22 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



American botanical book, and which was republished in France 

 a few years later in 1789. 



Gotthilf Muhlenberg [b. 1753, d. 1815], a Lutheran clergy- 

 man, living at Lancaster, was an eminent botanist, educated in 

 Germany, though a native of Pennsylvania. His " Flora of Lan- 

 caster" was a pioneer work In 1813 he published a full cata- 

 logue of the Plants of North America, in which about 2,800 

 species were mentioned. He supplied Hedwig with many of the 

 rare American mosses, which were published either in " Stirpes 

 Cryptogamicae " of that author or in the " Species Muscorum." 

 To Sir J. E. Smith and Mr. Dawson Turner he likewise sent 

 many plants. He made extensive preparations, writing a gen- 

 eral flora of North America, but death interfered with his* pro- 

 ject. The American Philosophical Society preserves his her- 

 barium, and the moss Funeria Muhlenbergii, the violet, Viola 

 Muhlcnbergii, and the grass Muhlenbergia, are among the 

 memorials to his name.* 



To Pennsylvania, but not to Philadelphia, came, in 1794, 

 Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), the philosopher, theologian, and 

 chemist. Although his name is more famous in the history 

 of chemistry than that of any living contemporary, American 

 or European, his work was nearly finished before he left Eng- 

 land. He never entered into the scientific life of the country 

 which he sought as an exile, and of which he never became 

 a citizen, and he is not properly to be considered an element 

 in the history of American science. 



His coming, however, was an event of considerable political 

 importance; and William Cobbett's " Observations on the Em- 

 igration of Doctor Joseph Priestley. By Peter Porcupine," was 

 followed by several other pamphlets equally vigorous in ex- 

 pression. McMaster is evidently unjust to some of the public 



* HOOKER : On the Botany of America. Edinburgh Journal of Science, 

 iii, p. 103, et seq. 



