PLANTAE LINDHEIMERIANAE. 135 
of a cultured man, though in a mild, almost shy-sounding 
voice, which ill accorded with his rough exterior, and whose 
answer to my direct question, confirmed my supposition. It 
was the botanist, Mr. Ferdinand Lindheimer from Frankfort- 
on-the-Main. Residing in Texas for a considerable time he 
had by several years’ zealous plant-collecting acquired a 
permanent scientific reputation, as regards the botanical 
knowledge of Texas, which had before been almost totally 
unknown and had been visited transiently but once before by 
an English botanist named Drummond. 
“After Lindheimer had received at the German schools 
and universities the best available scientific education and spec- 
ial training in the ancient classics, he taught for atime in one of 
the higher educational institutions, but his dissatisfaction 
with the political condition of his native land for more than 
a decade and perhaps also his thirst for adventure drove him 
beyond the sea. He went first with several congenial com- 
panions to Mexico and lived there for some time in the 
neighborhood of the charmingly situated Jalapa upon the 
produce of a pine-apple and banana plantation, and went 
later to Texas, in order to take part as a volunteer in the lat- 
ter part of the Texas war for independence against Mexico. 
“After the close of this war he endeavored to live for some 
time as a farmer and to improve a farm, but this manner of 
life also did not appeal to him, and he decided, particularly 
at the urging of a friend in St. Louis, to gratify his inclina- 
tion from earliest youth, a cherished delight for botany, and 
at the same time make it a means of livelihood. He bought 
a two-wheeled covered cart with a horse, loaded it with a pack 
of pressing-paper and a supply of the most indispensable pro- 
visions, namely, flour, coffee and salt, and then set forth into 
the wilderness, armed with his rifle and with no other com- 
panion than his two hunting dogs, while he occupied himself 
with collecting and pressing plants and depended for his sub- 
sistence mainly upon the results of the chase, often passing 
whole months at a time without seeing a human being. 
“When, then, in the late fall of 1844, the first large train of 
German immigrants under the leadership of Prince Solms 
arrived in Texas, Lindheimer joined them and was joyfully 
