Dr. Hooker on American Botany, 271 



hergii. It is well known that Dr. Muhlenberg possessed 

 very extensive materials for a general description of the 

 plants of the New World ; but what has become of these we 

 have been unable to ascertain. His herbarium is in the pos- 

 session of the American Philosophical Society. 



Another of the friends of Pursh was Dr. B. Smith Barton, 

 a physician and a naturalist, and unquestionably a great pro- 

 moter of Science, and especially of Botany, in America. He 

 was appointed Professor of Natural History in the university 

 of Philadelphia in 1789. We recollect, in our early youth, 

 reading with great delight some of his Fragments of Natural 

 History, as they were appropriately termed, which first 

 brought to our notice many highly curious objects of that 

 country, and reminded us of the writings of our own Stilling- 

 fleet and White. He has the credit of publishing an elemen- 

 tary work on Botany, which, though rather diffuse in style, is 

 full of entertaining anecdotes ; and the references and terms 

 being all made applicable to American plants, it must have 

 done much towards recommending the study of botany in that 

 country. 



Mr. Marshall, author of a work on the forest trees of Amer- 

 ica, was then living, and he imparted to Pursh some useful 

 materials, principally afforded by his garden, rich in trees and 

 shrubs. 



The sons of the celebrated John Bartramj before mention^ 

 ed, possessed an old established garden, founded indeed by 

 the elder Bartram, at Philadelphia, on the banks of the Delr 

 aware. Mr. William Bartram, the well-known author of the 

 travels through North and South Carolina, was then, and we 

 believe is still living ; a man who merits the gratitude of 

 every naturalist, for the cordial reception which he gave to 

 Wilson, the ornithologist, at the period when that highly-gifted 

 individual had scarcely a friend in the world. It was the 

 advice and encouragement that Mr. Bartram gave him, that 

 was mainly the cause of the appearance of one of the most 

 valuable works on science that was ever published in any 

 country, the American Ornithology * Mr. Pursh appears to 



* We cannot help here, tliough but little connected with the subject 

 of this paper, making' an extract from the interesting life of Wilson, 

 published by Mr. Ord, in the 9th volume of the American Ornithology, 

 " His residence being at but a short distance from the botanical garden 

 of Messrs. Bartram, situated on the western bank of the Schuylkill, (a 

 sequestered spot, possessing attractions of no ordinary kind,) an acquaint- 

 ance was soon contracted with that venerable naturalist, Mr. William 



