272 Dr, Hooker on American Botany. 



have received an equally kind reception and much valuable 

 information from Bartram. 



In 1802, Mr. Pursh had the charge of the extensive gar- 

 dens of W. Hamilton, Esq. called the Woodlands, which hav- 

 ing, immediately previous, been under the charge of Mr. 

 Lyon, an Englishman, and an eminent collector, were found 

 to be enriched with a number of new and valuable plants ; 

 and Mr. Pursh affirms, that through Mr. Lyon's means, more 

 rare and novel plants have been introduced from thence lo 

 Europe than through any other channel whatever. The her- 

 barium, as well as the living collection of Lyon, was of great 

 use to Mr. Pursh ; and the plants aescribed by him, from spe- 

 cimens seen only in that herbarium, are numerous. 



The interesting expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke 

 across the vast continent of America to the Pacific Ocean, by 

 the way of the Missouri and Great Columbia rivers, was pro- 

 ductive of a small collection, of about 150 species of plants, 

 (but of which not a dozen were previously known to the na- 

 tives of America,) which Mr. Pursh had the opportunity of 

 describing. These were gathered during the rapid return of 

 the expedition from the Pacific Ocean towards the United 

 States. A far more extensive herbarium had been formed 

 by the same expedition on the ascent towards the Rocky 

 Mountains, and among the chains of the Northern Andes ; 

 but this was lost, in consequence of the inability to carry it 

 beyond a certain point. 



Another set of specimens to which Mr. Pursh had free ac- 

 cess, was that belonging to Mr. Ensley, a German naturalist, 

 who had been sent out to America by Prince Lichtenstein. 

 Jt was particularly rich in the vegetable productions of Lower 

 Louisiana and Georgia. 



Bartram, which ripened into an uncommon friendship, and contin\ied 

 without the least abatement until severed by the hand of death. Here 

 it was that Wilson found himself translated, if we may so speak, into a 

 new existence. He had long been a lover of the works of nature, and 

 had derived more happiness from the contemplation of her simple beau- 

 ties, than from any other source of g;ratification. But he had hitherto 

 been a mere novice : he was now about to receive insti'uctions from one 

 whom the experience of a long life, spent in travel and rural retirement, 

 had rendered qualified to teach. Mr. Bartram soon perceived the bent 

 of his friend's mind, and its congeniality to his own, and took every pains 

 to encourage him in a study, which, while it expands the faculties and 

 purifies the heart, insensibly leads to the contemplation of the glorious 

 Author of nature himself." 



