Page:A Biographical Sketch (of B. S. Barton) - William P. C. Barton.djvu/27

Rh country, to cull the rich and unknown treasures, particularly among the vegetable productions, which he believed were there; and to obtain information respecting every curious and useful subject of natural history, that invited the attention of the naturalist. Unable, from his professional engagements, to travel himself, and search out these curious spoils, he employed the talents of others, whom taste may have qualified, while their circumstances incapacitated them for such pursuits. To these he afforded, liberally, the requisite funds, and necessary information. The only remuneration Dr. Barton received for these unequivocal demonstrations of his love for science, were the acquisition to Himself and others, of useful and novel information, and the thanks and acknowledgments of those who were the subjects of his liberality. In proof of the above remarks, I may here not unappropriately cite, from the late valuable publication of Mr. Pursh, on our American plants, the following passage, alike honourable to the memory of Dr. Barton, and to the good feelings of Mr. Pursh:

"Within this period [between 1802 and 1805] I had also formed a connexion with Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, professor of botany, &c. in the university of Pennsylvania, &c. whose industrious researches in all the different branches of natural history are so well known to the literary world. He likewise, for some time previous, had been collecting specimens for an American flora. As I was now very anxious to explore the remote parts of the country, particularly the interesting ranges of the Allegany mountains, I was enabled by the kind assistance of this gentleman, to take a more extensive range for my botanical excursions, which, during my stay at the Woodlands, had been confined within a comparatively small compass, the necessary attention to the duties of that establishment not permitting me to devote more time to them. Accordingly, in the beginning of 1805, I set out for the mountains and western territories of the southern states, beginning at Maryland and extending to the Carolinas (in which tract the interesting high mountains of Virginia and Carolina took my particular attention) and returned late in the autumn through the lower countries, along the sea-coast to Philadelphia."—Flora Americae Septentrionalis, by Frederick Pursh, London, pref. p. ix.

I have made this full quotation, that every one may see for himself the extent of country over which Mr. Pursh travelled at the expense of his patron and employer.

Dr. Barton also extended his assistance to a young English botanist, a Mr. Nuttall, "whose zeal and services," to use the words of Dr. Barton, "have contributed essentially to extend our knowledge of the north-western and western flora of North America; and to whom the work of Frederick Pursh is under