BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. XV 



South Pacific exploring expedition had visited various parts of the world ; but it 

 necessarily left out regions of the highest interest to the anthropological investigator, 

 those occupied in early times by the race to which we belong, and by the peoples 

 with which the Aryan race has been most in contact. Desirous to extend his per- 

 sonal observations as far as possible, Dr. Pickering, a year after the return of the 

 expedition, and at his own charges, crossed the Atlantic, visited Egypt, Arabia, the 

 eastern part of Africa, and western-and northern India. Then, in 1848, he published 

 Tiis volume on "The Races of Man, and their Geographical Distribution," being the 

 ninth volume of the Reports of the Wilkes' Exploring Expedition. Some time after- 

 wards, he prepared, for the fifteenth volume of this series, an extensive work on " The 

 Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants." But, in the course of the printing, 

 the appropriations by Congress intermitted or ceased, and the publication of the 

 results of this celebrated expedition was suspended. Publication it could hardly be 

 called ; for Congress printed only one hundred copies, in a sumptuous form, for pre- 

 sentation to States and foreign courts ; and then the several authors were allowed 

 to use the types and copper-plates for printing as many copies as they required and 

 could pay for. Under this privilege, Dr. Pickering brought out in 1854 a small edi- 

 tion of the first part of his essay, — perhaps the most important part, — and in 1876 

 a more bulky portion, " On Plants and Animals in their Wild State," which is largely 

 a transcript of the note-book memoranda as jotted down at the time of observation 

 or collection. 



These are all his publications, excepting some short communications to scientific 

 journals and the proceedings of learned societies to which he belonged. But he is 

 known to have been long and laboriously engaged upon a work for which, under his 

 exhaustive treatment, a lifetime seems hardly sufficient, — a digest, in fact, of the 

 history and migrations of all the animals and plants with which civilized man has had 

 to do from the earliest period traceable by records. When Dr. Pickering died, he 

 was carrying this work through the press at his own individual expense ; had already 

 in type five or six hundred quarto pages ; and it is understood that the remainder, of 

 about equal extent, is ready for the printer. This formidable treatise is entitled 

 " Chronological History of Plants : Man's Record of his own Existence, illustrated 

 through their Names, Uses, and Companionship." Its character is indicated in the 

 brief introductory sentences : — 



" In the distribution of species over the globe, the order of Nature has been 

 obscured. through the interference of man. He has transported animals and plants 

 to countries where they were previously unknown ; extirpating the forest and culti- 

 vating the soil, until at length the face of the globe itself is changed. To ascertain 

 the amount of this interference, displaced species must be distinguished, and traced 

 each to its original home. Detached observations have already been given in the 

 twenty-first and succeeding chapters of my ' Races of Man ; ' but, when such obser- 

 vations are extended to all parts of the globe, the accumulated facts require some 

 plan of arrangement. A list will naturally assume the chronological order, beginning 



