Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/499

Rh manuscript for his "Flora Americanæ Septentrionalis." Pursh published the most interesting of these plants in an appendix to his work, and this seems to have discouraged Bradbury from publishing as extensively upon them as he probably would have otherwise done. In 1817 Bradbury published his journal of travels on the Missouri in the years 1809-10-11, and in an appendix to this gave a list of the rare and most interesting plants of his collections. He did not, however, issue a complete list, and so far as now known no such list has ever been published. The second edition of his travels was issued in 1819, and in the editor's preface it is stated that Mr. Bradbury had already returned to St. Louis and taken up his residence there. Baldwin, who passed through St. Louis in 1819 with the Long expedition, mentions meeting Mr. Bradbury there at that time. His name is given in the St. Louis city directory for 1821, but no definite information regarding him after this date has yet been found.

During the early part of the nineteenth century it was the policy of the national government to send expeditions of a military character to explore the unknown sections of the western country. Shortly after Bradbury made his tour of the Missouri, an expedition was fitted out and placed under the command of Major S. H. Long. This was intended to make more complete and detailed exploration of the Missouri and its main tributaries, and to make more accurate scientific observations of the country passed through. The necessity of having competent scientific men accompany the expedition was recognized, and several such men were appointed for the purpose.

The botanist of the expedition was Dr. William Baldwin. He was a son of a minister of the. Friends in Pennsylvania, being born in Newlin, Chester County, in 1779. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and took his degree in 1807. Meanwhile he had become interested in the study of botany, and upon settling in Wilmington, Delaware, to commerce practising his profession, he collected extensively in the vicinity. Pulmonary weakness forced him to remove to Georgia in 1811, where he served as surgeon to a gunboat flotilla during the war of 1812. He kept up his collecting and study of the plants of this new region, and because of his ability as a botanist he received an appointment as surgeon to the U. S. frigate Congress, during a cruise to various South American ports. Baldwin made extensive collections and notes wherever opportunity offered, and he returned with a