246 ESS A YS. 



to this country — to Baltimore and Philadelphia — at the close 

 of the last century, when he must have been only twenty-five 

 years old. He was able to make the acquaintance not only 

 of Muhlenberg, who survived until 1815, and of William 

 Bartram, who died in 1823, but also of the veteran, Humphrey 

 Marshall, who died in 1805. His early and principal patron 

 was Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, who supplied the means for 

 most of the travels which he was able to undertake, and who, 

 as Pursh states, " for some time previous had been collecting 

 materials for an American Flora." Pursh's personal explora- 

 tions were not extensive. From 1802 till 1805 he was in 

 charge of the gardens of William Hamilton, near Philadelphia. 

 In the spring of the latter year, as he says, he " set out for 

 the mountains and western territories of the southern States, 

 beginning at Maryland and extending to the Carolinas (in 

 which tract the interesting high mountains of Virginia and 

 Carolina took my particular attention), returning late in the 

 autumn through the lower countries along the sea-coast to 

 Philadelphia." But, in tracing his steps by his collections 1 

 and by other indications, it appears that he did not reach the 

 western borders of Virginia nor cross its southern boundary 

 into the mountains of North Carolina. The Peaks of Otter 

 and Salt-pond Mountain (now Mountain Lake) were the 

 highest elevations which he attained. Pursh's preface con- 

 tinues : " The following season, 1806, I went in like manner 

 over the northern States, beginning with the mountains of 

 Pennsylvania and extending to those of New Hampshire (in 

 which tract I traversed the extensive and highly interesting 

 country of the Lesser and Great Lakes), and returning as 

 before by the sea-coast." The diary of this expedition, found 

 among Dr. Barton's papers and collection in possession of the 

 American Philosophical Society, has recently been printed by 

 the late Mr. Thomas Potts James. It shows that the journey 

 was not as extended or as thorough as would be supposed ; 

 that it was from Philadelphia directly north to the Pokono 

 Mountains, thence to Onondaga, and to Oswego, — the only 

 point on the Great Lakes reached, — thence back to Utica, 

 1 In herb. Barton and herb. Lambert. 



