EDITOR'S PREFACE. 17 



of Neuchatel was also broken up. Agassiz was already in America one year before. 

 He encouraged the professors to come to America, Guyot, Matile, and others, myself, 

 too. And as the future prospects for the support of my family were gloomy, mj' 

 father, too, encouraging me to come here, I embarked, with my wife and five children, 

 as steerage passengers, and arrived at Boston in September. 1848. That is about all. 

 That, fighting against odds, especially by my total deafness, I have had plenty of 

 hard times, is easily understood. But all has been well for me, thanks to a kind 

 Providence. 



About the publications of mine, you have probably more titles than I know of, for 

 I have forgotten many and many are not worth much. I am now reading the proof of 

 a third volume of the United States Coal Flora ; of a Synopsis of the American Mosses, 

 and of a small book — Principles of Vegetable Paleontology — for the Geological Sur- 

 vey of Indiana. After that I think to close my active career, if I can possibly do 

 that; for I must work for my living. 



Excuse this long talk. It is your fault. If you want an old man to say one word 

 on himself he will make quite a discourse. 

 Sincerely yours, 



L. Lesqttereux. 



Lesquereux was therefore over 40 years of age when he reached this 

 country. He was totally deaf and had never heard a word of spoken 

 Eng-lish in his life, yet he set bravely to work in winning a lu)nie. His first 

 work in this country was done for Prof. Agassiz. This consisted in working 

 up and preparing for publication the collection of plants made by Agassiz 

 on his Lake Superior expedition. His report was published in 1848. 



At the close of the same year he was called to Columbus, where he made his home 

 for the remainder of his life. The circumstances under which he came to Columbus 

 deserve to be mentioned, as they bring to light a history that has few counterparts 

 in the country hitherto. By the publication in 1845 of the Musci Alleghamensis, Mr. 

 William S. Sullivant, of Columbus, had put himself at the head of American bryolo- 

 gists, and was so recognized at home and abroad, the scientific collections of the 

 Government in this Department even coming into his hands for study, and the field 

 was in every way widening before him, bringing him more than he could do unaided. 

 He was a gentleman of large fortune and was therefore not obliged to ask even a living 

 from science. All of his work was done at his own charges and most of it was pub- 

 lished in like manner. It was distributed among his fellow laborers in a like manner. 

 Mr. Sullivant called Lesquereux to his aid, and for many years thereafter, even to the 

 date of Mr. Sullivant's death, the foremost bryologist of America and one of the most 

 accomplished bryologists of Europe worked side by side in completest accord and 

 harmony with mutual respect for each other's acquirements and results. Lesquereux 

 was employed by Mr. Sullivant one or two years and was afterward aided in various 

 ways in carrying forward his work by the generosity of his friend.' 



'Leo Lesquereux. By Edward Orton. The American Geologist, vol. 5, No. 5, May, 1890, pp. 

 291, 292. 



MON XVII 3 



