266 Dr. Hooker on American Botany, 



the vegetable or mineral kingdom ! With what pleasure did 

 1 bear the sun's scorching beams, the fatigue of travelling, the 

 cold ground for my pillow, and the uncomfortable dreariness 

 of rain, when 1 had in view the wishedfor examination of the 

 productions of the mountains ! We had advanced about 260 

 miles of our journey through the woods, when our hour was 

 come that all our promised Elysium vanished, and left no- 

 thing but a blank, a doleful blank to ne, and I may say to 

 every one of the company ; for we were happily collected, 

 and unanimity reigned amongst us. What will you think 

 when I tell you that one of our company was a very accurate 

 drawer, and he had promised me to do every thing for mej 

 and according to my direction, that I should desire ; so thatj 

 in this one circumstance, ray loss was irreparable. But why 

 do I dwell ou the most disagreeable of all the incidents that 

 ever Providence mingled in my lot ?" 



Kalm, the celebrated pupil of Linnasus, who was also Pro- 

 fessor of Natural History at Abo, in Finland, visited America 

 at the expense of the king of Sweden, in the years 1747 — 51. 

 His researches extended as far as Canada, and the plants 

 which he collected served materially to enrich the Species 

 Plantarum of his great master ; while the Linnaean herbarium, 

 as Sir J. E, Smith assures us, abounds in specimens brought 

 home by Kalm, and distinguished by the letter K. The name 

 ef this botanist is commemorated in the beautiful genus 

 Kalmia. 



Until the year 1803, however, nothing had been published 

 containing a thoroughly scientific arrangement of any extensive 

 portion of the northern part of the New World. The pro- 

 viding of materials for such a work was reserved for Andre 

 Michaux, a Frenchman, every way qualified for the task, and 

 who, after returning from a most successful botanizing expe- 

 dition to Persia, and bringing with him, amongst other trea- 

 sures, the curious Rosa simplicifolia and Michauxia compa- 

 nulai'a, was appointed to visit North America at the charges 

 of the French government, with a view to enrich France with 

 its various vegetable productions, particularly its forest trees ; 

 for which, it must be confessed, that the climate of that coun- 

 try is even better qualified than that of England. 



New- York Michaux constituted the depot for the collections 

 which he made through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ma- 

 ryland ; a!>d he there established a garden, from whence he 

 despatched numerous packages to France. Another depot 



