Dr. Hooker on American Botany. 265 



we can expect any branch of science to be estimated as it 

 deserves 



A small history of the Plants of Canada by Cornuti ap- 

 peared in Paris in 1635 About the year 1740 was published 

 Catesby's Matvral History of Carolina, &c. in 2 vols, large 

 folio, illustrated vf'wh a great number of highly coloured figures 

 of plants, he. Groiiovius edited the Flora Virginica of 

 Clayton, at Leyden, in 17iJ9. In the Memoirs of the Ame- 

 rican Academy, Dr. Cutler printed his Account of the Vege- 

 table Productions of the New England States ; and, in 178S, 

 Walter^s Flora Caroliniana appeared in London. 



The elder Bartram, during his extensive and interesting 

 travels, discovered many curious plants, and was the means 

 of making them known to the botanists of Europe, especially 

 of Britain. His friend and patron, Mr. Peter Collinson, who 

 kept up a constant correspondence with him, Colden, and 

 other naturalists of America; was one of the first to cultivate 

 the plants of that country in England, which he did with 

 much success, at his charming garden at Mill Hill, near Lon- 

 don. Dr. Garden was another eminent promoter of American 

 botany, and in his communications to Linnaeus, he sent many- 

 new and interesting plants His botanical enthusiasm seems 

 to have been very great ; and we have some striking proofs of 

 it lately published by Sii- J. E. Smith, in the Linnaean corres- 

 pondence In one of those letters, addressed to the illus- 

 trious Swede from South Carolina, Dr. Garden thus expresses 

 himself on the occasion of his being disappointed of an in- 

 tended journey to the Apalachee mountains, by an order for 

 the expedition to return. " In my letters," he says, "to you 

 at that time, I gave you an account of my intended journey, 

 and in what manner the arrival of our new governor put a 

 stop to us. Good God ! is it possible to imagine the shock I 

 received when the unhappy express overtook us, just two 

 day's march on this side of the mountains? My prospect of 

 glutting my very soul with the view of the southern parts of 

 the Great Apalachees was instantaneously blasted. How 

 often did I think of the many happy hours that I should have 

 enjoyed in giving you a detail of their productions ! Ho^r 

 often did I think of the secret pleasure which ) should have 

 in being instrumental, though in the least degree, to the ad- 

 vancement of our knowledge of the amazing works of the 

 Supreme Architect! How happy should I have been to have 

 thrown in my mite, by adding one new genus or species^ to 

 Vol. IX.— No. 2. 34 



