6 Notices of European herbaria. 



extensively ; but the ship in which he returned to England hav- 

 ing been taken by pirates, his own collections, as well as those of 

 Governor Golden, were mostly destroyed. Linnaeus however 

 had previously received a few specimens, as, for instance, those 

 on which Proserpinaca^ Polypremimi^ Galax, and some other 

 genera, were founded. 



There were two other American botanists of this period, from 

 whom Linnasus derived, either directly or indirectly, much in- 

 formation respecting the plants of this country, viz. John Bar- 

 tram and Dr. Alexander Garden of Charleston, South Carolina. 

 The former collected seeds and living plants for Peter Collin- 

 son during more than twenty years, and even at that early 

 day extended his laborious researches from the frontiers of Can- 

 ada to Southern Florida, and to the Mississippi. All his collec- 

 tions were sent to his patron Collinson,* until the death of that 



Jussieu, in a letter dated Feb. 19, 1751, having sliovvn him that it was very dis- 

 tinct both from Lonicera and Linnma, and in fact belonged to a different natural 

 order, he afterwards named it Mitchella. 



" Mr. Collinson kept up a correspondence with all the lovers of plants in this 

 country, among whom were Governor Golden, Bartram, Mitchell, Glayton, and 

 Dr. Garden, by whose means he procured the introduction of great numbers of 

 North American plants into the English gardens. " Your system," he writes Lin- 

 ncBUS, "I can tell you obtains much in iVmerica. Mr. Clayton, and Dr. Golden at 

 Albany, on Hudson's River, in New York, are complete professors, as is Dr. 

 Mitchell at Urbana, on Rapahanock River, in Virginia. It is he that has made 

 many and great discoveries in the vegetable world." — "I am glad you have the 

 correspondence of Dr. Golden and Mr. Bartram. They are both very indefatiga- 

 ble, ingenious men. Your system is much admired in North America." Again, 

 "I have but lately heard from Mr. Golden. He is well, but, what is marvelous, 

 his daughter is perhaps the first lady that has so perfectly studied your system. 

 She deserves to be celebrated." — " In the second volume of Edinburgh Essays is 

 published a Latin botanic dissertation bj Miss Golden; perhaps the only lady that 

 makes profession of the Linnaean system ; of which you may be proud." From 

 all this, botany appears to have flourished in the North American colonies. But 

 Dr. Garden, about this time, writes thus to his friend Ellis: "Ever since I have 

 been in Garolina, I have never been able to set my eye upon one who had barely 

 a regard for botany. Indeed I have often wondered how there should be one 

 place abounding with so many marks of the divine wisdom and power, and not 

 one rational eye to contemplate them ; or that there should be a country abound- 

 ing %vith almost every sort of plant, and almost every species of the animal kind, 

 and yet that il should not have pleased God to raise up one botanist. Strange in- 

 deed that this creature should be so rare!" But to return to Gollinson, the most 

 amusing portion of whose correspondence consists of his letters to Linnaeus shortly 

 after the publication of the Species Plantarum, in which (with all kindness and 

 sincerity) he reproves the great Swedish naturalist for his innovations, employing 

 the same arguments which a strenuous Linnccan might be supposed to advance 



