2 4 
39r. IHattasscfj Cutler. 
expected, that, in this beginning, numerous miftakes mould 
not be made. It could not poffibly have been otherwife. 
There is ftill evidence enough of the author's genius, 
which perhaps needed only opportunity and encourage- 
ment to anticipate a part of what botany now owes to a 
Nuttall, a Torrey, and a Gray. The " Account " was 
favorably received by other botanifts of the time, both in 
this country and abroad. In a letter of Muhlenberg to 
Cutler, dated 9th February, 1791, the former fays, " Not 
till a few months ago, I was favored with the firft volume 
of the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, printed at Bofton, 1785. Amongft other valua- 
ble pieces, I found your f Account of Indigenous Vegeta- 
bles, botanically arranged;' with which I was infinitely 
pleafed, as this was the firft work that gives a fyftematical 
account of New-England plants. Being a great friend to 
botany, and having ftudied it in my leifure-hours upwards 
of fourteen years in Pennfylvania, I know the difficulty of 
arranging the American plants according to the Linnean 
fyftem ; and I was always eager to hear of fome gentleman 1 
engaged in fimilar refearches, that, by joining hands, we 
might do fomething towards enlarging American Bota- 
ny. . . . This is the reafon why I intrude upon your leifure- 
hours, and crave for your acquaintance and friendfhip." 1 
Drs. Withering and Stokes, of England, were other cor- 
refpondents of Cutler, and furnifhed him with important 
obfervations upon his printed Memoir, befides fpecimens; 
Mss. Cutler, penes me. 
