86

H1STORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES.

PAFTT I..

age of 16 years he was placed with a respectable merchant ofPhiladelphia, with whom he continued six years; after which hewent to North Carolina, with a vievv of doing business there asa merchant: but, being ardently attached to the study of botany,he reiinquished his mercantile pursuits, and accompanied hisfather in a journey into East Florida, to explore the naturalproductions of that country; after which he settled on the riverSt. John’s, in this region, and finally returned, about the year1771, to his father’s residence. In 1773, at the request of Dr.Fothergill of London, he embarked for Charleston, to examinethe natural productions of the Floridas and the Western parts ofCarolina and Georgia, chiefly in the vegetable kingdom. In thisemployment he was engaged nearly five years, and made nume-rous contributions to the natural history of the country throughwhich he travelled. His collections and drawings were for-warded to Dr. Fothergill; and about the year 1790 he publishedan account of his travels and discoveries in one volume 8vo, withan account of the manners and customs of the Creeks, Chero-kees, and Choctaws. This work soon acquired extensive popu-larity, and is stili frequently consulted. After his return fromhis travels, he devoted himself to Science, and, in 1782, waselected professor of botany in the university of Pennsylvania,which post he declined in consequence of the state of his health.In 1786 he was elected a member of the American PhilosophicalSociety, and was a member of several other learned societies inEurope and America. We are indebted to him for the know-ledge of many curious and beautiful plants peculiar to NorthAmerica, and for the most complete and correct table of Ame-rican ornithology, before the work of Wilson, who was assistedby him in the commencement of his American Ornithology. Hewrote an article on the natural history of a piant a few minutesbefore his death, which happened suddenly, by the rupture ofablood-vessel in the lungs, July 22. 1823, in the 85th year of hisage. ( Ibid.)

In Scotland, as we have seen (p. 48.), very little was done inthe way of introducing foreign trees and shrubs during theseventeenth century; though the rudiments of this descriptionof improvement were laid about the end of it, by the establish-ment of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. Reid, in his ScotsGardenei', published in 1683, mentions very few trees andshrubs. The most rare of these are, the evergreen oak, thecypress, and the arbutus. He says there are the Indian andSpanish jasmines, myrtles, oleanders, and orange trees, whichsome are at great pains in governing; but he adds, “ for mypart I would rather be in the woods, parks, &c., measuringplanting, and improving.” (p. 112.) Those who are curious mtrees and other plants, he refers to the catalogue of the “learned