Garden Botany. 53 



to patronize. Accordingly we find botanic gardens and pro- 

 fessorships attached to the American universities, and expe- 

 ditions fitted out for the purpose of making scientific disco- 

 veries. At one time the country was chiefly known by the 

 investigations of Europeans; but now there are the native 

 names of Hosack, Elliot, Nuttall, Torrey, Barton, Bigelow, 

 and others, all of which deserve honourable mention for their 

 exertions in the protection or prosecution of native botanical 

 investigations, and some of whom are held in high estimation 

 even among Europeans. There is also a horticultural society 

 established at New York. 



In Great Britain, the aid which has been given to botanical 

 pursuits by the government, and especially by the wealth and 

 boundless commercial resources of private persons, has been 

 such as to raise the gardens of England to a far higher state 

 of perfection than those of any other part of Europe. We 

 cannot say that the few expeditions undertaken with the im- 

 mediate patronage of the British government have produced 

 such generally beneficial results, as some of those carried into 

 effect by France or Spain ; but this has happened rather from 

 contingent circumstances than from any thing ill-arranged in 

 the voyages themselves. The mission of the Forsters to the 

 South Seas with Captain Cook produced extensive advantages, 

 of which the public is sufficiently informed. The celebrated 

 expedition round the world of Sir Joseph Banks, with Solan- 

 der, and an unheard-of equipment for the investigation of 

 every branch of knowledge, undertaken in Cook's second voy- 

 age, was, in every sense, a private act of munificence and per- 

 sonal exertion like which there are few instances upon record. 

 Nor were the scientific results of that famous expedition less 

 brilliant than the expectations which were formed of them. 

 To botany it may almost be said to have given a new creation, 

 by the multitude of unheard-of plants which were then, for the 

 first time, made known. In the year 1802, a highly distin- 

 guished botanist, and no less skilful botanical draughtsman 

 were appointed to accompany the expedition under Captain 

 Flinders, to explore the coasts of New South Wales. How 

 admirably the objects of this enterprize were carried into effect, 

 we are informed not only by the official history of the voyage, 

 but also by the extensive benefits which have accrued from it 

 to the public. A more splendid collection of botanical trea- 

 sures was never formed under any circumstances, the port- 

 folios of drawings were of inestimable value, and the materials 

 of all kinds which were collected for an account of the vegeta- 

 tion of Australasia, were as near perfection as any thing human 

 could be. But, alas ! the liberal patronage which had been 



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