successive biographers, and Grosart, his latest and most enthusiastic admirer, seemed to have told us all we were likely to learn of the man. It was, therefore, with peculiar pleasure that the present writer acquired, from Miss Malvina Lawson, daughter of Wilson's famous engraver, an autograph letter of Wilson's, which was found, on comparison with the documents in Ord's "Life," and in Grosart, to have never been published correctly, or in full. It is that one which, dated Pittsburgh, February 22, 1810, gives an account of Wilson's boat voyage down the Ohio. It is printed verbatim, along with certain letters of George Ord's and Prince Bonaparte's, in the Penn Monthly for June, 1879. The writer also received, from the same source, an excellent drawing, never published, of the schoolhouse, near Gray's Ferry, where Wilson taught; and which he would make over to any enterprising publisher who would have it properly engraved.

This slight sketch need not be left without allusion to the "sparrow literature" of the year—a curious mass of raw and not over-nice material, which will, nevertheless, be not without its “final cause,” if it contributes to the very desirable settlement of the vexed question of the European sparrow in America.

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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SCIENCE OF BOTANY IN NORTH AMERICA FROM 1840 TO 1858.

BY FREDERICK BRENDEL.

[Continued from p. 771, Vol. XIII, American Naturalist.]

T the time when Torrey and Gray commenced their first work

AT

on the Flora of our continent north of Mexico, Sir William Jackson Hooker, the celebrated English botanist, had finished his great work on the Flora of British America, two volumes, in quarto, with 238 plates, London, 1833-1840. But, before we proceed farther, we have to review the early history of botany in the most northern and Arctic regions of North America.

Hans Egede, a Danish missionary, was, from 1721 to 1736, in Greenland. After his return to Denmark, he published, in 1741 a description of that country. He describes, vaguely, some plants, with some drawings on one plate, but it is rather difficult to make out what the drawings mean. Afterwards his son, P. Egede, made some botanical collections, which, as well as those of Gieseke, who published a Flora Groenlandica, 1816, in Brewster's Edinburg Encyclopædia, and those of Wormskiold, are preserved in the herbaria of Hornemann and M. Vahl.

Some Greenland plants were described, 1770, by Rottboell, professor in Copenhagen, and, in the same year a history of Greenland was published by the missionary Cranz; the plants in it were described by Schreber.

The largest collections were made in this century by Jens Vahl, the librarian of the botanical garden in Copenhagen, who traveled nine years in Greenland, and probably there will not many new discoveries be made. J. Lange's catalogue of Greenland plants (in Rink's work on Greenland, 1857), contains 320 species in 52 orders.

A list of plants collected on the coast of Baffin's bay was published by Robert Brown, in 1819, and by the same a "Chloris Melvilleana," 1823, containing 131 species, of which 80 are phenogamous, collected at different times by Sabine, Edwards, Ross, Parry, Fisher and Beverley.

Scoresby's collection in East Greenland, was described by Hooker in 1823, and that of Sabine in 1824.

John Richardson, born in Scotland, 1787 (died 1865), was the naturalist of the expedition from the shores of Hudson's bay to the Polar sea, 1823, under the command of Franklin. This expedition started from York Factory, on Hudson's bay, and proceeded via Cumberland House, Carlton House, Fort Chippeway, on the Athabaska lake, Fort Providence, on the Slave lake, and Fort Enterprise, 65° N. latitude, to the Coppermine river, then along the coast eastward to Cape Turnagain, the Hood river up to Fort Enterprise, to Norway House, on the Winnipeg lake, and back to York Factory. The collection of plants contained 700 species, and was published by Richardson in the botanical appendix to Franklin's Narrative, printed 1823.

The narrative of the discoveries on the north coast of America, by Simpson and Dease, in 1837, published in 1843, contains a catalogue of plants examined by Sir William Hooker, but nothing new; all the species were already collected by Richardson.

Berthold Seemann (born in Hanover, 1825), the naturalist on board of H. M. S. Herald, under the command of Captain H. Kellet, during the years 1845-1851, described, in a letter addressed to Sir William Hooker (in Journal of Botany), the arctic Flora of Kotzebue Sound, and published, 1852-1857, the botany of the expedition, the first part of which contains the Flora of Western Esquimaux land.

Bachelot de la Pyiaie, a French botanist, explored, in 1819 and

1820, Newfoundland and the little islands of Miquelon and St. Pierre. He published, 1829, Flore de l'isle de Terre Neuve, which was not finished, and contains only a description of cryptogamous plants.

A Flora of Labrador was compiled by E. Meyer, professor of botany in Koenigsberg, in 1830, from a small collection by the missionary Herzberg, and a number of species made known by Schrank, professor of botany in Munich. These plants were collected by a Danish missionary, Kohlmeister, probably the same that Pursh calls Colmaster in his Flora, and the plants of which he found in the herbaria of Dickson and Banks. The number of all the species of Labrador known at that time, was 198, of which 30 are cryptogamous.

The north-west coast was visited, 1838, by the expedition of H. M. S. Sulphur, under the command of Sir Edward Belcher. This expedition explored the Pacific during the years 1836-1842. The botanist was Mr. Barclay, in the service of the Kew garden, assisted by the surgeon Hinds and Dr. Sinclair. The parts visited were Prince William's sound, Port Mulgrave, both under 60° N. L., Sitka, Nutka sound, San Francisco, Sacramento river and Monterey in California. The botanical collections were described by George Bentham, in "Botany of the voyage of H. M. S. Sulphur," 1844, with 60 plates.

The U. S. Naval exploring expedition, under the command of Charles Wilkes, which crossed the Pacific during the years 1838 to 1842, in every direction, arrived, 1841, in Oregon. Charles Pickering was collector on this expedition. The Columbia river up to Walla Walla, and the Willamette valley were examined: afterwards the Sacramento river down to San Francisco. In Oregon were collected 1218 species, and 519 in Northern California; the whole collection of this expedition amounting to 9600 species, were examined. The phanerogamous plants were described by Dr. Torrey; the ferns of the expedition, by Dr. Brackenridge; the mosses by Mr. Sullivant; and the lower cryptogams by other botanists.

N. J. Andersson, a Swedish botanist, naturalist of the voyage around the world of the Swedish frigate Eugenie, collected in 1852, in California; he took particular notice of the willows, and in 1858, he published in Proceedings of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a "Synopsis of North American Willows," of which he

enumerates fifty-nine species, a number of which he degraded to the rank of sub-species in his Monographia Salicum, 1863. He is the author of the genus Salix in Decandolle's Prodromus.

Besides the Rocky mountains and California, another large field opened for exact exploration. The Mexican war and the acquisition of new territories caused a long series of expeditions to California and those tracts of land which form with West Texas the North Mexican botanical province.

In June, 1842, Lieut. Fremont set out from the mouth of the Kansas river, followed that river about one hundred miles, passed over to the Platte river, traveled up the river to the junction of the north and south fork, where the party divided, one part following the north fork to Fort Laramie, the other proceeding along the south fork to Fort St. Vrain, and from there to Fort Laramie. Then the expedition followed the north fork and the Sweetwater river up to South Pass, and the Wind River mountains, the highest peak of which, afterwards called Fremont's Peak, he ascended. Returning, the Platte river was followed to its mouth. The collection of plants, consisting of 352 species, contained fifteen new ones, described by Torrey.

The collections of Fremont's second expedition, during the years 1843 and 1844, which extended to Oregon and California, were greatly damaged, so that in many instances it was extremely difficult to determine the plants. Torrey furnished the description of a few new genera and species, which, with four plates, was published in App. C. to Fremont's Report. One of these new genera he named Fremontia, but this name was afterwards withdrawn, as Nees had already described the plant under the name Sarcobatus, and Fremont's name was transferred to another new Californian genus of the order of Sterculiaceæ.

Two other expeditions were undertaken by Fremont in 18451846 and 1848, extending to California. Large collections were made again, but the greater part of them were destroyed by the same mishaps. Some of the new genera that were saved for examination were described and published in 1850, by Professor Torrey in the Smithsonion Contributions, as "Plantæ Fremontianæ," with ten beautiful plates.

Emory's military expedition traversed in June and July, 1846, the plains from Fort Leavenworth to the bend of the Arkansas, followed this river to the Pawnee fork, crossed the Raton moun

tains (7000 feet) and the ridge between the Canadian river and Rio Grande to Santa Fé; then again the dividing ridge (6000 feet) between the Rio Grande and Gila, followed the latter to the Colorado of the West, and arrived at St. Diego. The botanical collections (about 200 species) were examined by Torrey, the Cactaceæ by Dr. Engelmann, and published in Appendix 2 of Emory's Report. A small number of plants was collected by Lieut. Abert, amongst which was nothing new.

Dr. A. Wislizenus, born in Germany, 1810, left St. Louis in the spring of 1846, with the intention of traveling in North Mexico and Upper California. He undertook the journey at his own expense, and war was not yet declared, when he arrived at Chihuahua; but there he was arrested as a spy, and transported to Cosihuirachi, at which place he was left in a "passive" condition; that means as to his free will to leave; for, as a collector, he was very active on this rich field, where he collected so many species not found before. Six months afterwards, Colonel Doniphan's troops occupied that part of the country, and Wislizenus accepted a situation in the medical department of the American army, and, instead of going westward as he first intended, he followed the army to Monterey, and returned via Matamoras to the States. He collected a large number of plants. In an Appendix to the "Memoir of a tour to North Mexico in 1846 and 1847, by A. Wislizenus, M. D., printed for the use of the Senate of U. S.,” the botany of the explored country is described by Dr. Engelmann. Amongst the new species were over thirty new species of Cactus.

West Texas was extensively explored since 1835, when Ferdinand Lindheimer (born in Germany, 1802), settled at New Braunfels, where he lives yet. His large collections were named and described by Gray and Engelmann, in Boston Journal of Natural History, as Plantæ Lindheimerianæ, part 1 in 1845, part II in 1847. Many of these plants were shortly afterwards described by Scheele, in Linnæa, from a collection brought to Germany by the geologist F. Roemer, who studied the geology of Texas in 1846-1847, and received many specimens from Lindheimer.

Completed and extended to the whole area of the Rio Grande, were these explorations by Gregg and Wright.

Josiah Gregg, the author of the "Commerce of the Prairies, 1844," made large botanical collections, but died soon (1849) in California.