Floristic work. — Prairies-Rocky Mts. 19 
Saratoga and Lake Champlain reached Montreal and Quebec which he left 
subsequently to visit the interior along the Saguenay and lakes St. John and 
Mistassini; thence towards Hudson Bay, 
FREDERICK PURSH under the patronage of BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON set out 
early in ı805 for the mountains and western territory of the southern states 
beginning at Maryland and extending to the Carolinas returning late in the 
season through the lower country along the sea-coast to Philadelphia. The 
following season, he went north through Pennsylvania thence to Onondaga 
and Oswego down the Mohawk Valley to Saratoga and north to the upper 
part of Lake Champlain, the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire return- 
ing by the seacoast '). 
“"F. Anpr£ MICHAUX to collect information found it necessary to visit dif- 
ferent parts of the United States. Beginning with Maine, he traveled over all 
the Atlantic states making five excursions into the interior parts of the country. 
The first along the rivers Kennebec and Sandy; the second from Boston to 
Lake Champlain crossing the states of New Hampshire and Vermont; the 
third from New York to Lakes Ontario and Erie; the fourth from Philadelphia 
to the borders of the rivers Monongahela, Alleghany and Ohio and the fifth 
from Charlestown to the sources of the Savannah and Oconee. In another 
journey described in Voyage a l’Ouest des Monts Alleghanys (Paris 1804). 
MicHAuX left Charlestown from New York presumably travelling by the sea 
coast through Raleigh, Richmond, Washington and Philadelphia to New York. 
From New York returning by Philadelphia, he left for the west by way of 
Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, W. Va., Chillicothe, Ohio, through Kentucky 
to Nashville, passing through eastern Tennessee, mountainous North Carolina 
and across South Carolina on his way to Charlestown. This scientific journey 
of the younger Michaux in 1801 across the mountains into the Mississippi 
and Ohio valleys prepared the way for the, subsequent explorations of the 
great territory extending westward to the Rocky Mountains. 
Beyond the Mississippi, explored by FATHER MARQUETTE, all that was 
really well known was the territory in the immediate neighborhood of the 
little French villages at the mouth of the Missouri River. The headwaters of 
the Missouri were absolutely unknown. The Rocky mountains were not known 
to exist. The United States government undertook the task of exploration. 
The first of these expeditions was planned by JEFFERSON and authorized by 
the Congress. The explorers Captain MERIWETHER LEWIS and Lieutenant 
WILLIAM CLARK were chosen as leaders and were carefully instructed to report 
upon the geography, physical characteristics, botany and zoology of the region 
traversed. The young officers started on their trip from St. Louis ın 1804 
accompanied by twenty seven men. They made their way through the State 
of Missouri, From the Little Missouri at the head of the Missouri proper 
the explorers passed the plains and came to the mountains which they crossed 
1) Pursh F., Flora Americae Septentrionalis I 1814: ix. : 
2 
