90 



sier, Squibb, Lewis, and Walter; from Sweden, Professor 

 Kalm, a pupil of Linnseus and collector for hiui ; from Ger- 

 many, Fursling and Pursh ; France has sent us Michaux 

 and Volney, and Prussia, Baron Humboldt and King. To 

 these indeed many other names might be added ; but among 

 them all there is not one of our own countrymen — no one 

 who has received our patronage or encouragement. If you 

 are unwilling to engage a botanist for this purpose, let eve- 

 ry member who is at all acquainted with the subject, en- 

 gage to occupy himself in multiplying the number of local 

 Floras ; and we may thus, perhaps, obtain the vegetable 

 contents of the state. Should this plan be adopted, each in- 

 dividual engaging should undertake to survey a district con- 

 tiguous to his residence, with special and minute investiga- 

 tion. The nomenclature and classification of the vegetable 

 tribes are now reduced to such a systematic form, that any 

 discovery may be registered with the greatest ease and pre- 

 cision. If this method should be pursued with industry 

 and skill, we might soon reverse, in regard to this region of 

 our country, the position of the poet, and say 



Not " many a flower is born to blush unseen, 

 And waste its sweetness on the desert air." 



