Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817) who not only assisted the American Revolutionaries but also designed and built the cliff-side gardens at West Point
THOMAS JEFFERSON IN RELATION TO BOTANY
By RODNEY H. TRUE from The Scientific Monthly, Volume 3. 1916
During retirement at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson took an interest in whatever was happening in the world of ideas. His correspondence with botanists touches on all phases of the science then developing.
The old system of classification proposed by Linnaeus had proved a blessing when it was formulated, but as the study of life became more 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 fully the truths of relationships than did the Linnsean system. Hence, it came about that the so-called "Natural System" associated with the name Laurent de Jussieu formulated in his "Genera Plantarum" attracted attention in the scientific world in 1789.
In those days ideas were propagated slowly from their origin and it was not till nearly twenty-five years later that the Linnsean system was challenged in America. In 1815, the Abbe Correa de Serra, then lecturing on botany in the College of Philadelphia in reduced Muhlenberg's "Catalogue" to the Natural System for the use of his hearers.
The State of Virginia in 1818, appropriated the sum of $15,000 to be devoted to the building, equipment & manning of a State University. Likewise, through the influence of Jefferson, it came eventually to be located at Charlottesville. Jefferson was chosen head of the institution. In calling him to be rector of the university, the authorities could have hardly known how well they had chosen. Jefferson, already beyond his three score and ten, now turned architect and planned and caused to be built those structures which have made the University of Virginia one of the famous shrines of the building art in America.
Then came the filling of 8 professorships, chiefly by men from abroad. That of Natural History was filled on March, 1825, by the appointment of Dr. John Patten Emmett of New York, who was called to occupy not a chair, but as somebody else has said, "a bench," for he gave instruction in chemistry, botany, zoology, mineralogy & geology. Being himself a chemist one is not surprised to find him in the following year pleading with the rector for a laboratory room for his chemistry work. It seems likely that he found it hard to get time for the botany since Jefferson seems to have been compelled to write him a letter asking him to plan on getting his botany courses into operation. This letter shows the same energy, foresight, and sense for the practicable that put through the exploration of Louisiana. It is full of the enthusiasm for botany that he looked for in his young professor, but what is more to our present purpose, it gives a clear idea of what was taught under the name of botany in those days, and what equipment was regarded as necessary. On April 27, 1826, he wrote to Dr. Emmett as follows:
"Dear Sir: It is time to think of the introduction of the School of Botany into our Institution. Not that I suppose the lectures can be begun in the present year, but that we may this year make the preparations necessary for commencing them the next, for that branch, I presume, can be taught advantageously only during the short season while Nature is in general bloom, say, only during a certain portion of the months of April and May, when suspending the other branches of your department, that of Botany may claim your exclusive attention. Of this, however, you are to be the judge, as well as of what I may now propose on the subject of preparation."
He then refers to suggestions made at his request by the late Abbe Correa regarding the most advisable way of utilizing a plot of 6 acres of ground available for a botanic garden. The lower flatter stretches were best used for the garden of plants, the terraced hill slopes for the arboretum. Owing to no funds a greenhouse was not to be considered. This area was to be enclosed and a gardener of sufficient skill was to be engaged.
He then continues:
"Make out a list of the plants thought necessary and sufficient for botanical purposes, and of the trees we propose to introduce and take measures in time for procuring them. As to the seeds of plants, much may be obtained from the gardeners of our own country. I have, moreover, a special resource. For three and twenty years of the past twenty-five, my good friend Thouin, Superintendent of the Garden of Plants at Paris, has regularly sent me a box of seeds, of such exotics, as would suit our climate, and containing nothing indigenous to our country. These I regularly sent to the public and private gardens of the other states, having as yet no employment for them here. But during the last two years this envoi has been intermitted, I know not why. I will immediately write and request a recommencement ofthat kind office, on the ground that we can now employ them ourselves. They can be here in the early spring.The trees I should propose would be exotics of distinguished usefulness, and accommodated to our climate. Such as the Larch, Cedar of Libanus, cork-oak, the Marronier (Spanish Chestnut), Mahogany?, the catachu or Indian rubber tree of Napul (30°), Teak tree or Indian oak ofBurman (23°) the various woods of Brazil, etc. The seed of the Larch can be obtained from a tree at Monticello, cones of the cedar of Libanus are in most of our seedshops, or may be had fresh from the trees in English gardens. The Marronier and cork-oak, I can obtain from France. There is a Marronier at Mount Vernon, but it is a seedling, and not therefore select. The others may be got through our Ministers and Consuls in the countries where they grow, or from the seed shops of England where they may very possibly be found."
He closes his letter with a characteristic clause, "but let us at once enter on the operations..." In his day Jefferson was the recipient of many honors conferred by societies and universities in America and Europe. DeKay, the naturalist, referred to him in his late years as "the Great Patriarch of American Natural History." His own estimate of his life's work is reflected in the epitaph beneath which he desired to rest: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of Independence, of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom and father of the University of Virginia."
