faithfully what he saw. His figures are not exact, though he borrows from De Laet, Piso, and others. His history of Tobago, which was published in 1666, was apparently intended as an eulogy upon that island, in which he had for some time resided.

1658. I have a moderate quarto, handsomely printed this year, at Rotterdam, by an author who conceals or reveals his name under the signature of L. D. P. It is in French, and is entitled the Natural and Moral History of the Antilles of America. It is enriched by many figures of natu ral and artificial productions, and by a vocabulary of the Caribbee tongue. After bestowing five chapters of the work upon the general and particular history of this interesting chain of islands, he employs the succeeding ones, from the 6th to the 11th inclusive, to a description of the trees, shrubs, fruits, flowers, and other vegetable productions. Those six chapters are filled with separate descriptions and drawings. Both have the appearance of being done by a person of correct information, both as to their natural condition, and the description contained in books. The copy in my possession once belonged to the library of the late Sir Wm. Young.

1666. To this date may be referred a very early paper, No. 12, in the transactions of the Royal Society of London, by Robert Murray, on the cultivation of the mulberry tree in Virginia.

1676. Thomas Glover's Essay on the natural history of Virginia (English Philosoph. Trans. No. 126.) treats of the cultivated plants, and of the more exquisite indigenous ones; more especially of tobacco and its culture.

1683. Louis Hennepin, in his description of Louisiana, printed this year, at Paris, in duodeci

mo, enumerates various useful plants in the region he describes.

1689. William Vernon, the companion of Spon and Wheeler, who travelled so reputably into Greece, afterward visited Maryland, and gathered there several hundred plants. I need scarcely mention that one of the most stately and showy of our autumnal plants, the purple pride of our meadows, the vernonia noveboracensis, is so called in honour of him.

1692. To this era may be referred the memoir of John Banister (in the English Phil. Trans. No. 198.) on the plants he collected in Virginia. It may be observed, on this occasion, that he fell a victim to the fatigue of gathering them.

Shortly after, and before the end of the 17th century, John Clayton visited Virginia, and began a correspondence with the Royal Society, concerning the vegetable productions of that country. His essays on tobacco, and on the medicinal plants of Virginia, may be seen, ibidem, No. 205, 206, and 454. It has been asked whether this was the same man who collected for Gronovius, to be noticed afterward?

1696. Now it was that Sir Hans Sloane laid before the learned world the result of his residence in Jamaica. In this he endeavoured to arrange every thing that could embellish the natural history of that island. The numerous and elegant drawings which decorate this work, added to the correct descriptions it contains, have justly raised its distinguished author to the rank of a founder of botany. With figures amounting to more than five hundred, Sloane appears before the public with uncommon claims upon their attention. His catalogue, printed, 1696, London, comprehends the plants spontaneously growing, and those cultivated in Jamaica; as also some which are found in

Madeira, Barbadoes, Nevis, and Saint Kitts. This performance will always be admired by those who love and understand botany.

1697. Here is assigned a place to William Dampier's account of a new voyage round the world, which appeared in this and the succeeding years, and was translated into the principal European languages. It is worthy of being consulted by the curious examiner, as he visited the isthmus of Darien, the coast of Caraccas, the Antilles, and even Virginia; and gave some information of the vegetable productions, such as manchineel, mangrove, cacao, and tobacco. In his later voyages he mentions various palms, cotton, tuna, vanilla, breadfruit, betel, mango, cocos, and some others.

1699. Was published at London, in octavo, a new voyage and description of the Isthmus of America, by Lionel Wafer. He was a surgeon, and went to Darien in 1681. Having been wounded and detained, he lived many months among the natives, and supported himself by his profession. He describes the manners of that people, their agricultural state, and their fruit-bearing trees in a plain and honest way.

1698. The year before the last-mentioned work appeared, was published, in London, Gabriel Thomas's historical description of the province and country of New Jersey. A German version of it appeared at Frankfort in 1702. Its particular contents and merits are unknown to me.

II. By compilers.

1625. To this and the following year belong the Pilgrims of Samuel Purchas, a collection of voyages and travels, worthy to be consulted by the botanist, though greatly more interesting to the general historian. He has been thought to be less chaste and candid than his predecessor Hackluyt. The amount of his gatherings was printed in Lon

don and fills five folio volumes. They are too well known to the society whom I address for me to offer you either abstract or analysis.

1664. Now, and during the succeeding years, Melchizedec de Thevenot published, at Paris, his collection of voyages in Europe, Africa, and Asia. I mention the work as containing nothing relative to America. He seems to have left that part of the globe to other compilers.

1699. About this time, or a very few years afterward, perhaps in 1702, commenced, at Paris, the publication of the edifying and curious letters written from the foreign missions, by the missionaries of the company of Jesus. This work progressed until it reached twenty-eight volumes or more. The body of the performance relates to the conversion of the heathen to christianity. But there is a variety of other and useful intelligence, relative to travels in different parts of the world, and to natural productions. America comes in for a part; and some pages refer to its vegetable growth. Volume 10th contains the history of the Moxans, an aboriginal tribe of Peru, and of their cinchona, or Jesuit's bark. In volume 11th may be seen something about logwood. In the 17th is information concerning our myrtlewax, and maple sugar. The 21st has some considerations on the apalachy plant, or Paraguay tea. And the man of industrious research will find some other morsels of American intelligence. I now proceed to lay before you a sketch of The History of American Botany, during the eighteenth century.

I. By travellers.

1702. Here I place the Pterigraphia Americana of James Petiver, of London, a zealous naturalist. Among the numerous things he did and wrote,

was the publication of twenty plates, representing the figures of almost two hundred ferns and marine productions. He published other figures of American plants, in several distinct tracts. The paper, No. 246. Phil. Trans. Lond. is a catalogue of the plants of Maryland, sent to him by Hugh Jones.

1703. Captain Woodes Rogers' voyage round the globe was published. He went to Campeachy on the logwood business. He also visited New Holland. He had a taste for botanical information; carried a draughtsman with him; and gave good figures of some, and descriptions of many plants, that he saw at the numerous places at which he landed in circumnavigating the world.

1703. John Boudot, printer to king Louis XIV, and the Royal Academy of Sciences, now laid before the public, a work from his press at Paris, entitled Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera; auctore P. Carolo Plumier, &c. He styles himself a minim friar and royal botanist for the American isles. With an ardent and indomitable passion for travelling and botanizing, he went to the West Indies, and traversed the islands, over and again, between 1689 and 1697. Of the plants that he carried to Paris, Tournefort embodied a considerable number into his Institutes, arranging the species, where that could be done, under known genera, and where that could not be accomplished, constituting new genera. Yet, after all, there were many plants remaining in his hands which he undertook to name, to describe, and to delineate for himself. They are embraced in a quarto volume of moderate size.

In naming the genera, Plumier has done remarkable honour to the cultivators and lovers of botany, by introducing their names to designate the vegetable families. He applied to certain