Selections from Dr. Colderfs Correspondence. 85 



Art. XII. — Selections from the Scientific Correspondence of Cad- 

 wallader Colden with Gronoviiis, Linnceus, Collinson, and 

 other Naturalists ; arranged by Asa Gray, M. D. 



Dr. Colden, one of the earliest and most distinguished culti- 

 vators of science in North America, maintained, as is well known, 

 an active correspondence with many of the most eminent men 

 both in Europe and this country, on medical, philosophical, and 

 scientific subjects, devoting to these pursuits the intervals of his 

 public duties, as surveyor-general and member of the council, 

 and, at a later period, as lieutenant and acting governor of the 

 province of New York. Some of his letters and other papers 

 on mathematical and philosophical subjects, in which he was 

 particularly skilled, have been given to the public* But, so far 

 as I am aware, no part of his botanical correspondence has yet 

 been published, excepting his two letters to Linnaeus, which are 

 included in the agreeable volumes edited by Sir James E. Smith.f 

 Supposing that other botanical papers of equal interest might be 

 brought to light, I availed myself of the permission kindly ac- 

 corded me by David C. Colden, Esq. of New York, to examine 

 the voluminous correspondence of his celebrated ancestor, and to 

 select some portions for publication. I trust that these contribu- 

 tions to the early history of science in this country, will not be 

 deemed inappropriate to the pages of the American Journal of 

 Science. 



Although Dr. Colden had acquired the rudiments of botany, 

 as taught in the University of Edinburgh at the beginning of the 

 last century, yet he paid little attention to the subject for twenty 

 or thirty years after his arrival in this country. But having cas- 

 ually obtained some of the earlier writings of Linnaeus shortly 

 after their appearance, he zealously engaged in the examination 

 of the plants around him, according to the new system, and soon 

 established a correspondence with Gronovius of Leyden, Peter 



* Vide American Medical and Philosophical Register, Vol. I, (1810,) which con- 

 tains a spirited biographical memoir of Gov. Colden, from the pen of Dr. Francis; 

 and Sparks, Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI, (1838,) passim. 



t A Selection of the Correspondence of Linnaus and other Naturalists, from the 

 original manuscripts, Vol. II, p. 451-458. 



