54 SOME AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANISTS 



John Hedwig,' the celebrated muscologist, also 

 named a genus of mosses Bartramta, while Lind- 

 ley gives this and another, on which it was pro- 

 posed to found a new genus ; but the latter was 

 ultimately referred to the Triumfetta of Plumier 

 and Linnaeus.* (Darlington.) 



In Paxton's Botanical Dictionary' 1840, he 

 describes Hedwig's Bartramia as " an elegant 

 genus of mosses, remarkable for their green 

 leaves and spherical capsules. The genus ap- 

 proaches nearly to Bryum, but differs in almost 

 every species having spherical capsules, and the 

 sixteen broad segments of the inner peristoijie, 

 instead of being entire, or only perforated, are 

 cleft like the teeth of a Dicranum." 



He employed much of his time travelling 

 through the different provinces of North Amer- 

 ica subject to England. " Neither dangers nor 

 difficulties impeded or confined his researches 

 after objects in natural history. The summits of 

 our highest mountains were ascended and ex- 

 plored by him. The lakes Ontario, Iroquois and 

 George .... the shores and sources of the 

 great rivers were visited by him at an early period 

 — when it was truly a perilous undertaking to 

 travel in the territories, or even on the frontiers 

 of the Aborigines." 



'John Hedwig, 1730-1799. 



* Joseph G. Gaetner, M. D., 1732-1791. 



"Joseph Paxton, 1801-1865. 



