Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/496

492 the river, progress was slow, thus affording opportunity for a considerable amount of collecting to be done. During the ascent of the river quite an extensive collection of plants was made, but this had to be left behind when the Rocky Mountains were crossed, and was consequently lost. During the much more hurried return of the expedition another collection was made, but it was much smaller than the first, and comparatively few species seem to have been collected about St. Louis. While this expedition did but little for St. Louis botany directly, it turned the public attention to this section, and finally led to careful botanical exploration by a number of capable botanists a few years later.

Captain Meriwether Lewis was born near the town of Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 18, 1774. His family was one of the most

distinguished of that state. Several of his uncles were very prominent in their time, one of them having married a sister of George