Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/363

 THOMAS JEFFERSON IN RELATION TO BOTANY 357

Biyer Jefferson, that is specifically different from the other, hut I have not given it a specific hotanical name/^ He closes his letter hy re- ferring to another subject which is quoted as showing his attitude to- ward Jefferson in a botanical matter.

I would thank yon to inform me whether 70U take the Glocester nut to be a distinct species as announced by Michaux f. (Juglana ladniosa) or whether if only a variety it is nearer allied to the Juglans tomentosa Mich, or to the /. sguamosa Mich, fi, the J, aXba of his father.

But I must not quote more of this interesting correspondence.

In time, through the help of Abbi Gorrga de Serra and others, Jefferson was able to rescue a considerable part of the notes of the Lewis and Clark expedition from their various hiding places and to get them into the hands of a publisher, Paul Allen, for whom he wrote a brief biographical sketch of Meriwether Lewis.

Speaking simmiarily of Jefferson's relation to the Lewis and Clark expedition, it is clear that Jefferson inspired and sustained this famous enterprise, determined its course and in the end, outliving all others who had had a scientific interest in the enterprise, secured the benefits of its results to the country. Viewed broadly, this expedition was per- haps Jefferson's greatest contribution to science in general and to botany in particular.

During the years of retirement at Monticello, he took an interest in whatever was happening in the world of ideas. His correspondence with botanists at that period touches on all phases of the science then developing. The old artificial system of classification proposed by Linnseus had proved a great blessing when it was formulated, but as the study of life became more thorough and comprehensive, it is not surprising that new standpoints should have developed and that some system of arrangement should have been sought that in a certain ideal way would express more f uUy the truths of aflSnity and relationship than did the Linnsean system. Hence, it came about that the so-called '' Natural System" associated with the name of Laurent de Jussieu formulated in his ^'Qenera Plantarum" attracted much attention in the scientific world in 1789. In those days ideas were propagated rather slowly from their point of origin and it was not till nearly twenty-five years later that the reign of the Linnsean system was challenged in America. In 1815, the Abb6 Correa de Serra, then lecturing on botany in the College of Philadelphia in succession to Benj. S. Barton, reduced Muhlenberg's " Catalogue " to the Natural System for the use of his hearers. Jefferson, in hia retirement, was not entirely outside of the reach of ensuing botanical controversy. Since his opinion seems to have been solicited by numerous correspondents on many subjects of disagreement, we are not surprised to find Dr. John Manners subjecting the aged ex-president to a catechetical examination on the articles of his taxonomic faith. On January 24, 1814, Dr. Manners desires to know the comparative merits of the different methods of classifica-

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