244 ESSAYS. 



It were well to consider for a moment how and why it is 

 that a task which has twice been — it would seem — easily ac- 

 complished has now become so difficult. 



The earliest North American Flora, that of the elder Mi- 

 chaux, appeared in the year 1803. It was based entirely 

 upon Michaux's own collections and observations, does not 

 contain any plants which he had not himself gathered or seen, 

 is not, therefore, an exhaustive summary of the botany of the 

 country as then known, and so was the more readily prepared. 

 Michaux came to this country in 1785, returned to France in 

 1796, left it again in Baudin's expedition to Australia in 1800, 

 and died of fever in Madagascar in 1802. The Flora pur- 

 ports to be edited by his son, F. A. Michaux, who signed the 

 classical Latin preface. The finish of the specific characters, 

 and especially the capital detailed characters of the new gen- 

 era, reveal the hand of a master ; and tradition has it that 

 these were drawn up by Louis Claude Richard, who was prob- 

 ably the ablest botanist of his time. This tradition is con- 

 firmed by the fact that Richard's herbarium (bequeathed to 

 his son, and now belonging to Count Franqueville) contains 

 an almost complete set of the plants described, and I found 

 that the specimens of Michaux supplied to Willdenow's her- 

 barium at Berlin were ticketed and sent by Richard. Not 

 only the younger Richard but Kunth also habitually cited the 

 new genera of the work as of Richard, and some others have 

 followed this example. Singularly enough, however, there is 

 no reference whatever to Richard in any part of the Flora, 

 nor in the elaborate preface. The most venerable botanist 

 now living told me that there was a tradition at Paris that 

 Richard performed a similar work for Persoon's " Synopsis 

 Plantarum," and that he declined all mention of his name in 

 the Synopsis and in the Flora, because the two works — con- 

 trary to the French school — were arranged upon the Lin- 

 naean Artificial System. He had his way, and the tradition 

 may be preserved in history ; but his name cannot be cited for 

 the genera Elytraria, Micranthemum, Elodea, Stipulicida, 

 Dichromena, Oryzopsis, Erianthus, and the like. For, by the 

 record these are of Michaux, " Flora Boreali-Americana," 

 and not of Richard. 



