92 SOME AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANISTS 



fellow-scientists; but having made friends with 

 Frederick Pursh, he financed this botanist for a 

 journey through the mountain chains of Virginia 

 and Carolina, returning through the coast lands 



(1805). 



In 1807 there came to America a young bot- 

 anist, Thomas Nuttall, 1 " who visited nearly all 

 the States of the Union, and made more discov- 

 eries than any other explorer of the botany of 

 North America." Barton met him in Philadel- 

 phia and " omitted no opportunity of fostering 

 his zeal and of endeavoring to extend his knowl- 

 edge. He had constant access to my house and 

 the benefit of my botanical books." 



It is easy to imagine the two men sorting up 

 and classifying the specimens Nuttall found, and 

 the talk they would have of plants not indigenous. 

 Nuttall had but scanty means, Barton an equally 

 scanty store of health. What better solution than 

 their combination of forces? 



So, armed with " a considerable collection of 

 manuscript queries and memoranda," Nuttall 

 set off with Bradbury, in April, 1810, to 

 explore the northern and northwestern parts of 

 the United States. Barton says : "Among a very 

 considerable number of plants which he observed 

 and collected in the course of his journey, there 

 were two species of a genus which he observes 



Thomas Nuttall, 1786-1859. 



