248 



returned to France in 1796 he carried with him an herbarium of 

 North American plants such as had never before been brought 

 together. Plis flora was edited by the famous French botanist, 

 L. C. Richard, and pubhshed at Paris in 1803 ; meanwhile the 

 man whose labors had made this great undertaking possible of 

 accomplishment had lost life on the island of Madagascar. 



The son, Frangois Andre Michaux, revisited America in the 

 years 1801—03, traveling through the then extreme west, Ohio, 

 Kentuck)^, and Tennessee. He afterwards published an elab- 

 orately illustrated history of the forest trees of North America, 

 and several other works relating to our flora; and, at his death, 

 in 1855, he left to the American Philosophical Society a fund for 

 the development of American arboriculture. 



Frederick Pursh was a native of Saxony. He came to America 

 in 1799, and spent nearly twelve years here, engaged much of 

 the time in botanical collecting trips. He traveled principally on 

 foot, and without companionship save perhaps that of a dog. 

 According to his own statements, he was as far to the northeast 

 as New Hampshire and as far south as the mountains of North 

 Carolina, but as far as collateral evidence is concerned there is 

 no proof that he was farther northeast than Vermont or farther 

 south than southern Virginia ; and, unfortunately, the reputation 

 of Frederick Pursh for strict veracity is not of the best. In the 

 course of his travels, however, he made the acquaintance of 

 nearly all the botanists then living in this country, and was per- 

 mitted to examine all the herbaria then existing here ; and, upon 

 his return to Europe, he found in England, where he made his 

 home, several fine herbaria of North American plants. In 

 England, in 18 14, he published his flora of North America, 

 which was the second (and last successful) attempt to compre- 

 hend in a single work descriptions of all known North American 

 flowering plants. A few years later Pursh began the exploration 

 of Canada, with a view to the preparation of a descriptive Cana- 

 dian flora, but before this was accomplished he died, at Montreal. 



Thomas Nuttall was an Englishman who, when he came to 

 America in 1808, at the age of -twenty-two, had no knowledge 

 of botany, and received his first lessons in that science from Pro- 



