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6 Notices of European Herbaria. 
extensively ; but the ship in which he returned to England hav- 
ing been taken by pirates, his own collections, as well as those of 
Governor Colden, were mostly destroyed. Linneus however 
had previously received a few specimens, as, for instance, those 
on which Proserpinaca, Polypremum, Galax, and some other 
genera, were founded. 
There were two other American botanists of this period, from 
whom Linneus derived, either directly or indirectly, much in- 
formation respecting the plants of this country, viz. John Bar- 
tram and Dr. Alexander Garden of Charleston, South Carolina. 
The former collected seeds and living plants for Peter Collin- 
son during more than twenty years, and even at that early 
day extended his laborious researches from the frontiers of Can- 
ada to Southern Florida, and to the Mississippi. All his collec-. 
tions were sent to his patron Collinson,* until the death of that 
Jussieu, in a letter dated Feb. 19, 1751, having shown him that it was very dis- 
tinct both from Lonicera and Linnea, aad; in fact belonged to a different natural, 
order, he afterwards named it Mitchella. 
* Mr. Collinson kept up a correspondence with all the lovers of plants in this 
country, among whom were Governor Colden, Bartram, Mitchell, Clayton, and 
Dr. Garden, by whose means he procured the introduction of great numbers of 
North American plants into the English gardens. “ Your system,” he writes Lin- 
nus, ‘I can tell you obtains much in America. Mr. Clayton, and Dr. Colden at 
Albany, on Hudson’s River, in New York, are complete professors, as is Dr, 
Mitchell at Urbana, on Rapahanock River, in Virginia. a is he that has made 
many and great discoveries in the vegetable world.”’—‘«I am glad you have the 
correspondence of Dr. a and Mr. Bartram. They ar shoth very indefatiga- 
ble, ingenious men. Your system is much admired in North America.” Again, 
I have but lately heard from Mr. Colden. Hevis well, but, what is marvelous, 
She deserves to be celebrated.” —‘ In the second volume of Edinburgh Essays is 
published a Latin botanic dissertation by Miss Colden; perhaps the only lady that 
makes profession of the Linnean system; of which you may be proud 
all this, botany appears to have flourished in the North American colonies. But 
r. Garden, about this time, writes thus to his friend Ellis: “Ever since I have 
sy in Caroling, I have never been able to set my eye upon one who had barely 
a regard for botany. Indeed I have often wondered how there should be one 
place abounding with so many marks of the divine wisdom and power, and not 
one rational eye to contemplate them; or that there should be a country abound- 
ing with almost every sort of plant, sind almost every species of the animal kind; 
and yet that itshould not have pleased God to raise up one botanist. Strange in- 
deed that this creature should be so rare!?’ But to return to Collinson, the most 
amusing portion of whose correspondence consists of his letters to Linneus shortly 
after the publication of the Species Plantarum, in which (with all kindness and 
sincerity) he reproves the great Swedish naturalist for his innovations, employing : 
€ same arguments which a strenuous Linnean might be supposed to o advance ~ 
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