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hold Forster, and printed in England, in 3 vols. 8vo. Under the administration of Count Tessin, the Swedish government determined to send a botanical missionary to North America. The man selected was the professor of economics in the university of Abo in Swedish Finland; and his expenses were defrayed by the Swedish universities. He was accompanied by his countryman, Lars Yungstræm. Many facts respecting the vegetable productions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Canada, are contained in the work. He was one of the great improvers of our botany, and indeed of our natural history generally. While he resided in America, he employed himself not only in sending letters, but in forwarding packages, and as his translator says, cargoes of seeds, plants and curiosities, to his constituents in Sweden. Thus, the government and universities of that kingdom deserve the credit of having procured a very able and circumstantial, as well as scientific and instructive report, on the plants, animals, and other matters, appertaining to these parts of North America. Kalm, on his return, was doubly honoured for his services; for the king promoted him to a Lutheran bishoprick, and Linnæus gave to one of the most elegant of our evergreen shrubs, the name of Kalmia. Let us continue to honour the man whom science and the church have thus eminently distinguished!

1771. The correct and well written German work of John Philip Du Roi, was now printed at Brunswick, in two vols. 8vo. The discerning and industrious author describes, at full length, the trees, shrubs, and hardy flowers, growing at Harbkè, near Magdeburg. It is denominated the Harbkè wild garden, partly of North American and other exotics, and partly of indigenous trees, bushes, and ornamental shrubs; with their charac

ter, cultivation, description, and use, illustrated by engravings. It contains a good list of botanical books and authorities. It also comprehends an alphabetical catalogue of the genera and species which he describes; and a systematic arrangement of the same, according to the Linnæan classes and orders. Frederick Albert, prince of Anhalt, and some others, were complimented with the dedication. This performance is less known than it deserves to be. It is, perhaps, owing to its never having been translated, at least, as far as I know, into the English language. Du Roi quotes a manuscript catalogue of trees and shrubs by John Bartram, before mentioned.

1776. I might, without wandering very far from my subject, offer for your consideration, the botanical discoveries of John R. Forster, and his son George, during a voyage round the globe. They left England in 1772, and performed their circuit by sailing from west to east, contrary to the course pursued by the nineteen navigators who had preceded them; all of whom had proceeded from east to west. At the Cape of Good Hope they were joined by Andrew Sparrman, who accompanied them during the remainder of the circumnavigation. In the division of the labour to be performed by these naturalists, Forster, the father, undertook the zoological department, while the botanical fell to the other two; Sparrman describing, and Forster, the son, delineating the plants they found. The whole was afterward revised and methodized by the elder Forster, with the aid and counsel of the younger, as he wished it.

They adopt the Linnæan system in their Characteres generum plantarum, quas in itinere ad insulas maris australis, &c. The descriptions are accompanied by figures, and they fill a quarto volume. The work is inscribed to King George III. the

patron, as they style him, not merely of natural history, astronomy, navigation and geography; but in an especial manner, of painting, carving, statuary, moulding, architecture, and drawing.

Herein they have laid before their generous sovereign and the world, seventy-five new genera, comprehending ninety-five new species; and in addition thereto, about one hundred and seventy species, appertaining to the genera already ex

tant.

Of these America furnishes but a small number. For Terra del Fuego, the only part of the western hemisphere they visited, a region of sterility and cold, afforded only a few dwarfish vegetables, scarcely supporting life amidst the snow-covered rocks.

1781. Appeared in a small quarto volume, the Reliquia Houstouniana, or figures of the South American plants, collected by William Houstoun, and engraved by his own hand. This work, which contains twenty-six plates and descriptions, was published from the original in the library of Sir Joseph Banks. It is a precious morsel to the botanical epicure. Haller, in his Bibliotheca Botanica, mentions (tom. 2. p. 242.) a manuscript catalogue, left by Houstoun, of the plants he gathered in Jamaica, Cuba, Venezuela, and Campeachy, during the years 1728, 1729, and 1732.

1785. The Arbustrum Americanum, or American Grove, was published in a small octavo, at Philadelphia, by Humphrey Marshall, soon after the conclusion of the revolutionary war. It treats of the indigenous trees and shrubs of the United States. They are alphabetically disposed, and arranged according to the sexual system. Their species, varieties, manner of growth, and useful qualities, are likewise noted in this descriptive and me

thodical catalogue. It is dedicated to the members of the Philosophical Society.

Though many additions and alterations have been made in this department of botany, since the publication of the present book, it deserves to be mentioned with particular respect, as being the best manual of the kind, extant in our language, at the time it was printed even yet it is a valuable compilation, and every American botanist ought to possess and consult it.

1786. The Materia Medica Americana, of Dr. Schöepf, is a tract worthy to be examined by the naturalists of our country. I remember him. He travelled through many of the United States and the Bahama Islands, immediately after the revolutionary war. On his return to Anspach, he published his Travels in German, and the before-mentioned work in Latin: both are valuable, and the former is an instructive enumeration of the natural productions which America furnishes as remedies against diseases.

1787. Frederic William II. king of Prussia, received the dedication of a large folio volume, in German, by Frederic Adam Julius Von Wangenheim. This ample work was printed at Gottingen, and embellished with numerous, large, and distinct figures of the plants described. The object of this laboured and extensive work seems to have been the improvement of the forests and gardens of Prussia, by transplanting into them the trees and shrubs of North America. Under this impression, Wangenheim considers his subject in four points of view; Ist. such timber trees growing in North-America, between the thirty-ninth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, as may be propagated in Germany, with improvement of the forests, and with advantage to all persons concerned therein; 2d. such trees and shrubs, growing in North America, be

tween thirty-nine and forty-five degrees, as may, perhaps, be profitable for the German estates, but on which further trials ought to be made before a correct judgment can be formed; 3d. such North American trees and flowering shrubs, growing between the thirty-ninth and forty-second degrees of latitude, as will bear transplanting, and grow in the open air in Germany, and are at the same time worthy of cultivation there for taste and ornament; 4th. such as, though growing between the thirty-ninth and forty-fifth, are not of importance enough to be transplanted from North America to Germany, as articles of substantial profit or improvement.

The number of species that he describes, amounts to nearly one hundred and seventy, and the engraved figures to seventy-two.

All the plants are arranged according to the sexual system. The pains bestowed upon them evinces, in the strongest manner, the interest which the richness of our forests excited in the author and his royal patron. It is a pity this work is not extant in our language, on account of the fund of instruction it contains. The American botanist may consult it with edification, when he seeks an intimate and extensive acquaintance with the leafy occupants of our soil. He was attached to the Anspach troops of the enemy during the revolutionary war.

1787. From the banks of the Santee river, about the end of this year, the South Carolina planter, 'Thomas Walther, addressed to William Pitcairn, M. D. his Flora Caroliniana, and caused it to be printed the following year in London. It contains sketches of more than a thousand plants. Old descriptions are amended; some new genera are inserted, and many novel species are introduced. He declares he has examined the plants, which he has mentioned in his book, often enough to be sa

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