbaria contiiin sets of his C'aliiornian plants, and many siK^ciniens are found 

 elsewhere. 



Dr. Thomas Coultkr, who collect d in Mcxicct for niany years, reache<l Monterey in Novem- 

 ber, 1831, and remained in Upper California until late in 1S32 or pos.ibly even longer (lie was 

 nearly three years in California according to Don), during wlneh time lie visited " all tlie 

 habitable parts" of the country. The most notable of his excursions \va.s one to the Colonuio 

 Eiver in 1832. He left Monterey late in March, was at San Cabriel April 23, and at the U>id 

 of the Colorado River, just below the mouth of the Gila, May 8. He returned by tin- s-u.ie 

 route and was again at Monterey July 19. He was the first botanist to reach the intore-sting 

 Colorado desert and Gila regions, and some of his species were not again found until very many 

 years after. He c(dlected more than a thousand species in Mexico and California ; but they 

 remained mostly undistributed and unknown until after the collector's death ami the ajipointment 

 of the late Prof. W. H. Harvey as curator of the herbarium of Trinity College, Dulilin, which at 

 that time, or previously, came into possession of them. Dr. Harvey published several interesting 

 Californian genera and species, and distributed the duplicates of the collection, — the fidlest .s<'t to 

 the Hookerian Herbarium, and portions to the herbaria of Gray and of Torrey. The geograjiliical 

 results of his Californian exploratioiis are published in a paper in the Journal of the Royal 

 Geographical Society of London (1835), v. 59-70, with a map. 



Ferdinand Dei-pe, of Berlin (whose name is associated with that of Dr. Scheide in Jlexic-o), 

 visited California in 1831 or 1832. But his name is rarely met with in connection with Cali- 

 fornian botany. 



Several Californian species were described, by or before 1834, as having l>een collected by Mr. 

 P. E. BoTTA, but I have no more definite information as to when or where he collected here. 

 He was a travelling naturalist, collecting for the Museum of Natural History of Paris. 



Thojias Nuttall crossed the continent in an expedition under Captain Wyeth, in 1834, to the 

 Columbia River. Thence he went to the Sandwich Islands, and returned to California, where 

 he collected during a part of the year 1835, mostly near the coast, from San Fiancisco to San 

 Diego. His collections were very rich, and contained the types of many new species. Some «f 

 them are in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University, and many in the herbarium of the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences at Philadelphia. They are also at Kew, and the original set was purtdia-sed by 

 the British Museum after Nuttall's death. Description:, appeared in various places, many being 

 published in Torrey and Gray's Flora of North America ; the new Compositte were described by 

 himself in the Transactions of the American Philosoiihical Society, 1841. 



Richard Brinsley Hinds, surgeon on board the English surveying-ship Sulphur, under 

 Captain Sir Edward Belcher, vis: ted the State in the autumn of 1837, and went uj) the Sacra- 

 mento River for some distance. In October and November, 1839, the expedition again touched 

 the coast, and collections .vere made at San Diego, but chiefly southward al various jioints in 

 Lower California, where no botanists had previously been. Some of these collections were mule 

 by Mr. Baiiclay, a collector sent out by the Royal Garden of Kew. The results were i»ublisheil in 

 the " Botany of the Voyage of H. M. S. Sulphur," by Hinds and Bentham. 



Dr. WosNESsENSKY was sent, by the Academy of Sciences of St. Peteroburg and the Zoological 

 ]\Iuseum of that place, to the North Pacific, and spe'it ten years on the coast. He spent some 

 time collecting in California, but when he first came, how often or how long liere, or how exten- 

 sive his botanical collections weie, 1 do not know. He was on Mount St. Helena June 12. 1841, 

 which is the only date I have of his visit. 



William D. Brackenridge and Dr. Charles Pkkkiunc, conm-cted with the United State.s 

 Exploring Expedition under Lieutenant Wilkes, visited California in 1841. They enteml the 

 State by land from Oregon, passed by the western base of Mount Shasta and down the Sacra- 

 mento Valley to the Bay. Tlieir Californian colle-tion was small, but contained some very inter- 

 esting species, an account of which was given by Dr. Torrey in the Botany of the Kxiiedition. 



M. DiiFLOT de Mofras, who was sent by the French government on an ex|Hdiiion to the 

 west coast of North America in 1840 to 1842, was in California in 1841. How much he.nl- 

 lected in this State it is not easy to say ; but in an Appendix to his " Kxidoi-.itions du Tern- 

 toire de Oregon des Californies,"' etc. (Paris, 1844), ii. 403, there is a catalogue of th.- i-rincipal 

 plants of the Northwest Coast, which enumerates about two hundivd and ninety s|M-cie.s. without 

 even the usual specific authorities, and with so many erroi-s of one kind or another as to Ix- of little 

 scientific value. 



