tenance, fully appear in the valuable work of Mr. Pursh, which contains the united discoveries of this gentleman and Mr. Nuttall.
With a view still farther to elucidate this point, and to give you, in the fairest way possible, such an history of his improvements in science, as your resolution appointing me to perform this duty, requires—I shall beg your patience for a short time, while I briefly enumerate his various works, their titles, and their extent, by affixing the number of pages in each. Such a catalogue will not only enable each of you to make your own deduction on the subject, but it may perhaps, be a mean of giving you some useful information respecting the number, the nature and extent of Dr. Barton's works—some of which are, in this country, as yet unknown. They are, so far as I can collect them as follow:
- De Hyoscyamo nigro—the Harveyan prize dissertation, before mentioned, 1787. (I am doubtful if this is printed.)
- On some parts of natural history, &c. &c. his first work, before mentioned, published in London in 1787—octavo, about 80 pages with an engraving.
- A memoir concerning the fascinating faculty which has been ascribed to the rattlesnake and other North American serpents; first edition, octavo, 36 pages—1796.
- Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United States. Read before the Philadelphia Medical Society on the twenty-first day of February 1798—49 pages, octavo.
did flower expands only in the evening, suddenly opening after remaining closed during the day, and diffusing a most agreeable odour. It may justly rank, (he adds) with the most splendid plants of either America, and very probably inhabits Mexico, if not South America.
"The other species, Bartonia polypetala, he describes as a perennial, growing on gravelly hills, near the Grand Detour; and flowering in August.
"In the latter end of the year 1811, Mr. Nuttall returned to England by the way of New Orleans. Previously to his departure, he transmitted to me a number of the dried specimens and seeds which he had collected. Among these there were specimens of both species of Bartonia, together with a good collection of seeds. At the same time, he sent me a manuscript kook, in which he has given pretty full descriptions of the two plants by the names which I have already mentioned, viz. Bartonia superba and Bartonia polypetala."
