74 ESSAYS. 



from New York, across the mountains in Pennsylvania, to the 

 Ohio, and carefully explored the States of Kentucky and Ten- 

 nessee ; thence, recrossing the mountains in North Carolina to 

 Charleston, he again embarked for France. 1 Again returning 

 in 1807, he journeyed along the whole extent of our Atlantic 

 coast, and visited the principal ports to examine the timber 

 employed in shipbuilding and in workshops of every descrip- 

 tion ; besides making separate excursions into the interior : 

 " the first, along the rivers Kennebec and Sandy, passing- 

 through Hallowell, Norridgevvock, and Farming-ton ; the sec- 

 ond, from Boston to Lake Champlain ; the third, from New 

 York to the lakes Ontario and Erie ; the fourth, from Phila- 

 delphia to the borders of the rivers Monongahela, Alleghany, 

 and Ohio; and the fifth, from Charleston to the sources of 

 the Savannah and Oconee." Having thus faithfully collected 

 the requisite information, his great work upon our forest trees 

 — the fruit of so much labor — was published at Paris in 

 1810-13. 



But this work is not the only result of the well directed in- 

 dustry and zeal of the elder and the younger Michaux. To 

 these two persons, chiefly, are the French plantations indebted 

 for their surpassingly rich collections of American trees and 

 shrubs ; which long since gave rise to the remark, as true at 

 this day as it was twenty years ago, that an American must 

 visit France to see the productions of his native forests. 

 When shall it be said that the statement is no longer true? 

 When shall we be able to point to a complete, or even a re- 

 spectable, American collection of our indigenous trees and 

 shrubs ? 



A few words will suffice for the second work on our list. 2 



1 The observations made in this tour are recorded in his " Voyages a 

 l'Ouest de Monts Alle'ghanys," 8vo, Paris, 1804 ; and in a " Me'moire sur 

 la Naturalisation des Arbres Forestieres de l'Ame'rique Septentrionale," 

 8^o, Paris, 1805. 



2 " The North American Sylva " ; or a description of the forest trees 

 of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, not described in the work 

 of F. Andrew Michaux, and containing all the forest trees discovered in 

 the Rocky Mountains, the Territory of Oregon down to the shores of the 

 Pacific and into the confines of California, as well as in various parts of 

 the United States ; illustrated by 122 fine plates. 



