PREFACE» 
m- 
Sfc. Bartholomew's, from which I returned in the au- 
tumn of 1811 in a perfect state of recovered health. 
The vessel in which I returned landed at the town of 
Wiscasset in the province of Main. This being a coun- 
try I had never visited before, I examined its vegetation 
with all possible attention ; and although the season was 
too far advanced for making any new discoveries,, I 
gained considerable information respecting the geogra- 
phy of plants, a point I always considered highly in- 
teresting to the science. During my journey towards 
New York; I had an opportunity of visiting Professor 
Peck of Cambridge College near Boston, and seeing his 
highly interesting collection of plants, collected on a 
tour to the alpine regions of the White Hills of New 
Hampshire. As the season was too far advanced when 
I was in that country to suffer me to think of ascending 
those mountains, this collection was highly gratifying 
to me. 
On my return to New York, I found things in a situ- 
ation very unfavourable to the publication of scientific 
works, the public mind being then in agitation about a 
war with Great Britain. I therefore determined to take 
all my materials to England, where I conceived I 
should not only have the advantage of consulting the 
most celebrated collections and libraries, but also meet 
with that encouragement and support so necessary to 
works of science, and so generally bestowed upon them 
there. 
These expectations I found amply realized on my ar- 
rival in London. I had very soon the pleasure of form- 
ing a circle of acquaintance among those attached to the 
science of Botany, by whom I was gradually introduced 
