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horticulturist and a horticultural botanist, was occupied by 
Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, Philadelphia; his botanical 
work always betrayed his lack of scientific training, but contained 
much of permanent value 
The remarkable immigration to this country from central 
Europe during the thirties and forties, influenced largely by 
political conditions, had a pronounced effect upon American 
botany. Dr. George Engelmann, from Germany, became the 
pioneer of botanical work in the Mississippi Reece nd estab- 
lished a botanical center at St. Louis which een increasing 
in influence ever since. Dr. Leo tee a Swiss, was for 
many years the foremost American student of fossil plants and 
of mosses. Two men of German birth, Dr. Charles Mohr, of 
Mobile, and Dr. Augustin Gattinger, of Nashville, became noted 
for their work upon the flora of their respective states. 
In a discussion of American botanists, we must not overlook 
those who are best known for field work, but of this class we can 
only mention a few. Perhaps the first person in this country to 
become noted for the excellence of the herbarium material dis- 
tributed by him was Dr. Charles W. Short, of Kentucky. Dr. 
Charles C. Parry is best remembered for his field work through- 
out the west, upon various government and private expeditions. 
H. N. Bolander and Thomas Bridges were among those who did 
notable work in the botanical exploration of California. But the 
prince of American plant collectors of former days was a modest 
Connecticut Yankee, Charles Wright, who devoted twenty years 
to work in the southwest, in Mexico, in China, and in Japan, and 
another ten years to the botanical exploration of Cuba. 
Nor can we omit mention of those who, although busily engaged 
with other occupations, have found time to do valuable work 
upon the flora of the regions in which they have made their 
homes. Such a one, for instance, as Charles C. Frost, the shoe- 
maker of Brattleboro, who had “more friends among the edu- 
cated people of Europe than in his native village.’’ Another 
such was John Williamson, of Kentucky, who with his own hands 
produced those beautiful etchings now so highly prized by Ameri- 
can fern students. 
