XIV 
PREFACE, 
While I was engaged in arranging my materials for 
this publication, I was called upon to take the manage- 
ment of the Botanic Garden at New York, which had 
been originally established by the arduous zeal and ex- 
ertions of Dr. David Hosack, Professor of Botany, &c. 
as his private property, but has lately been bought by 
the Government of the State of New York for the public 
service. As this employment opened a further prospect 
to me of increasing my knowledge of the plants of that 
country, I willingly dropped the idea of my intended pub- 
lication for that time, and in 1807 took charge of that 
establishment. 
Here I again endeavoured to pay the utmost attention 
to the collection of American plants, as the establish- 
ment was principally intended for that purpose. In this 
I was supported by my numerous botanical connections 
and friends, among whonf I must particularly mention 
John Le Conte, Esq. of Georgia., whose unremitting ex- 
ertions added considerably to the collection, particularly 
of plants from the Southern States. 
The additions to my former stock of materials for a 
Flora were now considerable, and in conjunction with 
Dr. D. Hosack I had engaged to publish a periodical 
work, with coloured plates, all taken from living plants, 
and if possible from native specimens, on a plan similar 
to that of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine ; for which a 
great number of drawings were actually prepared. But 
at this period I was attacked by a serious and obstinate 
intermitting fever, which made a change of air and cli ’ 
mate absolutely necessary to me ; I therefore, in 1810, 
took a voyage to the West Indies, visiting the islands of 
Barbadoes, Martinique, Dominique, Guadaloupe, and 
