762 Historical Sketch of the Science of Botany [December, 
the Government about an expedition across the continent, but 
without any result. Indeed, the Union, with her four millions of 
inhabitants, was not a rich country at that time; she could not 
support scientific pursuits with the same liberality as she, in our 
times, does with her forty millions. And yet, ten years after- 
wards, an expedition was sent out under the command of Meri- 
wether Lewis and Daniel Clark, the first that ever crossed the 
continent. 
Before this expedition, only two botanists had visited the 
Pacific coast, Haenke and Menzies. 
Thaddaeus Haenke (1761-1817), botanist with the Spanish ex- 
pedition under Malaspina, collected about nine thousand species, of 
which a small part were from Northern California, in 1789. The 
herbarium is in the National Museum of Bohemia. Haenke did 
not return to Europe, but settled at Cochabamba, in Bolivia, 
where he died, 1817. Presl published the description of a part 
of his collections, under the title: Reliquia Haenkeane; 2 vols., 
with 72 plates. Here, by-the-by, may be corrected a geographi- 
cal error, such as may often be found in learned writings. In 
Kunth’s Enumeratio, vol 111, page 361, under Juncus falcatus, we 
read: a Haenke lectus prope Monte Real (Canada), But Haenke 
was never in Canada, and it is meant Monterey, in California. 
Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), a Scotchman, surgeon in the 
British marine, came first, 1786, to the North-west coast, and 
made there some collections. Afterwards, he took part in the 
famous expedition under the command of Vancouver (1 791-95); 
and visited, several times, San Francisco, Monterey and Nutka 
Sound, on Vancouver Island. His collections are incorporated in 
the herbarium of the Edinburg Botanical Society, and, ane in 
Hooker’s herbarium. 
This was all that was known of the botany of the jorike 
Pacific coast, when the first American exploring expedition 
started from St. Louis, on the 14th of May, 1804. The party 
ascended the Missouri in keel-boats, cordeled by hand; wintered 
at Fort Mandan; crossed, in the next season, the Rocky moun- 
tains (at the Bitit mountains), and descended the Lewis fork 
and the Columbia river. The botanical collection from the 
Rocky mountains was, unfortunately, lost; only one hundred and : 
=- fifty species, collected during the rapid return-march, were nr. o 
o E were described nd Frederick Pursh. Sie igi 
