Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/250

 gave a good account of the country which was then much misunderstood and misrepresented, and resulted in correcting many erroneous ideas regarding that section of the American continent. It contained many very valuable data concerning the meteorology, geology, topography and botany of the region. Among the valuable results of this tour was a botanical collection containing many new plants which were classified and described by Dr. Geo. Engelmann, of St. Louis, who commemorated the valuable services of Wislizenus to science by applying his name to a new genus, Wislizenia, as well as to several of the new species of the collection.

Wislizenus again returned to St. Louis from Washington upon the completion of his report, and served faithfully during the cholera epidemic of 1849. As soon as this was over, however, he went to Constantinople in 1850 to bring back with him as his bride, Miss Lucy Crane, a sister-in-law of Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, whom he had met while in Washington. After visiting his old home in Thüringen and the large cities of the Old World, the two returned to the United States. Leaving his wife with her friends in the east, he went to Panama and California in search of a more desirable location. But he again returned to St. Louis and finally settled down permanently. He was one of the founders of the St. Louis Academy of Science and an active worker and one of the officers of the St. Louis Medical Society and of the Western Academy of Sciences. He was for many years president of the German Medical Society of St. Louis. His barometrical observations and his botanical and mineralogical collections, together with his memoir, are distinct additions to science. He was interested in meteorology from 1858 till his death, and in 1861 he commenced to study the atmospheric electricity with the belief that this would be of value in connection with meteorology. He discontinued this study, however, upon arriving at the conclusion that it was valueless in this connection—a fact which is now generally acknowledged. His last days were spent in seclusion, he being closely confined to the house by his infirmities and the loss of his sight. He died on September 22, 1889, in his eightieth year.

In 1851 there began a most important movement for the advancement of botany in St. Louis. In that year, Mr. Henry Shaw, while on his last visit to Europe, first conceived the idea of establishing for himself a country estate on lines similar to those of many of the large English ones. In fact he had already started to build a home in the country district west of St. Louis;

This idea of a large private estate seems to have soon become changed to that of a botanical garden, for in 1857 he commenced active