122 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 



one of the most enterprising, indefatigable, and persevering men 

 that ever embarked in the cause of botany and natural science. 



He died at Sloane Square, April 26. 1811, in his 60th year, 

 leaving his wife, who died a few years afterwards, and two sons; 

 John, the eldest, who had been his companion in all his latter 

 voyages to America and Russia, and who is now a respectable 

 nurseryman at Ramsgate, and James Thomas, also living. 



Of John Lyon, another botanical collector, very little is known. 

 He is said to have been a natural son of William Lyon, Esq., 

 of Gillogie, Forfarshire, who was afterwards a merchant in Lon- 

 don. When he went to America is uncertain ; Pursh, who had 

 the management of the gardens of William Hamilton, Esq., at 

 Woodlands, near Philadelphia, informs us that, when he resigned, 

 in 1802, Lyon succeeded him, and remained there till 1805. 



During this period Lyon, we are told by the Messrs. Lod- 

 diges, sent home several plants and seeds ; and the year after he 

 left Mr. Hamilton's service (1806), he brought an extensive 

 collection to England ; the plants composing which were partly 

 disposed of by private contract, but were chiefly sold by 

 auction in a garden at Parsons' Green, Fulham. The catalogue 

 of these plants fills 34 closely printed pages, it enumerates 

 550 lots, and the sale occupied four days. Several of the lots 

 were composed of large quantities of one-year-old seedlings in 

 pots,* and ten lots at the end of the sale consisted each of 50 

 different sorts of seeds. This, it is believed, was by far the 

 greatest collection of American trees and shrubs ever brought 

 to England at onetime, by one individual. It contained scarcely 

 any herbaceous plants ; and the trees and shrubs were chiefly 

 such as had been already introduced. In the Hortus Kewensis 

 fourteen new plants are mentioned as having been introduced 

 by Lyon in 1806, which, doubtless, formed part of the import- 

 ation of that year. 



Mr. Lyon appears to have soon after gone out again, and 

 explored the southern states of North America ; viz., the Caro- 

 linas, Georgia, and Florida; and, in 1811 and 1812, he again 

 brought over a large collection of plants in cases, which arrived 

 in very fine condition, and were disposed of by public auction at 

 Chelsea. Six plants are mentioned in the Hortus Kewensis as 

 having been introduced by Lyon during these years. 



Mr. Nuttall separated some of the species of Andromeda, and 

 formed of them a new genus, which he named LycWtf. " To 

 commemorate the name of the late Mr. John Lyon, an inde- 

 fatigable collector of North American plants, who fell a victim 

 to a dangerous epidemic amidst those savage and romantic 

 mountains which had so often been the theatre of his labours." 

 (Gen, of N. American Plants, Boston, 8vo, 1820, 1. p. 266.) 

 The genus was, however, named before Mr. Lyon's death, as 



