36 



to add zeal to knowledge and perseverance to enter- 

 prise. He took the lead in what he recommended, and 

 delivered a course of lectures on botany gratuitously to 

 a large class of ladies and gentlemen. He likewise, 

 in conjunction with Hugh S. Legare, became editor of 

 the ''Southern Review," and himself contributed many 

 articles. 



Mr. Elliott was one of the earliest and warmest ad- 

 vocates for the establishment of the Medical College 

 in 1825, and was elected one of the faculty, as profes- 

 sor of natural history and botany. His most elaborate 

 and valuable work, his "Sketch of the Botany of South 

 Carolina and Georgia," w^as written and published in 

 the midst of these laborious engagements, financial and 

 scientific; the first volume appearing in the year 1821, 

 and the second in 1824. This accumulation of business 

 mental and bodily, was too great for him to sustain; he 

 died suddenly in 1830, struck down by apoplexy. 



Contemporary with him we find Shecut and Mac- 

 bride, the latter of whom specially assisted Elliott in 

 his botanical work. In his ''Medical and Philosophical 

 Essays" Shecut has the following to say with regard 

 to Elliott's botanical work: 



"In the year 1817 Mr. Elliott commenced the publica- 

 tion of his "Sketches of the Botany of South Carolina 

 and Georgia," of which five numbers of the first 

 volume, accompanied with several highly finished 

 plates of grasses, is completed. Of the merits of this 

 work it is unnecessary to say anything in this place. 

 The well known talents of the author, his travels and 

 close attention to botany, particularly that of his native 

 and her sister States, are its guarantees. 



"As a direct and truly scientific classification, and 

 arrangement of plants indigenous to South Carolina 

 and Georgia, containing several new and hitherto un- 

 known or nondescript species, together with a mass of 

 valuable information with regard to the agricultural 

 advantages and medicinal properties of many species, 

 this work may be justly considered the best on the 



