— 2 — 
plants which he discovered in the district, contributed to the American 
Journal of Science and the Arts, in 1842. His further observations and 
notes were communicated to friends. As soon as the flowering plants of his 
district ceased to afford him novelty he turned to the mosses, in which he 
found abundant scientific occupation of a kind well suited to his bent for 
patient and close observation, scrupulous accuracy, and nice distinction and 
discrimination. 
His first publication in his chosen department was the “ Musci Alleg- 
haniensis,” accompanied by the specimens themselves of Mosses and 
Hepaticae collected in a botanical expedition through the Alleghany Moun- 
tains from Maryland to Georgia in the summer of 1843, Asa Gray being his 
companion. In 1846 Mr. Sullivant communicated to the American Academy 
the first part, and in 1849 the second part of his “Contributions to the Bry- 
ology and Hepaticology of North America/’ which appeared, one in the 
third, the other in the fourth volume (new series) of the Academy’s Memoirs, 
each with five plates from the author’s own admirable drawings. These 
plates were engraved at his own expense, and were generously given to the 
Academy. When the second edition of Gray’s “ Manual of the Botany of 
the Northern United States” was in preparation, Mr. Sullivant was asked 
to contribute to it a compendious account of the Musci and Hepaticae of the 
region; which he did in the space of about one hundred pages, generously 
adding at his sole charge eight copper plates crowded with illustrations of 
the details of the genera, thus, enhancing vastly the value of his friend’s 
work and laying a foundation for the general study of bryology in the 
United States which then and thus began. 
So excellent are these illustrations, both in plan and execution, that 
Schimper, then the leading bryologist of the Old World and a most compe- 
tent judge since he has published hundreds of figures in his “ Bryologia 
Europeae,” not only adopted the same plan in his Synopsis of the European 
Mosses but also the very figures themselves (a few of which, however, ori- 
ginally his own), whenever they would serve his purpose, as was the case 
with most of them. A separate edition was published of this portion of the 
Manual, under the title of “The Musci and Hepaticae of the United States, 
east of the Mississippi River” (New York, 1856, imperial octavo) upon thick 
paper and with proof impressions directly from the copper plates. This 
exquisite volume was placed on sale at far less than cost, and copies are now 
of great rarity and value. It was with regret that the author of the Manual 
omitted this cryptogamic portion from the ensuing editions and only with 
the understanding that a separate “Species Muscorum ” or Manual for 
the Mosses of the whole United States should replace it. This most need- 
ful work Mr. Sullivant was just about to prepare for the press, when death 
came to close his career. His work was, however, completed by his friends, 
Leo Lesquereux and Thomas P. James, and is the Manual of our daily use. 
For an account of his various Exsiccati reference can be made to the 
leones Supplement Sketch by Asa Gray. 
The “leones Muscorum,” however, is Mr. Sullivant’s crowning work, 
