248 ESS A YS. 



been rapid. The despatch is wonderful. One can hardly 

 understand the ground of the statement made by Lambert to 

 my former colleague, Dr. Torrey, that he was obliged to shut 

 Pursh up in his house in order to keep him at his work. 



I know not how Pursh was occupied for the next four years, 

 nor when he came to Canada. But he died here at Montreal, 

 in 1820, at the early age of forty-six. More is probably 

 known of him here. If I rightly remember, his grave has 

 been identified, and a stone placed upon it inscribed to his 

 memory. 1 A tradition has come down to us — and it is partly 

 confirmed by a statement which Lambert used to make, in 

 reference to the vast quantity of beer he had to furnish during 

 the preparation of the Flora — that, in his latter days, our 

 predecessor was given to drink, and that his days were thereby 

 shortened. 



In Pursh's Flora we begin to have plants from the Great 

 Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific coast, although 

 the collections were very scanty. The most important one 

 which fell into Pursh's hands was that of about 150 specimens, 

 gathered by Lewis and Clark on their homeward journey from 

 the mouth of the Columbia River. A larger collection, more 

 leisurely made on the outward journey, was lost. Menzies in 

 Vancouver's voyage had botanized on the Pacific coast, both 

 in California and much farther north. Some of his plants 

 were seen by Pursh in the Banksian herbarium, and taken 

 up. I may here say that in the winter of 1838-39 I had the 

 pleasure of making the acquaintance of the venerable Menzies, 

 then about ninety-five years old. 



In the Supplement, Pursh was able to include a considerable 



1 In the Canadian Naturalist, Principal Dawson gives a brief account 

 of the transference of the remains of Pursh from a grave-yard below 

 Montreal, in which they were interred, to the beautiful Mount Royal 

 Cemetery, where they rest in a lot purchased for the purpose and under 

 a neat and durable granite monument, provided by the naturalists of 

 Montreal and their friends. A small company of botanists, led by Dr. 

 Dawson, visited the spot shortly after the reading of this paper. We 

 learned that Pursh had botanized largely in Canada, in view of a Canadian 

 Flora, and that his collections were consumed by a fire at Quebec shortly 

 before his death, to his extreme discouragement. 



