Sossrlgn as a Botanist. 15 



and " Prodromus " (1671) are cited by Linnaeus in the 

 "Species Plantarum." Moft of them are Southern plants; 

 and the few decidedly Northern ones which meet us — as 

 Cortius Canadensis, Uvularia perfoliata, Trillium ereclum, 

 Arum triphylhim, .and Adianlum pedatum — are all indi- 

 cated, by Bauhin's phrafe, as from Brazil! 



We have nothing illufbrating the Flora of New England 

 from Cornuti till Joffelyn. In Virginia, Mr. John Banifter, 

 a correfpondent of Ray's, began to botanize probably not 

 long after the middle of the feventeenth century. He was 

 fucceeded by feveral eminent names; as Mark Catesby, 

 F.R.S. (born 1679), John Clayton, Efq. (born 1685), and 

 John Mitchell, M.D., F.R.S., — a contemporary of the 

 other two, — who together gave to the botany of Virginia 

 a diftinguiihed luftre; as did Cadwalader Colden, Efq. 

 (born 1688), — a fele6tion from whofe correfpondence has 

 been lately edited by Dr. Gray, — to that of New York; 

 John Bartram (born 1701), "American botanift to his 

 Britannic Majefty," to that of Pennfylvania; and, fome- 

 what later, Alexander Garden, M.D., F.R.S. (born 1728), 

 to that of South Carolina. Joffelyn himfelf is, indeed, 

 little more than a herbalift; but it is enough that he gets 

 beyond that entirely unfcientific character. He certainly 

 botanized, and made botanical ufe of Gerard and his other 

 authorities. The credit belongs to him of indicating 

 feveral genera as new which were fo, and peculiar to the 

 American Flora. It may at leaft be faid, that, at the time 

 he wrote, there is no reafon to fuppofe that any other 

 perfon knew as much as he did of the botany of New 



