28 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
plates are submitted to the public, marks, in a distinct 
manner, both the meritorious character of the man, 
and the style of his Latin composition : 
* u Si quis severior tabularum nostravum contempt- 
tor , nonnulla in vis , nee fortasse pauca , desideraverit — 
eum, ne prirna sese artis excusorise tirocinia , unico 
scientise amove duce ct auspice tentata , coram habere 
obliviscatur , rogatum velimus 
One might hazard the opinion, that even in more re¬ 
cent works of natural history, many far less creditable 
specimens of the same art have found place, without be¬ 
ing able to urge the apology that they were the first 
efforts of a tiro, and without the commendatory plea 
that the sole love of science had guided and ushered 
them into public view. 
In his paper on the genus Viola, Mr. Schweinitz 
makes the interesting remark, that of all the Ame¬ 
rican species of violet, thirty or more in number, not 
one has an identical counterpart in any European spe¬ 
cies ; that not more than one of the latter appears to 
have become naturalized in America; and that while 
Europe possesses about twenty species of this interest¬ 
ing genus, America has, as above stated, already num¬ 
bered thirty, and probably may yet add others from fu¬ 
ture exploration of her extensive northern regions. 
In his descriptions of new American species of the genus 
Spheric, contained in the fifth volume of the Journal of 
the Academy, Mr. Schweinitz states, that of 528 species 
which Dr. Fries describes, 330 had been observed by 
