INTRODUCTION 



Dr. Schoepf, a German physician, who spent 

 some years here, published in 1787, at Erlangen, 

 an American Materla Medica; and Dr. Benja- 

 min S. Barton followed in the same track with his 

 collections for an Essay towards a Materla 

 Medica of the United States, in 1798, and an Ele- 

 mentary Botany, 1803; and Dr. Jacob Bigelow 

 with an American Medical Botany, 1817. 



The Flora Garollnlana, 1788, by Thomas 

 Walter and published in London, came be- 

 tween the latter and William Bartram's Travels 

 through North and South Carolina, etc., 1791, 

 first editions of which are rare and costly. 



It would not do to except the work of a 

 travelled Parisian, Andre Michaux, who, in 

 1801, gave us his Hlstolre des Chenes de V Ame- 

 rlque Septentrlonale, nor the younger Michaux's 

 magnificent Hlstolre des Arbres Forestlers de 

 V Amerique Septentrlonale, 1810, with colored 

 plates; and with these two names must be 

 bracketted those of the Rev. Henry Muhlenberg, 

 of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who made a fine 

 Catalogue of the hitherto unknown Plants of 

 North America, 1813, and Frederick Pursh, the 

 English botanist, who published his Flora 

 Amerlcae Septentrlonalls, 1814. 



About this date, and shortly after, came 

 several works on state and local flora, notably 

 Bigelow's Florula Bostonlensls, 1814; Stephen 



