DELVING INTO A PREHISTORIC RECORD 
him in his work at the local academy of sciences. The 
name of that man was Leo Lesquereux. In 1848, the 
Academy of Neuchatel passed out of existence and 
Lesquereux followed Agassiz to America. Here he 
introduced the study of fossil plants and became the 
father of paleobotany in the United States. He had been 
bom in Neuchatel in 1806 and was, therefore, forty-two 
years old when he came to this country, with his wife and 
five children, as a steerage passenger, arriving in Boston 
in September 1848. 
Lesquereux started with two severe handicaps. He was 
totally deaf and he had no money. Nevertheless 
America gave him the opportunity of his life. His first 
work in this country was done for Professor Agassiz. 
This consisted in working up and preparing for publi¬ 
cation the data on the notable collection of plants made 
by Agassiz on his Lake Superior expedition. The report 
was published before the end of 1848. 
At the close of the same year, he moved on to Colum¬ 
bus, Ohio, where he was to make his home for the 
remainder of his life. Lesquereux was called there by 
Mr. William S. Sullivant, a gentleman of large fortune, 
who was at that time the head of American bryologists, 
devoting his time and means to the science of mosses. 
Mr. Sullivant called Lesquereux to his aid, employed him 
15 
