BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH 19 



resident of Lexington, Kentucky, which chance 

 acquaintance, first formed through business relations, 

 afterward ripened into a warm personal and scien- 

 tific friendship. This intimacy had powerful influ- 

 ence in determining the later sequence of events in 

 the life of our author. 



During the summer of 1802, the yellow fever again 

 made its appearance in Philadelphia, and Rafinesque, 

 remembering the sad experience of his father in 

 1793, abandoned the clerkship and the city for the 

 summer, and went into the country. Here he de- 

 voted himself assiduously to the collection and the 

 study of plants, increasing his knowledge of the 

 region by extensive collecting trips which took him 

 far within the borders of the neighboring States. 

 During this summer he was afforded abundant oppor- 

 tunity thus to gratify a taste which had been culti- 

 vated since boyhood ; and we are not surprised to find 

 that, at its conclusion, Rafinesque returned to the 

 drudgery of business with laggard steps, and that 

 the irksome quiet of the office could not satisfactorily 

 replace the joys and pleasures of the woods and fields. 



In 1804, Rafinesque resigned his clerkship to his 

 younger brother, Augustus, and here ended, for a 

 time, all attempt at a business life. He now devoted 

 almost all his time to the collection of the rich flora 

 about Philadelphia and the accessible portions of the 

 States adjoining, having already concluded to return 

 to Europe. How extensive these collections were 

 one will never know ; but, if a judgment be based 

 upon the usual activities of Rafinesque in these mat- 

 ters, he must have secured large numbers of plants. 

 Thus passed the period until January, 1805, when 

 both Rafinesque and his brother, " who would follow 



