35 



this tribe of plants, in comparison with many 

 parts of our country to the north and the 

 west. These, together with those noticed 

 by Muhlenberg, and others since detected, 

 will increase the sum of our native lichens 

 already known, to about four hundred spe- 

 cies. In the immense division of the Fungi^ 

 although from the paucity of laborers who 

 have undertaken to explore the mycological 

 riches of our country, the impossibility of 

 procuring foreign specimens for collation 

 and comparison, or good instruments and 

 the requisite books, it might almost be a 

 subject of despair to the friends of botany. 

 It is, however, creditable to our scientific 

 character, that of the comparatively little 

 that has been done, our countrymen have 

 contributed so large a share. Muhlenberg, 

 in his Catalogus plantarum Am, Sept. hucusque 

 cognitarum^ &c. has enumerated two hundred 

 and five species, beside a number nondum 

 determinatae. His Herbarium containing all 

 his collections of this family capable of be- 

 ing preserved, is now in the possession of 

 the American Philosophical Society at Phi« 

 ladelphia. 



