^"ptembeMM™'}    Early  Botanical  and  Herb  Gardens.  419 
were,  as  yet,  comparatively  new,  and  the  drug  was  attracting  con- 
siderable attention  abroad  as  a  new  remedy. 
Letters  from  William  Hamilton  to  Humphrey  Marshall  also  con- 
tain requests  for  roots  and  seeds  of  medicinal  plants.  In  one  of 
these  letters  Hamilton  asks  for  such  well-known  medicinal  plants  as 
Polygala  Senega,  Spigelia  Marylandica,  calycanthus  and  podo- 
phyllum. 
The  garden  that  had  been  established  by  William  Hamilton,  who 
was  a  retired  Philadelphia  merchant,  was  one  of  considerable  pre- 
tension. It  was  connected  with  his  elegant  residence,  the  Wood- 
lands, on  the  Schuylkill,  near  Philadelphia.  This  garden  was,  in 
later  years,  conducted  by  botanists  of  more  than  local  reputation. 
The  first  of  these,  John  Lyons,  was  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  and  came 
to  America  about  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  While 
in  charge  of  the  garden  at  the  Woodlands,  Lyons  had  an  extensive 
correspondence  with  botanists  and  gardeners  in  England  and  was 
instrumental  in  introducing  a  number  of  American  plants  into 
foreign  gardens.    Lyons  died  at  Asheville,  N.  C,  in  1818. 
His  successor,  at  the  Woodlands,  was  Frederick  Pursh,  of  German 
origin  but  born  at  Tobolsk,  in  Siberia,  in  1774.  He  was  educated  at 
Dresden  and  came  to  America  in  1799. 
In  1807  Pursh  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Elgin  Botanical  Gar- 
dens in  New  York.  He  died  in  Montreal,  Canada,  June  11,  1820. 
His  best  known  work  was  that  done  in  connection  with  the  collec- 
tion of  plants  gathered  by  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  of  1804- 
1806,  which  forms  a  large  and  important  portion  of  his  description 
of  the  plants  of  North  America,  published  in  18 14. 
Dr.  Cadwalader  Colden,  one  of  the  more  prominent  medical  prac- 
titioners of  the  Colonial  period,  also  devoted  much  of  his  leisure  to 
the  study  of  botany.  He  had  quite  an  extensive  correspondence  on 
botanical  subjects  with  the  leading  botanists  of  Europe. 
Dr.  Colden  was  born  in  Dunce,  Scotland,  February  17,  1688. 
He  graduated  from  the  academic  department  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh  in  1705,  and  then  studied  medicine.  He  came  to  Phil- 
adelphia in  1 7 10,  and  established  himself  in  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession, but  returned  to  England  in  17 1 5 ,  where  he  married  a  young 
lady  of  Scotch  parentage,  by  the  name  of  Christie,  with  whom  he 
again  returned  to  America  in  17 16. 
About  1 71 8  Dr.  Colden  removed  from  Philadelphia  to  New  York f 
