INTRODUCTION. 
7 
the month of May. Others of the Genera Gen- 
tiana , Knhnia , Eclipta , Spiranthes , As/cr, 
Solidago, with many radiate Genera, are quite 
late and autumnal, found chiefly in October : 
therefore they had escaped the notice of our 
Botanists, who chiefly botanize or travel in 
summer. 
Other plants are confined to Mountains, or 
Pinelands, or Western Glades, or deep 
Swamps, which must be visited by turns, if 
we wish to collect them. I have sometimes 
looked in vain for years for some particular 
plants, at the very places where they are known 
to grow, because I was not in the due season : 
this happens to all Botanists, and it is very im- 
portant for collectors to know the precise epoch 
of blooming and seeding. What escapes one 
of them may be met by another a little earlier 
or later. There are besides years when some 
plants bloom more abundantly, and others like 
the Miegia , Enslenia , &, c. only bloom once in 
many years. 
I came to North America in 1802, and tra- 
velled chiefly on foot until 1804, over New Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and 
Virginia, from the Juniata to the Sea Shore, 
and from the Alleghany Mountains beyond 
Easton, to the Potomac beyond Washington 
and Alexandria. Some of the results of my 
discoveries in those three years of early travels 
were published in 1808. 
In 1805 I left America for Europe, where 1 
remained till 1815. On my return to this con- 
tinent in that year, I was shipwrecked on the 
shores of Connecticut, and lost ail my former 
Herbals and collections, both American and 
European 
