LINN 2US,

NUTTALL AND GRAY.

DEDICATION OF, MARBLE BUSTS ERECTED

IN THE

By HENRY SHAW,

JUNE, 1883.

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THE UNVEILING.

HE dedication and unveiling of the busts
took place on Friday, June 22d, 1883. The
members of the American Association of Nursery-
men, Florists and Seedsmen, then holding their
annual convention in St. Louis, were present by
invitation, and other guests.
Remarks by Mr. Henry SHaw—

ENTLEMEN—I greet you, and welcome the horticultur-
ists ae florists of America to the Missouri Botanical
i o :

ny o rge

Engelmann. To the left, or the east side, le that of

Dr. ASA GRAY, well-known to you all as a bright ornament
Am

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uments are durable
esteem and respect for illustrious men, whose names are
inden pore with the plants and trees that beautify
the f nature, and thus their names will be handed
Palas pasate amd and be known as long as science and
civilization exist among men.

HE vegetable world like the animal, consists

of a vast multitude of species, composed of
organic vesicules offering a prodigious diversity of
form. Such living combinations for plants pre-

studied and arranged eT! a mighty host, =o
swelled by new discoveri

We may assume it asa gee that the vecetable :
kingdom was the first to engage the attention of
_ man, for our first parents dwelt ina garden, and
lived on its productions; plants yielded to man
his earliest food, his first built habitation.

This produced the art of distinguishing one
kind of plant oui SnOtner and 80 Sahin! from
the beginning the con mes for plants.
By collecting together individuals, identical in
form, and the uses they could be applied to, spe-
cies wére distinguished, and groups, analogous to
what are called genera; classes were recognized
under the well known names of grass and herbs
yielding seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit.

Among the ancient Greeks, Theophrastus had
his water-plants and parasites, potherbs, and
forest trees, and grain plants. Dioscorides had

aromatics and gum-bearing plants. Pliny and

Greeks ; their successors retained the same kind
of arrangement for ages. A cessation of all philo-
sophical inquiry into the nature of vegetation en-
dured about seventeen hundred years, during all
which time scarcely a single addition was made
to the stock of knowledge left behind him by
Theophrastus. But with the revival of letters a
new direction was given to researches in natural
history. The woods, the plains, the valleys, the
ocean and the mountains were investigated with
an ardor that soon made amends for ancient indif-
ference. This spirit of inquiry once excited, men
speedily learned to estimate rightly the greater
value of facts than of assertion; one discovery
produced another, and in a few years a new
foundation was laid of that imperfect but beauti-
ful science which constitutes modern botany.

Up to the middle of the seventeenth century
vegetable physiology had been grounded upon
observations entirely independent of anatomical
investigations. But about this time the accurate
inquiries of two naturalists, John Ray, an Eng-
lish clergyman, and J oseph Pitton de Tournfort,
a professor of botany in Paris, who flourished at
the end of the seventeenth century, and upon
whose systems the modern arrangement accord-
ing to natural orders is founded. This, however,
and all others were for a time eclipsed by another
better adapted to the circumstances of the times,
and emanating from a writer who had the cour-
age and talent to carry reformation into every
branch of natural history,

LINNAUS.

HARLES LINNE, or LINN.EXUS, as he is
usually called, was a person exactly adapted

to the science of the times in which he lived.
The various departments of natural history had
not at that time their present extended range, and
were all equally in need of revision and improve-
ment, and above all the nomenclature of natural
history required to be reduced to one uniform
standard. Nature had gifted Linnzus with a
logical accuracy of reasoning, and a neatness and

appreciate, for the opinions of Linnzeus were re-
ceived as oracular.

Carl, the eldest son of Nils Linnzeus, was born
May 24th, 1707, at Rushalt, in the province of
Smaland, Sweden, where his father was a minis-
ter. With an inheritance of a father’s love for
plants and their cultivation, he is thus recorded
by one of his pupils: ‘“‘ From the very time that
he first left his cradle he almost lived in his

arms, those sparks which shone so vividly all his
lifetime, and latterly burst into such a flame.”

6 LINN_EUS.

According to the system then employed in
Sweden, if was necessary that young men should
pass from the schools, or from private teachers,
to what was called the Gymnasium, where the
higher branches of literature were taught, and
at the age of sixteen, Linnzeus was placed in this
seminary. Here he still continued his dislike for
those theological studies necessary for a divine,
and showed a more decided taste for botany by
forming a small library of such books upon the
science as hecould procure, and from his studious
perusal of them acquired the college name of the
‘Little Botanist.’’ Next year it was thought
necessary that Linnzeus should complete his edu-
cation at the University of Lund, where he lodged
in the house of Dr. Stobeus, a man of mild and
excellent disposition, Professor of Medicine, and
physician to the king. Stobeus admired the

natural science, allowed him free access to his ex-
cellent library, his collection of shells, minerals,
plants and birds, and first pointed out to our
young botanist the manner of making a ‘“ hortus
siceus,’

It was here he composed his ‘‘Spolia Botanica,’’
and contracted a friendship with Artedi, after-
wards celebrated for his ichthyology. These two
young men.now devoted their whole leisure to
natural history, Linnzeus reserving for his share
birds, insects and plants, while his companion
took fishes, reptiles, ete.

His dissertation, De Nuptiis Arborum, was
shown to Dr. Rudbeck, who was so well pleased
with the tract and its author, that soon after,

LINN_XUS. 7

having obtained permission on account of his ad-

head of an establishment in which, a year before,
he had applied for the situation of gardener

It is perhaps worthy of incidental remark that

other animals look upon man as their enemy and
fly at his approach. To study them, however
repugnant to his humane feelings, they must be
killed; the mineral kingdom is concealed in the
bowels of the earth, and cannot be reached except
by tedious and painfal exertions. On the other
hand, plants and vegetables seem to covet the
admiration and court the acquaintance of man:
they unfold tee ks their smiling beauties
to his eye, and thus, as it were, invite him to ex-
amine and explain cre structure. This branch
of natural science is not merely the most easy and
attractive at the outset—it is the key of all the
rest. Whoever becomes familiar with plants and
trees, soon desires to know the names of the insects
that ‘feed on their leaves, and of the birds that

zoology and mineralogy. This was exactly the
case with Linnzeus. He wasa botanist from his
cradle—he lixranl from hie nhilAhan

and flowers.

8 LINNZEUS.

He was next appointed to the laborious under-
taking of exploring Lapland; agriculture and
botany were the branches to which he was re-
quired to direct his attention.

18, 1732. He commenced the journey in
high spirits and in love with nature; he traveled
on horseback, and carried his whole baggage on
his back. In his ‘‘ Flora Lapponica’’ he has eulo-
gized the country as all that could be desired—
happy and smiling, free from many diseases and
the scourge of war, while its inhabitants are said
to be innocent and primitive, displaying the great-
est hospitality and kindness toa stranger. In this
journey he traveled over the greater part of Lap-
land, skirting the borders of Norway, and returned
to Upsala by the Gulf of Rothnia, having passed
over an extent of several thousand miles. He
considered his labors amply remunerated by the
information he had gained, and the discovery of
new plants in the higher mountains, with the
payment of his expenses, amounting to about £10.

In order to better his condition of life, medicine
must be obtained, and he resolved to proceed to
the University of Vardersis sk,

Upon his arrival there he was introduced to the
professors, wrote and defended his theses, and
finally received his degree of M. D., with a diploma
containing testimonials of his abilities.

At the commencement of his journey home-
wards, the first place where Linnzeus remained

ste
gained the friendship of the celebrated Boer-

haave, and that of Dr. Gronovius, who was so
much pleased with the sketch of the ‘‘ Systema
Naturee,’? by our young naturalist, that he re-
quested to be allowed to defray the expenses of

with all the ardor of a young man toa favorite
and fascinating pursuit, he was at once placed in
one of the most favorable situations in the world
for carrying it out

In addition to these advantages Clifford allowed
him a munificent salary. So lavish indeed was
Clifford upon his favorite pursuit, that (Linnzeus
having written the ‘‘ Musa Cliffordiana,’’) he sent
him to England to procure rarities for his garden,
and to communicate with the most eminent bot-
anists and horticulturists. On the arrival of Lin-
neeus at London, he waited on Sir Hans Sloane,
to whom he had a letter from Dr. Boerhaave,
which recommended him in the strongest lan-
guage, but neither he or Dellenius, whom he met
at Oxford, showed him much attention until his
discoveries were truly made known to them

He visited Martyn, Ward, Miller, Dr. Shaw, the
celebrated traveler, and Peter Collinson, at Mill
Hill. These men of 6 science admired his genius
and valued his friendship; they promoted his

10 LINN US,

wishes by enriching him with books and supply-

with these English naturalists in terms of the
most sincere friendship.

During this excursion Linnzus had greatly en-
d

means of his English friends -he formed a corre-
spondence with an American botanist, John
Barham, of Philadelphia, whom he styled the
greatest natural botanist in the world. He now
completed the fine collection of his patron, and
published the “ Hortus Cliffortiana,”’ brought out

= occupied, to neers his ‘Critica Botanica,’’
‘Genera planturum

Hoewitisteniling his detttsitng health, owing
to application and study, he remained a few
months longer in Holland and arranged the
botanic garden at Leyden, and at the same time
composed and printed his ‘‘ Classes Plantarum,”
which is a complete view of all the botanical
systems ever known, assisted Dr. Gronovius with
the ‘Flora Virginica”’ and superintended the
printing of the Ichthyologia of his deceased
friend Artedi.

Linnzeus was one of the few friends that the
great Dr. Boerhaave would allow to see him on
his death bed. Linnzeus himself relates the last

LINN ZEUS. ab

interview: ‘' He bid me a sorrowful adieu, as I
kissed his hand in token of respect. Boerhaave
put my hand to his lips in return, and addressed
me in these impressive words: ‘I have lived my
time, and my days are at an end; I have done

thee if expects more. Farewell, my dear
us.’ ”)

anxious to behold. By means of letters from the
Professors of the University of Leyden he was
introduced to Jussieu; he received every atten-
tion, and was shown all the stoves, conservatories
and museum of the ‘‘ Jardin des Plantes,’’ and
and made acquainted with men of science.

Royal ‘‘ Academie des Sciences’’ paid him the
very high compliment of electing him a corre-
sponding member, and importuned him to remain
in France. After an absence of nearly three
years he embarked at Rouen for Sweden by sea,
having in his absence improved his knowledge of
Natural History, particularly botany, and with
the assistance of liberal patrons published many
of his works. Returned to Sweden he practiced

lish an Academy of Sciences, and in conjunction
with Baron Hopken a society Of some note was
instituted, the presidency of which devolved
upon himself. This was the origin of the present

12 LINN £US,

Academy of Stockholm. By some lucrative ap-

now at the height of his career of reputation and
prosperity; he had nevertheless his opponents
and detractors. To show that all men of learning
did not agree with his libellers, he published. a
brief sketch of his life and a list of his works,
and the various testimonials to his talents, and
relied upon the judgment that would be given in
his favor upon the word of a Boerhaave, a Dill-
enius, a Sauvages, a Jussieu and a Haller. He
avers he was not above being corrected when
done in a proper spirit, for who could perambu-
late without erring the wide-spread fields of
nature? Who could observe everything with
perfect accuracy ?

At the age of thirty-four we find Linnwus en-
joying the fruits of all his labors and _ perse-
verance, teaching his favorite science as its head
in Sweden; he enjoyed himself to the utmost; he
called his garden ‘this Elysium,’ and the
enthusiasm with which he set about improving
it knew no bounds. Linneus undertook the
reform of the botanic garden of Upsala; a new
green house was erected, an old house of stone
built by the great Rudbeck was converted, as
Linneus says, from an owl’s nest into a lodging
fit for the professor, and in a few years the garden
at Upsala ranked equal, if not superior to similar
establishments in the first capitals of Europe.
The number of students increased to one thous-
and, and the fame of the University extended
over Europe, and even to America,

LINN XUS. 13

By his ready flow of language, and the happy
manner in which he inculcated his ideas, rendered
the students converts to his system, and made
them as enthusiastic as himself. In like manner

natural history: many of his pupils fell victims
to the elements or to the diseases of a pestilential
climate, but many returned, amply compensating
themselves for the hardships they had under-
gone. The generic names of the planis Osbeckia,
Kalmia, Solandra, Alstroemeria, Loeflingia, be-
stowed by their venerated preceptor, will recall
the names of some of his pupils, and hand them
down to posterity.

A medal to this distinguished man was struck
by some of his friends in 1746. He soon after re-
ceived the rank and title of Archiator from the
King, and was the only Swede chosen into the
new-modeled Academy of Berlin. All these hon-
ours however, though he was by no means indif-
ferent to such, appear to have given him less
delight at this time than the acquisition of the
herbarium made by Hermann, in Ceylon, which
an apothecary of Copenhagen had unknowingly
possessed. When shown to Linnus he soon dis-
covered to whom it had originally belonged, and
rejoiced at recovering a treasure supposed to have

14 LINN.XYUS.

been irrecoverably lost. He labored day and
night in examining the flowers ; hence originated
his ‘‘ Flora Zeylanica.”’ :

The fame and reputation of Linnzeus had now
gained him both riches and honours, being admit-
ted a member into most of the scientific societies
of Europe. The Imperial Academy ele Tip
him by the name of Dioscorides Secu
Royal Academy of Sciences of Ups an vie fas
emy of Sciences of Montpelier, the Royal Academy

ours, being presented by his sovereign with letters
of nobility. But perhaps the most flattering tes-
timony to the extent and magnitude of his fame
was that which he received from the King of
Spain, who invited him to settle in Madrid, with
an offer of an annual pension for life of 2,000 pis-
toles, letters of nobility, and free exercise of his
own religion. He returned most grateful ac-
knowledgements for the intended honour, and his -
answer that “if he had any merits they were due
to his own country.’ The exertions and reputa-
tion of Linnzeus had rendered botany extremely
popular in Sweden, and its interests were com-
bined with those of commerce in various distant
expeditions.

Many of the principal merchants as well as
nobility had acquired a taste for natural history,
and were proud to further the views of their dis-
tinguished professor, who was now considered an
honor to the nation. His herbarium received im-

22 oe

LINN ASUS. 15

portant and instructive additions, accompanied

y communications from Gmelin, and others, who
had visited Siberia, and the original collections
of Magnol and Sauvages were transmitted from
Montpelier. Gronovius also transmitted:the col-

Flora Suecica, and in 1746 his Fauna Suecica

Rector of the University, and was memorable to
him also for an attack of the gout, so violent as to
endanger his life. He always attributed his re-
storation from this fit, and other subsequent ones,
to his eating abundantly of wood strawberries,
the only sort then known in Sweden.

To this attack of the gout, however distressing
to the patient, the world is indebted for one of his
most valuable and remarkable works, the Philos-
ophia Botanica. The subject of this work must
have been comprehended in the mind of its author
when he wrote his Fundamenta Botanica, of
- Which itis professedly an exemplification, in the
form of acommentary. This publication embraces
the whole range of the science of the vegetable
kingdom, and indeed all the principles of the
knowledge of nature.

About this period the Queen of Sweden, sister
to Frederick the Great, of Prussia, had a fervent

16 LINN US.

taste for natural history, as well as her husband,
r

not given to the public till 1764, when his Museum
Regine appeared in 8 vo. His most magnificent.
publication appeared in 1754, being a large folio,
entitled Museum Regis Adolphi Frederici, com-
prehending descriptions of the rarer quadrupeds,
birds, fishes, serpents, etc., of the King’s Museum,
in Latin and Swedish, with plates, and an excel-
lent preface. The preface being one of the most
entertaining and eloquent recommendations of
the study of nature that ever came from the pen
of an enthusiastic naturalist, and was translated
and published in English in 1786, and again in
1798. Suffering from severe attacks of the gout,
which prevented his repose for many nights at a
time, and were the first symptoms of an approach-
ing decay in his vigorous constitution. The ex-
citement of seeing a collection of natural novel-
ties had a singular effect, and he is said to have
been cured in this way of a severe fit, by the re-
turn of a pupil from North America. When he
heard of the return of Kahn (who spent several
years in this country before the Revolution
wrote his travels) with a number of new plants
and other curiosities, the desire of seeing which,
and the delight which he felt when he saw them,
was so great as actually to make the gout dis-
‘appear.

LINN ZUS. ‘ W

n the meantime this eminent man had pre-
pared a lasting monument of his own talents and
application, which even his rival, Haller, nobly
denominates the maximum opus eternum, the

SPECIES PLANTARUM,

First edition, 1753, second edition, 1762; in 2 vols.,
octavo. This work, well known for its great im-
portance asa complete arrangement and defini-
tion of every plant of which its author had any
satisfactory knowledge, is very memorable for
the adaptation of specific names. This simple
and happy invention by Linnzeus was extended
to minerals, in his Museum Tessinianum, and sub-
sequently to all the departments of zoology, has
rendered his works more popular than any other
of their merits. Specific differences, previously

guage, were it not for this simple and happy in-
vention. By this means we speak of every natural
production in the three kingdoms of nature in two
words, its generic and specific name. The Lin-

and this principle has been with great advantage
extended to chemistry, of which Bergman, the
friend of Linnzeus, originally set the example.

His great and important work the ‘‘ Systema
Naturve,’’ appeared much enlarged in a twelfth

we LINN.EUS.

edition in the year 1766, which is an epitome of
the vegetable kingdom, to which the mineral
kingdom was added ina third volume. We can
readily pardon (says his learned biographer, Sir
E. Smith,) the self-complacency of its author

‘“‘a work to which natural history never had a
fellow.’’ We may venture to predict, as this was
the first performance of the kind, it will certainly
be the last. The science of natural history has
now become so vast that no man can ever take
the lead again as a universal naturalist.

Though Linnzeus declares in his diary that he
gave up the general practice of physic on his es-
tablishment at Upsala, attending only his friends
and the poor, he appears to have ever paid great
attention to that noble and intricate science. His
lectures on medicine, dietetics and animal econ-
omy, were in high repute, and though undoubt-
edly a great, sagacious observer in every depart-
ment of nature, he was in this somewhat too
theoretical, and when he applies his own didactic
talents to illustrate medica] theories, or anything
else, he is always ingenious and as luminous as
the subject will allow. His curious little ‘‘ Clavis
Medicine,” published in 1766, and his ‘‘ Genera
Morborum,”’ which appeared three years before,
are not only striking but instructive.

Notwithstanding the relief which Linnzeus ex-
perienced by the assistance of his son, he contin-
ued his public activity till two years before his

LINNAEUS. 19

death ; a mind so constituted, and a manner of
life so habituated to activity, could not at once
relapse into idleness. In 1771 he is described by a
traveller as leading an active and bustling life,
never seen at leisure; even his walks had for their
object discoveries in natural history, and all his
moments, not embittered by pain, were devoted
to his darling science.

In the following year he gave a proof of the re-
maining vigour of his constitution, by delivering
a customary oration upon his resignation of office
of Rector of the Assembly, which he had already
held three times. He chose asasubject the ‘‘ De-
liciz Nature,’’ and the whole academical forum
found it so beautiful that the students of the
Swedish provinces sent deputies to him the next
day to entreat its translation into the Swedish
language.

In 1773 he was chosen member of a committee
to superintend a translation of the Bible into
Swedish, and the task of ascertaining and de-
scribing the plants and vegetable productions .
mentioned in the Holy Scriptures was entrusted
to his care. In the year following he composed

Surinam a collection of curious plants preserved
in spirits, -with the fruit and flowers entire, and
with much liberality presented them to Linnzeus,
who composed a catalogue of the whole, making
out thirteen new genera and about forty unde-
scribed species. One of these he dedicated to his
sovereign, under the title of Gustavia Augusta,

20 LINN BUS.

of the Myrtle family, as the truest way by which
he could express his gratitude for the great dis-
tinetions conferred upon himself. And it was in
the same year that he received the first fatal
warning that the termination of his earthly career
was near at hand. While he gave a summer lec-
ture in the botanical lecture room he had an apo-
plectic stroke, and fell into a swoon from which

powers of his constitution became exhausted, he
became insensible to pain, and expired in a gentle
slumber January 10, 1778, aged seventy-one years
and seven months.

Thus terminated, writes Sir William Jardine,
the active and ever-searching life of this pious
and industrious man. Every human honor was
paid to his remains, and the sorrow of his country
was without bounds. 'I'o use the words of their
sovereign, they had ‘lost, alas! a man whose
celebrity was as great over the world “is the
honor was bright which his country derived from
him as a citizen. Long will Upsala remember the
celebrity it acquired by the name of Linnzeus.”’
His sovereign commanded a medal to be struck
expressive of the public loss.

Linneus, the pride of Upsala, lies interred
under a stone near the main door of the cathe-
dral, with his much loved wife by his side. At
a short distance from it there is a bust of Linneus
cut in alto-relievo in black marble, and the fol-

LINN.EUS. 21

lowing inscription engraved on a tablet of beauti-
ful Swedish porphyry

BOTANICORUM PRINCEPS,
AMICI ET DISCIPULI,
MDCCXCVIII.

In foreign lands equal regard was paid to his
memory. He was eulogized in the Royal Acad-
emy of France by Condorcet, and his bust was
erected under the highest cedar in the Jardin des
Plantes. Dr. Hope, the Professor of Botany in
the University of Edinburg, had a monument
erected to his name in the botanic garden.

Many societies have been formed under the
auspices of his name, of which the most import-
ant was the Linnean Society of London, which
possesses the library, herbarium and manuscripts
of the illustrious person whom if records. is
statue was of middle size and muscular; his fea-
tures were agreeable, and his countenance ani-
mated; his eyes remarkably bright, ardent and
piercing. He wrote and spoke the Latin lan-
guage with elegance and ease, and Swedish the
only modern language he is known to have used.
In following out his beloved science his mind
was ardént in the highest degree ; he never, how-
ever, lost sight of the First Great Cause, but
iooked to Nature’s God as the giver of all his
benefits and acquirements. The most important
of his works commence and finish with some
verse from the Scriptures, implying the power or
greatness of God, or his own gratitude to Provi-
dence for the immense benefits conferred upon

22 LINN.EUS.

himself and the inhabitants of the world; and
his descriptions are continually interspersed with
SSeS of admiration, of gratitude, and of
lov

To honor the memory of this great man, and as
an incentive to all students of Natural Science,
his marble bust is placed over the entrance of the
Pig Aiceerrntats of the Missouri Botanical
Garden, A. D. 188.

pe

NU LTALA:

HOMAS NUTTALL, an American natu-

ralist, born in Yorkshire in 1784. e
learned the trade of a printer, and so improved
his time as to acquire a thorough knowledge of
the Greek and Latin languages. He came to the
United States at the age of twenty-two; was
employed at his business in Philadelphia, and
devoted much of his time to the study of
ornithology and botany. At Philadelphia he
attended all lectures on scientific subjects ; and,
having obtained an introduction to Dr. Barton,
the botanist, by whom at the conclusion of one
of his lectures, he was referred for further in-
formation to the celebrated Wm. Bartram, and to
the kindness and attention he received from him,
whom he often refers to in his works as “ his
venerable friend,’”’ the world is indebted for the
sealing of those scientific proclivities, which has
since made his name famous. From 1808 his
progress in botanical science was very rapid,
gathering his knowledge, as he had done his past
education, by his own efforts alone. His botanical
trips were frequent and arduous, one of his earliest
being to investigate thoroughly the plants of the
peninsula formed by the Delaware and the Ches-
apeake. As his knowledge of things at home
became more perfect he thirsted for more in-
formation, and boldly penetrated (usually alone)

: many hundreds of miles into theinterior, making

24 NUTTALL.

friends even with the most savage children of the

after every remedy had failed he composed him-
self to die. He was found by an Indian, who
placed him in a canoe and rowed him down the
river to the region of the white man. He trav-
eled in nearly every State of the Union; he ex-
plored the great lakes and the upper branches of
the Mississippi, and in 1810 ascended the Mis-
souri as far as the Mandon villages. Washington
Irving, in his ‘‘Astoria,’’ from notes furnished by
Messrs. Hunt and Crooks of their journey to the
Columbia River, describes Mr. Nuttall as follows:
‘©1811, May 10th. The two naturalists, Mr.
Nuttall and Mr. Bradbury, who had joined the

Nuttall seems to have been devoted to his scien-
tific pursuits exclusively. He wasa zealous bota-

upon him in the boundless prairies, clad in the
vernal and variegated robe of unknown flowers.
Whenever the boats landed at meal times, or for
any other temporary purpose, he would spring on
shore and set out on a hunt for new specimens.
Every plant or flower of a rare or unknown
species was eagerly seized as a prize. Delighted
with the treasures set out and spreading them-
selves before him, he went groping and stumbling
along the wilderness of sweets, forgetful of every-
thing but his immediate pursuit, and had often
to be sought after when the boats were about to

NUTTALL. 25

resume their course.. At such times he would be
found far off in the prairies, up the course of some

The Canadian voyagers, who know nothing out
of their immediate line, and with constitutional
levity, make a jest of anything they cannot un-
derstand, were extremely puzzled by this passion
for collecting what they considered useless weeds.
When they saw the worthy botanist coming back
heavily laden with his specimens, and treasuring
them up as carefully as a miser would his hoard,
they use to make merry among themselves at his
expense, regarding him as a somewhat whimsical
kind of madman.

In 1819 he explored the Arkansas, and pub-
lished his travels in 1821; crossed the continent
in 1834 to Oregon, California and the Sandwich
Islands. The impassioned naturalist thus de-
scribes his wanderings in search of knowledge :
‘‘ How often have I realized the poet’s buoyant
hopes amidst these solitary rambles thro’ in-
terminable forests. For thousands of miles my
chief converse has been in the wilderness with
the spontaneous productions of nature; and the
study and contemplation has been to mea source
of constant delight. This fervid curiosity led me

the banks of the Ohio, thro’ the dark forests
and brakes of the Mississippi, to the distant lakes
of ee 2 orthern frontier; thro’ the wilds of Flor-
ida up Red River and the Missouri, and thro’
the aay of Arkansas; at last over ‘the

* Vast Savannahs, where the w sain a toe eye,
Unfixt, is in a verdant ocean lost

26 NUTTALL,

rem ee er le PS ee

across the distant ocean to that famous group of
islands (Sandwich Islands) where Cook fell a
sacrifice to his temerity. Here for the first time
I beheld the beauties of a tropical vegetation ; a
season that knows no change but that of spring
and summer; an elysian land, where nature

_ food, cordage and mats, and the very reeds which
border the rivulets are no other than the pre-
ious sugar cane of commerce,

Leaving this favored region of perpetual mild-
ness I now arrived on the shores of California at
Monterey. The early spring (March) had already
spread out its varied carpet of flowers. All of

hues. The forest trees were new: to my view.

magpie, almost like that of Europe (but with a
yellow bill), chattered from the branches of an
oak with leaves like those of the holly. A thorny
gooseberry, forming a small tree, appeared clad
with pendulous flowers as brilliant as those of a
fuchsia. A new plane tree spread its wide arms
over the dried rivulets. Already the cheerful

varied ; one vast wilderness, neglected and uncul-
tivated (1835). The very cattle appeared as wild

NUTTALL. ; 27

as the bison of the prairies, and the prowling
wolves (Coyotes), well-fed, were as tame as dogs,
and every night yelled famitiiely through the
village. In this region the olive and the vine

without care to the hedgerow of the garden

After a perilous passage around Cape Horn, the
Props extremity of South America, amidst moun-
tains of ice which opposed our progress in unusual

scenes of nature with which I had been so long
accustomed. I rambled again thro’ the shade of
the Atlantic forests, or culled some rare produc-
tion of flora in their native wilds.’

He published several papers on the shells and
plants of the regions through which he had trav-
elled. From 1822 to 1834 he was professor of
Natural History in Harvard College. Among his
works are the valuable genera of North American
Plants, in 2 vols.,1818; a manual of the Ornithol-
ogy of the United States and Canada, 1832-1834,
and the North American Sylva, in 3 vols., 1842-
1849, being a continuation of Michaux’s great work
on the Forest Trees of North America.

‘But’ as he says, “ the oft-told tale approaches
to its close, and I must now bid a long adieu to
the new world, its sylvan scenes, its mountainous
wilds, its plains, and henceforth, in the evening
of my career, I return almost an exile to the land
of my nativity.’ He returned to England and

28 NUTTALL.

lived on the estate of Nutgrove, St. Helen’s, Lan-
cashire, bequeathed to him on condition that he
should there reside, and there he died

Nuttall, of all the early American naturalists,
was the one who had travelled the most exten-
sively on this continent; indeed the only one

villages with Manuel Lisa’s fur trading boats to
St. Louis in 1811, and was again in St. Louis in
1834 for the last time, when on his way to the
Pacific coast.

eo. Engleman considers him entitled to be
called the Father of Western American Botany,
and at his suggestion a plain stone monument
has been erected in the Missouri Botanical
Garden, inscribed
TO THE MEMORY OF
THOMAS NUTTALL,
BORN IN ENGLAND, 1786.
HONOR TO THE ZEALOUS
AND SUCCESSFUL NATURALIST,
THE FATHER OF WESTERN AMERICAN
BOTANY,
THE WORTHY COMPEER OF BARTON,
MICHAUX, HOOKER, TORREY -AND GRAY.
DIED SEPT, 1859, AGED 73 YEARS.

NUTTALL. 29

Nuttallia Speen, a Californian wild
cherry.—Tor

Nuttallia Papaver and N. Cordata, two Amer-
ican shrubs.—Dick.

Several plants kava specific names in honor of
Nuttall. His portrait, painted by Clifford, copied
from an original in Philadelphia, is in our mu-
seum,