THE HERB DOCTOR 49 



his works on conchology were republished in 1864, and 

 what was valuable in his researches received the attention 

 of Prof. Asa Gray. He lived for a time at Robert Owen's 

 communistic settlement at New Harmony, Ind. 



He was a fanciful man, of a child nature, but that eye 

 turned for one thing rendered the world great service as 

 a pioneer botanist in America. Laughed at though he was, 

 Rafinesque was a hero of science. Yet no man seems to 

 know the place of his grave. 



THE HERB DOCTOR 



Both Audubon and Wilson liked to meet native natu- 

 ralists. Let us tell you a story of Wilson. 



Some miles from a forest inn there dwelt a hermit. 

 He had turned away from the world to find relief from the 

 disappointments of a too sensitive nature in the voices of 

 the solitudes. He seems to have believed what was good 

 in all the plans of nature, and he had left mankind in 

 order to study the beneficence of God among the animals, 

 birds, and insects. 



They called him the Solitary. 



He lived in a hut made by his own hands. It was near 

 the mouth oi a cave to which he ^could retire, and in it 

 there were to be heard echoes loud and long. 



He was a philosopher. He came out of the woods a 

 few times a year to the tavern store to purchase a few nec- 

 essary things. Wilson, the gentle ornithologist, heard of 



