4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



It may here be noted that Walter's grave, after its neglect for more 

 than a hundred years, has recently (1931) been put in order. Accord- 

 ing to H. R. Dwight, of Pinopolis, it " has been completely restored, 

 with new brick and cement foundation, and the slab repaired and re- 

 placed, and a handsome wrought iron fence, 15 ft. square, with gate, 

 has been placed around it." An excellent photograph substantiates 

 this. Mr. Dwight has very kindly sent me also a copy of the inscription 

 upon a bronze tablet to Walter recently erected on State Highway 

 no. 45, at a point where the road to the grave, 3 miles away, 

 branches off. 



Flora Caroliniana. — Walter's " Flora " is an octavo volume of 263 

 pages (exclusive of title page, dedication, preface, and index), de- 

 scribing upward of 1,000 species distributed among 435 genera. Of 

 the former, more than 200 are described as new ; of the latter, 32 are 

 so indicated, but only 4 of these are given distinctive names. The 

 work is classical and well deserves the attention it has received. It is 

 based upon studies of specimens collected by Walter within a radius 

 of 50 miles from his plantation and upon similar material brought him 

 by Fraser, who, according to his own account, landed at Charleston 

 September 20, 1786, and " having resided in South Carolina and 

 Georgia nineteen months * * * returned to England in the month of 

 March, 1788." (Fraser's arrival in South Carolina is commonly dated 

 1785, in error.) The preface of the " Flora " bears the date 30 Dec. 

 1787. Fraser took the manuscript to England and published it in 1788, 

 as previously stated. Concerning his own travels and the sources of 

 Walter's material he. writes most interestingly in the rare folio volume 

 to which reference is here repeatedly made. 



Along with Walter's manuscript Fraser carried to England " up- 

 wards of thirty thousand dried specimens of plants " of his own col- 

 lecting and, what is of greater importance to us, the Walter herbarium. 

 The Herbarium remained in the hands of the Fraser family until 1849, 

 when (May 23) it was presented to the Linnean Society of London 

 " by John Fraser, son of John Fraser, the indefatigable North Ameri- 

 can Botanical Collector from the years 1786 to 181 1." It was pur- 

 chased by the British Museum (Natural History) in 1863, at a sale of 

 the Linnean Society's " surplus collections ", for the small sum of 15 

 shillings. Upon Asa Gray's inquiry during his first visit to England 

 (1839) it had been found in the possession of John Fraser 2d and 

 was submitted to Gray for study. It has been examined more or less 

 critically by many later American botanists, a number of whom are 

 listed by Britten. The grasses have been discussed by Hitchcock. 

 But unfortunately the herbarium is in poor condition and must have 



