1787 Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879) Medical Botanist

Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879)

Harvard tells us that Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879). was born in Sudbury, Massachusetts. He has been variously described as the son of a Congregational minister and the son of a farmer. After obtaining his A.B. from Harvard in 1806, he attended medical lectures under Dr. John Gorham while teaching at the Boston Latin School. 
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Magnolia glauca - small magnolia
Sometime after 1808, Bigelow left Harvard for the University of Pennsylvania, earning his M.D. in 1810. During this time he also studied under Benjamin Smith Barton, "and so had his botanical knowledge considerably augmented." 
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Sanguinaria canadensis (blood root)
He practiced medicine by himself for a year without much financial success and then began a practice in Boston with Dr. James Jackson in 1811. This practice was quite successful, and for the next 60 or so years Dr. Bigelow "ranked next to his venerable senior, the most popular practicioner of the city"  
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Rubus villosus (tall blackberry)
Beginning in 1812, Bigelow lectured on botany at Harvard with W. D. Peck; the interest shown in his lectures led him to compile his Florula Bostoniensis, the first systematic plant survey of the flora indigenous to Boston, published in 1814. Second and third editions followed, the second becoming the leading manual of the plants of New England for some three decades following its publication.
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Rhododendron maximum (american rose bay)
The following year (1815) he was appointed professor of materia medica at the Harvard Medical School, a post he retained until 1855. With Dr. Francis Boott he began work on a flora of New England. 
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Nymphea odorata - sweet scented water lily
From 1817-1820, he published American Medical Botany, for which he drew many of the plates and devised the means of reproducing them through a color aqua-tint process.
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Nicotina tabacum (tobacco) from The American Medical Botany, along with William Barton's Vegetable Materia Medica, publication of which was almost simultaneous, Bigelow's book was one of the first two American botanical books with colored illustrations. American Medical Botany: being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and the arts was published in 6 parts, later bound into 3 volumes, appearing in 1817-1820.

Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Menyanthes trifoliata (buck bean)
As his work in developing a process for printing the plates of his American Medical Botany shows, Bigelow was also interested in mechanics. This interest led to his appointment as Rumford Professor at Harvard College, a position endowed for the purpose of teaching the application of science to useful arts. Bigelow held this position from 1816-1827. Bigelow's interest in mechanics and non-biological sciences also led to the publication of his Elements of Technology in 1829. 
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817-20. Iris versicolor, Blue flag, or flower de luce
Bigelow taught botany at Harvard University while maintaining his medical practice. He also was the botanist & landscape architect for Mount Auburn Cemetery. The cemetery was founded in 1831, as "America's first garden cemetery," or the first "rural cemetery," with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain. The use of this gentle of landscape coincides with the rising popularity of the term cemetery, as opposed to graveyard. Cemetery evolves from the Greek term for "a sleeping place." The 174 acre Massachusetts cemetery is important both for its historical precedents & for its role as an arboretum.
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Bigelow also was active in the preparation of the first U.S. Pharmacopoeia, wrote on medical topics and on education, and played a major role in the establishment and design of Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. He was president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1847-1863, and was a member of that organization for 67 years. 
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
In addition to being a doctor, professor and botanist, Bigelow was also a poet. His Eolopoesis, American Rejected Addresses was published anonymously In 1855. Bigelow married Mary Scollay in 1817, and died in Boston on January 10, 1879. He was laid to rest in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. He is remembered in the genus Bigelowia in the family Compositae, named by De Candolle.
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Apocynum androsaemifolium (dog's bane)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Datura stramonium (thorn apple)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Euphorbia ipecacuanha
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Geranium maculatum (common cranesbill)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Ictodes foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Illicium foridanum (starry anise)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Laurus sassafras (sassafras tree)

See:
Bailey, L.H., Jr. "Some North American Botanists: V. Jacob Bigelow." Botanical Gazette 8(5): 217-222.

Gray, Asa. "Dr. Jacob Bigelow." The American Journal of Science and Arts Third Series. 17(100): 263-266.

Elliott, Clark A. Biographical Dictionary of American Science: The Seventeenth through the Nineteenth Centuries. 1979.


Kelly, Howard A. "Jacob Bigelow." Some American Medical Botanists. Troy, New York : The Southworth Company Publishers, 1914.
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. , Datura stramonium, Thorn apple.

1774 Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) Collecting America's Native Plants

"Like most people of his day, Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) was knowledgeable about plants. His mother was an herbalist, & as an agriculturist he was interested in plants of economic importance. Thus, when Jefferson assigned Lewis the task of naturalist it was natural that Lewis would focus, as Jefferson instructed him, on medicinal plants, plants of economic value such as corn, wheat, grasses, fodder, & plants that would have been of horticulture interest, as Jefferson had a large garden & was very much interested in horticulture plants.

"For Jefferson, the decision not to send a true naturalist, but rather one that was semi-trained was both fortunate & unfortunate. For the botanical community the fact that Jefferson did not send a naturalist meant that only a few select specimens were collected. Nonetheless, the more than two hundred specimens that reached Philadelphia, from the activities of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, signified the richness of the flora of the Pacific Northwest & particularly the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho & Western Montana.

"Lewis’s collection activities were limited to opportunities when he had a chance to collect. As captain he had many other duties besides looking for new plants. Thus it was, we know from his journals, that not only did he collect, but so did some of the other men. There are even indications that Sacagawea or Saka Kawea collected plants as well.

"Lewis's collecting activities were not described by him, but looking at contemporaries, it is clear that Lewis used a small hand press. This allowed him to collect small samples that he would then dry over a period of days. Because he had no other means of drying these plants other than sunshine he was very careful what he collected. For example; he avoided cactus & all kinds of succulent plants except for two—both sedums, or rock plants. He collected lots of grasses, because they were economically important as food. He collected crop plants that were grown by the native people. And he collected a bountiful number of wildflowers, particularly in 1806 as he crossed the Rocky Mountains.

"Some of the plants that Lewis collected were found along the Lolo Trail in late June of 1806, & then across Lewis & Clark Pass in early July of 1806. Many of those species are represented in his herbarium & may be seen even today along the Lewis & Clark Trail.

"Lewis's tendency was to collect specimens that he could, in a small sample, show all of the detail that he needed to show. Thus, he tended to collected plants in good flower & occasionally, if he felt it was important as a medicinal plant, in fruit, so he could then grow seeds from the plant once he returned the material to Philadelphia.

"Seeds were commonly collected in 1805 particularly along the Columbia River. Very few seeds were collected in 1806 on the return trip. Numerous specimens & seeds were collected as they ascended the Missouri River in 1804.

"Lewis's interest in the wildflowers of what we now call the Rocky Mountains was much as any individual's today. They are abundant & beautiful & easy to collect. The success of his collection resulted in the discovery of three new genera, one named for him, one named for Clark, & another named for the character of the plant. Several new species were collected. And, most that you see surrounding us here today were collected by Lewis & were named from his specimens.

"Lewis's plant press was probably in the form of a book. A very large book, probably twelve by eighteen inches. It may or may not have been bound on the one side. This is a traditional plant press that you find in China. It is made out of bamboo & consists of a flat strong surface that specimens can be placed in. Lewis used paper much like you used as a youngster in kindergarten. A kind of construction paper. It was folded in half & the specimen placed in between. Now, Lewis's paper was twelve by eighteen when folded, this is half that. You'll notice that the paper is absorbent. This way the specimen's moisture would go into the paper, be absorbed by the paper, & then the specimen could be slowly dried. But in drying, everyday Lewis had to open his press, remove the old pages that were damp, lay them in the sunshine, allow them to dry, & move his plants into new paper so they would continue to dry.

"Modern botany is quite different from Lewis's day. We use very large presses & in a good operation you'll run three to five presses, filling each during the course of a day. Each press consists of about room for one hundred different specimens. We are able to dry these very rapidly using what is known as a Holmgren drying frame, by putting a heat source underneath, a coleman stove or electric light bulbs. The heat rises through the corrugates, the holes in the corrugates, & will dry plants overnight, if not during the course of twenty-four hours.

"Today we are in Packer Meadow on the Clearwater National Forest. This was a lunch stop for the Lewis & Clark Expedition in late June of 1806. Very likely, because Lewis had collected so many plants coming up the Lolo Trail, he took time out during that lunch break to work his plant specimens. Lewis would open his press & open up, in his case, each individual page of his press. Coming on to his first specimen he would then take a look at it, make sure that the leaves were flat & that all the diagnostic characters of the flowers were shown so they could be studied. He would repeat this for each specimen &, if necessary, would replace the paper with new paper.

"This is the common camas that Lewis & his men experienced in 1805. Tradition says that Lewis & Clark & his men became ill from eating the bulbs. That's probably not true. More likely the culprit was salmonella poisoning associated with the dried—poorly dried—salmon.

"It's interesting that Lewis collected the Canadian Dogwood or Cornus candadensis. This is a plant he knew well from Virginia. It's interesting to speculate whether he collected it because he knew it, collected it because he wanted to show that something from Virginia also grew in the Rocky Mountains, or what. Maybe he was homesick. The other specimen that I have here is the new genus of mariposa lily collected by Lewis & Clark along the Lolo Trail in Idaho & Montana in late June & early July. This is Calicortis pulcella, or "beautiful mariposa lily".

"Two specimens that Lewis would have handled during the stop in Packer Meadow is a skyrocket, this little high elevation blue flower which occurs near the summit, & also near the summit is this species of menzesia, named for the surgeon naturalist Archibald Menzies who preceded Lewis & Clark in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1790's. Menzies collected only along the coast, & this is one of those species that goes from the coast to the high mountains in the Rockies. Lewis was very judicious in what he collected. He made only small specimens. Even though this is a large shrub he would have collected only a little bit of it. The reason is simple, someone had to carry it to Philadelphia.

"A specimen has three dimensions: odor, good color & a feel of surroundings, not seen on a flattened dried specimen. And yet, all the technical details necessary for identification, the number of petals, sepals, stamens, the condition of the ovary & fruit, the leaves, even the habitat of the plant can be nicely preserved in any specimen. Occasionally if you have a tree or a shrub it is necessary to make notes indicating the size of the tree or the shrub. This Lewis did on occasions, & we now have his original notes to go by.

"This plant has bulbs. They are thick & fleshy. Drying one of those would be very difficult. Thus, Lewis rarely collected any succulent plant & certainly none of the bulbs that would require days, if not years, to dry. In fact, the reason Lewisia rediviva is called Lewisia rediviva is the genus name honors Lewis but the species name, or epithet, rediviva means revived. That's because the specimen that Lewis made at Travelers' Rest July 1, 1806, was still alive when it reached Philadelphia in September of that year. The specimen that Lewis returned to Philadelphia with, that would later be called Lewisia rediviva, was removed from his collection paper & grown in Philadelphia. It was observed for almost a full year before it suddenly died. Very likely, as everyone knows, over watering plants can be dangerous & deadly, & certainly that's the case with Lewisia.

"Meriwether Lewis described his plants in his journals. He had his training from Barton in Philadelphia, but he also had with him two volumes of John Miller's book on Linnaeus's system of botany. One was an illustration of the terminology of the Linnaean system & the other was on the system itself. So what Lewis could do is, he could use these two books & write his descriptions in a very technical way, so botanists who read the journals would be able to have that information.

"As a naturalist, Lewis has been fairly highly regarded by the modern community. He worked under trying & difficult situations. While it is clear that he was only able to devote a portion of his time to the effort, what he did is widely respected. It should be noted however, that in 1811, Thomas Nuttall of England, went up the Missouri River & collected several hundred more specimens than Lewis & Clark did in 1804. In 1834 & 1835 Thomas Nuttall came to the Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Oregon & Washington & collected hundreds of specimens. Many of the plants that Lewis & Clark found, that were not named in Lewis' time were subsequently named by Thomas Nuttall from his own collections."

By James L. Reveal, Professor Emeritus, Botany University of Maryland, Supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Governor's Lewis & Clark Trail Committee

Amos Eaton (1776-1842) Promotes Botany & Women in 19C Education

Amos Eaton (1776-1842) was born in Chatham New York.. His father, Captain Abel Eaton was a farmer of comfortable means. His family traced its lineage to John Eaton, who arrived from Dover, England in 1635, settling in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 

Amos Eaton by the age of 16 constructed his own compass & chain to survey land as a chain bearer. Eaton studied at Williams College. After graduating in 1799 with high marks in natural philosophy, 

Despite an interest in the natural sciences, Amos Eaton then undertook the more practical & potentially lucrative study of law in New York City. He was admitted to the state bar in 1802. From 1802 to 1810 he practiced law & worked as a land agent & surveyor in Catskill, New York. 

In 1811 Eaton was imprisoned on charges of forgery in a land dispute. Although Eaton & many others always maintained his innocence he spent nearly 5 years in jail. During his incarceration he began a course of scientific studies & upon his 1815 release spent a year at Yale College studying botany, chemistry & mineralogy. 

He then returned to Williams College to offer a science course of lectures including botany & published a botanical dictionary. In 1817, he published his Manual of Botany for the Northern States, the first comprehensive flora of the area; it ultimately went through 8 editions.

After co-founding the Rensselaer School in 1824, Van Rensselaer appointed Eaton to teach botany &  land surveying. Eaton developed a new kind of institutional approach to learning devoted to the application of science to life. Eaton's original aim was to also train teachers. 

Eaton's system of practical hands-on instruction caused traditional liberal-arts colleges to expand their own curricula & set up departments or schools of engineering & science. After becoming professor of natural history at Harvard College in 1842, Asa Gray required some practical work of all of his students in botany along the lines established by Amos Eaton.

Eaton promoted science education for women, he had lectured them on his tour of New England, & he was persuaded that their failure in science was caused by inferior opportunity, not "perversion of female genius." Eaton, clearly hoped to educate females at the school. He believed that women were capable of learning practical science & mathematics; they simply had not been taught the subjects at traditional female academies. His commitment led Eaton to enroll a class of 8 young women in a special mathematics course to show that they could advance beyond "the speculative geometry & algebra as generally practiced in female seminaries." The 8 young ladies who participated in Eaton's experiment continued their education at the Troy Female Seminary. 

Among a long list of books, Amos Eaton published 

Elementary Treatise on Botany (1810)

Botanical Dictionary (1817) (2nd 1819, 4th ed. 1836)

Manual of Botany (1817)

Botanical Exercises (1825)

Botanical Grammar & Dictionary (1828)

Botany Books & Herbals owned in Early America - Isaiah Thomas' (1749–1831)

Isaiah Thomas (1749–1831), of Worcester, MA owned: Hortus sanitatus major by Jacob Meidenbach. The Hortus Sanitatis (also written Ortus; Latin for The Garden of Health), a Latin natural history encyclopaedia, was published by Jacob Meydenbach in Mainz, Germany in 1491. It describes species in the natural world along with their medicinal uses & modes of preparation. It followed the Latin Herbarius moguntinus (1484) & the German Gart der Gesundheit (1485), that Peter Schöffer had published in Mainz. An English version of extracts from the Hortus, the Noble lyfe & natures of man, of bestes, serpentys, fowles & fisshes, was produced in 1491 by Laurence Andrew (fl. 1510–1537). Ortus sanitatis 4th edition; 3rd Strasbourg edition. Published 1499 by J. Prüss in Strasbourg. 

Thomas was founder of the American Antiquarian Society, printer, publisher, and author of The History of Printing in America (1810). This library formed the core of the original collections of the American Antiquarian Society.  This catalog contains the library of Isaiah Thomas, as documented in an octavo volume titled "Catalogue of The private Library of Isaiah Thomas, Senior, Of Worcester, Massachusetts. Taken in March, in the Year 1812." 

On a preceding leaf, Thomas writes "The following Catalogue of Books is presented to the American Antiquarian Society, to be the exclusive property of said Society to all intents and purposes so long as it shall continue a body corporate, pursuant to the provisions of the Act of incorporation of said Society. By Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, July 12, 1812."

Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753 -1815) Pennsylvania Botanist

Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753-1815) was an American clergyman and botanist. The son of Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, he was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania. He was educated in Germany at Franckesche Stiftungen in Halle, then 1763-1769 at the University of Halle. He returned to Pennsylvania in September 1770, and was ordained as a Lutheran minister. He served first in Pennsylvania and then as a pastor in New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Princeton University.

He married Mary Catherine Hall in 1774, with whom he would have eight children. Despite his family beginning to take root in Philadelphia, Muhlenberg found he had no choice but to flee Philadelphia upon the outbreak of Revolutionary War hostilities in the region. Returning to his hometown of Trappe, he took up the study of botany.

He served as the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania from 1780 through 1815. In 1785, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. In 1787, he was also made the first president of Franklin College. 

In 1779, he retired and devoted himself to the study of botany. He is best known as a botanist. Muhlenbergia, a well-known genus of grasses, was named in his honor. His chief works are Catalogus Plantarum Americae Septentrionalis (1813) and Descriptio Uberior Graminum et Plantarum Calamariarum Americae Septentrionalis Indiginarum et Cicurum (1817).

By his thorough work, his publications, his collections, and his correspondence with European botanists, he did much to advance the knowledge of American botany. The Henry Ernest Muhlenberg papers, which contains scientific letters written to Muhlenberg, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

The Henry Ernest Muhlenberg papers, which contains scientific letters written to Muhlenberg, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

1743 Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) - Botany Books & Herbals owned in Early America

Thomas Jefferson's (1743-1826) Library Books on Botany:

Theatrum botanicum : the theater of plants, or An Herball of large extent by John Parkinson

Letters on the elements of botany, addressed to a lady by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Syllabus of the course of lectures on botany, delivered in Columbia College by David Hosack

Elements of botany: or Outlines of the natural history of vegetables by Benjamin Smith Barton

Circular address on botany and zoology : followed by the prospectus of two periodical works, Annals of nature and Somiology of North America by C. S. (Constantine Samuel) Rafinesque

Explication du système botanique du Chevalier von Linné; pour servir d'introduction à l'étude de la botanique by Antoine Gouan

Flora virginica, exhibens plantas quas v. c. Johannes Clayton in Virginia observavit atque collegit by Joh. Fred Gronovius

Florula ludoviciana; or, A flora of the state of Louisiana by abbé Robin

De distributione geographica plantarum secundum coeli temperiem et altitudinem montium, prolegomena by Alexander von Humboldt

Tentamen medicum inaugurale, de calore by James McClurg

Dissertatio medica, inauguralis, de coctione alimentorum in ventriculo by Theodorick Bland

Avis pour le transport par mer des arbres, des plantes vivaces, des semences, des animaux by Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau

An account of the sugar maple-tree of the United States : and of the methods of obtaining sugar from it by Benjamin Rush

Arbustrum Americanum - The American grove, or, An alphabetical catalogue of forest trees and shrubs, natives of the by Humphry Marshall

Dioscorides libri octo Graece et Latinae. Castigationes in eosdem librros by Pedanius Dioscorides

Il Dioscoride by Pedanius Dioscorides

Theophrasti Eresii De historia plantarum libri decem, graecè et latinè In quibus textum graecum variis lectionibus, by Theophrastus

Nomenclator botanicus inserviens florae danicae by Georg Christian Oeder

Dictionarium botanicum: or, A botanical dictionary for the use of the curious in husbandry and gardening by Richard Bradley

Historia plantarum, quæ in Horto Academico Lugduni-Batavorum crescunt : cum earum characteribus, & medicinalibus vi by Herman Boerhaave

Manuel des végétaux, ou, Catalogue latin et françois de toutes les plantes, arbres & arbrisseaux connus sur le glob by J. J. de Saint Germain

Theatrum botanicum : the theater of plants, or An Herball of large extent by John Parkinson

Institutiones rei herbariae by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort

Caroli Linnaei ... Philosophia botanica : in qua explicantur fundamenta botanica cum definitionibus partium, exempl by Carl von Linné

Critica botanica : in qua nomina plantarum generica, specifica & variantia examini subjiciuntur, selectiora confirm by Carl von Linné

Caroli v. Linné Equ. aur. de stella polari ... Genera plantarum : eorumque characteres naturales secundum numerum, by Carl von Linné

Species plantarum : exhibentes plantas rite cognitas, ad genera relatas, cum differentiis specificis, nominibus tri by Carl von Linné

Caroli Linnæi doct. med. & Acad. Imp. Nat. Cur. Soc. Flora lapponica : exhibens plantas per Lapponiam crescentes se by Carl von Linné

A system of vegetables, : according to their classes orders genera species with their characters and differences by Carl von Linné

Caroli Linnæi ... Amoenitates academicae; seu, Dissertationes variæ physicæ, medicæ, botanicæ antehac seorsim edit� by Carl von Linné

A dissertation on the sexes of plants by Carl von Linné

The botanic garden : a poem, in two parts. With philosophical notes by Erasmus Darwin

Hortus siccus by Jacob Crowninshield

Flora Virginica, exhibens plantas by Johannes Fredericus Gronovius

Flora carolinæensis; or, A historical, medical, and economical display of the vegetable kingdom; according to the L by John L. E. W. Shecut

Flora caroliniana, secundum systema vegetabilium perillustris Linnæi digesta : characteres essentiales naturalesve by Thomas Walter

Catalogue of plants and seeds, sold by Kennedy and Lee, at the Vineyard, Hammersmith

Flora boreali-americana sistens caracteres plantarum quas in America septentrionali by André Michaux

Le botaniste cultivateur; ou, Description, culture et usages de la plus grande partie des plantes étrangères, natur by Georges Louis Marie Dumont de Courset, baron

Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale, : considérés principalement sous les rapports de leur by François André Michaux

Histoire des chênes de l'Amérique; ou, Descriptions et figures de toutes les espèces et variétés de chênes de l' by André Michaux

An address delivered before the proprietors of the botanic garden in Liverpool previous to opening the garden, May by William Roscoe

A catalogue of plants in the Botanic Garden, at Liverpool by John Shepherd

The botanist Being the botanical part of a course of lectures on natural history, delivered in the university at Ca by Benjamin Waterhouse

Catalogus platanarum Americæ Septentrionalis, huc usque cognitarum indigenarum et cicurum: by Henry Muhlenberg

Synopsis plantarum seu Enchiridium botanicum, complectens enumerationem systematicam specierum hucusque cognitarum by C. H. Persoon

The North American sylva, or, A description of the forest trees, of the United States, Canada and Nova Scotia. Considered particularly with respect to their use in the arts and their introduction into commerce ; to which is added a description of the most useful of the European forest trees. Illustrated by 150 coloured engravings by François André Michaux

Rapport fait a la Société Royale d'Agriculture et de Botanique de Gand, dans sa séance solennelle et publique du 29 juin 1821 by J. B. Delbecq

Mémoire sur les sept espèces d'hommes, et sur les causes des altérations de ces espèces. Ouvrage intéressant pour l'histoire naturelle, les beaux-arts et la civilisation; dédié à tous les souverains de l'Europe by Peyroux de la Coudrenière

1818 Tho Jefferson (1743-1826) Retirement & Botany

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."

1812 Tho Jefferson (1743-1826) Botanical Perseverance

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

By Peggy Cornett, Director
Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants

Twinleaf Journal, January 1995

". . . my wants in the article of plants . . ." 

"I will still add a little to my former wants so as to put me in possession once for all of every thing to which my views extend, & which I do not now possess." -- Jefferson to Bernard McMahon. Monticello, February 16, 1812

As with books and reading, for which he admittedly possessed a "canine appetite," Jefferson craved all types of plants and the "articles" of horticulture. His lifelong correspondence reveals both new and recurring themes in this regard. With agriculture, for example, his efforts to promote the cultivation of olives in the southern states spanned more than three decades. In 1789 He wrote from Paris to William Drayton of Charleston, "I have exceedingly at heart the introduction of [the olive] into Carolina & Georgia being convinced it is one of the most precious productions of nature and contributes the most to the happiness of mankind . . .."   By 1822, he still maintained this conviction in a letter to N. Herbemont, "I have long earnestly wished for the introduction of the Olive into S. Carolina and Georgia . . . ." More often than not, these quests met with little or partial success.

Jefferson similarly pursued North American plants with undaunted fervor. This was particularly evident while he served as minister to France during the 1780s. His frequent requests for plants from home reveal his eagerness to dazzle European aristocrats and savants with the remarkable beauty, size, or curiosity of New World species. Through his only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson championed the natural abundance of his country. Jefferson's friendship with Madame de Tessé was bound by their mutual love of botany and horticulture and especially the North American flora. For her park at Chaville (on the road to Versailles) Jefferson asked for seed of many native trees and shrubs from American naturalists such as William Bartram and John Banister, grandson of the noted seventeenth-century botanist. In a letter to David Ramsey, a Charleston physician and historian, Jefferson included an unusual request: "Since writing my letter of yesterday a person whom I am very desirous of obliging [Madame de Tessé], has asked me to procure from South Carolina some plants of the Magnolia grandiflora, sometimes called altissima, and some seeds of the Dionaea muscipula." The latter reference was to the remarkable Venus's Flytrap, known also by its Native American name, Tippitiwitchet. This strange, insect-eating plant was first taken to England by William Young in 1768, six years after its discovery by John Bartram and his son William. British botanist John Ellis named it Dionaea, after the Greek goddess of beauty.

William Bartram later chronicled the discovery of the Venus's Flytrap in the saga of his journey through the Carolina's, Georgia, and Florida. In Travels, Bartram recounted the trip made with his father across expansive coastal savannahs in the South. They found the "northern most specimen" of the Southern Magnolia along the boundary of North and South Carolina. There they observed also ". . . an abundance of the ludicrous Dionaea muscipula . . . . This wonderful plant seems to be distinguished in the creation, by the Author of nature, with faculties eminently superior to every other vegetable production . . .." The following description reveals the romantic quality of William Bartram's imaginative prose: ". . . see the incarnate lobes expanding, how gay and sportive they appear! ready on the spring to intrap incautious deluded insects! what artifice! there behold one of the leaves just closed upon a struggling fly, another has gotten a worm; its hold is sure, its prey can never escape -- carnivorous vegetable! Can we after viewing this object, hesitate a moment to confess, that vegetable beings are imbued with some sensible faculties or attributes, similar to those that dignify animal nature; they are organical, living, and self-moving bodies, for we see here, in this plant, motion and volition."

Venus's Flytrap, known also by its Native American name, Tippitiwitchet

Bartram's idea of botanical consciousness to explain the Flytrap's hair-triggered closing response seems curious and whimsical to us today. Interestingly, Jefferson also embraced this theory to some degree, as evidence in an 1809 letter to Margaret Bayard Smith regarding a geranium he kept while President: ". . . if plants have sensibility, as the analogy of their organisation with ours seems to indicate, it [his geranium] cannot but be proudly sensible of her fostering attentions." Philadelphia nurseryman and author Bernard McMahon also echoed this notion in his description of the Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica) in the American Gardener's Calendar, 1806: "The sensibility of this plant is worthy of admiration . . . with the least touch . . . the leaves just like a tree a dying, droop and complicate themselves immediately . . . so that a person would be induced to think they were really endowed with the sense of feeling." Their analogous arguments offer an intriguing perspective on nineteenth-century reasoning.

Benjamin Hawkins, a naturalist from Warrenton, North Carolina, became Jefferson's primary agent in his pursuit of the elusive Flytrap. Hawkins, himself, had collected plants near Wilmington, North Carolina and kept them alive in a box under his pear tree.Yet, despite Jefferson's persistant requests and Hawkins' many promising letters, their efforts to transport Flytraps to France apparently never succeeded. In a letter to Madame de Tessé dated April 25, 1788, Jefferson philosophically warned of such eventualities: "Botany is the school of patience, and its amateurs learn resignation from daily disappointments." And so it was with her Flytrap.

It was not until 1804, toward the end of his first term as President, that he finally received from Timothy Bloodworth his first Flytrap seed. The timing, however, was undoubtedly wrong. Jefferson, deeply entrenched in the "splendid misery" of the Presidency, apparently had no opportunity to devote to his seeds. He kept them until his final retirement to Monticello. There, on April 13, 1809, his 66th birthday, he made a last reference in his Garden Book, ". . . sowed seeds of Dionaea muscipula in a pot. they were several years old . . .."

Another plant that was destined to remain on Jefferson's list of "wants" was the sensational Caracalla Bean (Vigna caracalla). Unlike his repeated Flytrap correspondence, only two exchanges come to us about his interest in this tropical ornamental vine. They again involved his associate, Benjamin Hawkins. In 1792 Jefferson proclaimed to Hawkins, "the most beautiful bean in the world is the Caracalla bean which, though in England a green-house plant, will grow in the open air in Virginia and Carolina. I never could get one of these in my life. They are worth your enquiry." This passage suggests his efforts, though unrecorded, were more aggressive. But how and when did he first encounter the vine? He quite possibly saw it in the greenhouses of Kew gardens which he visited while in England in 1786. Jefferson likely knew of the Caracalla through Philip Miller's The Gardener's Dictionary. The 1768 edition, housed in Jefferson's library, described it as follows: ". . . a kidney-bean with a twining stalk . . .. grows naturally in the Brazils, from whence the seeds were brought to Europe." Miller observed further: "It is very common in Portugal, where the inhabitants plant it to cover arbours and seats in gardens, for which it is greatly esteemed . . . for its beautiful swell smelling flowers . . .." Interestingly, Miller was aware of the difficulties in perfecting seed and overwintering the Caracalla in England, which is also a problem in Virginia.

Bernard McMahon included it in the lengthy appendix of the American Gardener's Calendar, which Jefferson owned. McMahon categorized it under "Hot-House Herbaceous Perennial Plants, &c." as Phaseolus caracalla --Twisted-flowered kidney-bean. Other equally unattractive names for this magnificent vine included Caracol, Snail Flower, and Corkscrew Flower.

By 1839, Robert Buist's The American Flower Garden Directory gave this description: ". . . snail-flower is a very curious blooming plant, with flowers of a greenish yellow, all spirally twisted, in great profusion when the plant is well grown." In his Notes on Edible Plants, Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant observed that this tropical species was often grown for its showy, sweet-scented flowers in the gardens of North and South America, southern Europe, and India. During the 1890s, New York nurseryman and writer Peter Henderson noted that the bluish-lilac flowers were ". . . valued by florists for their delicious fragrance and for their resemblance to Orchids." But, by the early twentieth century, Liberty Hyde Bailey's Cyclopedia observed, "It is an old-fashioned glasshouse plant in cold climates, but is now rarely seen."

It has taken the perseverance of another generation of gardeners, however, to finally bring the beautiful Caracalla to Monticello. It thrives today on bean-pole tripods next to the vegetable garden pavilion -- with blossoms rising overhead -- a sweetly-scented beacon of Jefferson's intent.

1809 Tho Jefferson's (1743-1826) Botanical Garden at the University of Virginia (2009)

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

An Uncultivated Legacy: 

Jefferson’s Botanical Garden at the University of Virginia

By Lily Fox-Bruguiere 2009

Perhaps due to his well-known interest in plants and botany, Thomas Jefferson received a number of letters from various correspondents concerning the establishment of, as well as shipments to, botanical gardens in the United States. William Roscoe, co-founder and first president of the Liverpool Botanic Garden, wrote a letter of introduction to the recently retired Jefferson in 1809 concerning the forthcoming botanical expedition of fellow Englishman John Bradbury. In August 1809, on his way to explore Kentucky and the Louisiana Territory at the behest of the Liverpool Botanic Garden, Bradbury first stopped at Monticello to officially meet Jefferson and also to deliver Roscoe’s Address at the Opening of the Botanic Garden of Liverpool as well as A Catalogue of Plants in the Botanic Garden, at Liverpool (1808). These two documents would have given Jefferson a good idea of the standard mission and typical plant collections of botanical gardens in Europe at the time, which were focusing most of their energies on the support of economic botany for the benefit of the imperial powers.

After returning from his plant-collecting mission to the western frontier in 1812, Bradbury wrote to Jefferson to inquire about rumors relating to the establishment of a botanical garden in the city of Washington. Bradbury hoped to be considered for the position of Superintendent and wondered if Jefferson could put in a good word for him with those in charge of such a venture. He also pointed out that his “extensive acquaintance amongst the Naturalists in Great Britain,” as well as his recent findings in Louisiana, would be of great advantage to this new endeavor. At the time, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, under the direction of Sir Joseph Banks, was leading the way in the cultivation and dissemination of plants valuable to England and her colonies. No doubt the connections with British botanists, including those working under the banner of Kew, would have been quite a boost to a budding botanical garden in America. However, Jefferson provided Bradbury with a prompt response to his botanical garden inquiry: “be assured it is an idea without the least foundation.” While Jefferson agreed, “no doubt it is desired by every friend of science,” he did not believe that the current government would support the garden’s establishment.

Another of Jefferson’s correspondents, William Thornton, was considerably more determined than Bradbury to see a botanical garden established in the nation’s capital. Thornton, a physician and architect most notable for designing the United States Capitol, exchanged many letters with Jefferson over the years, especially related to matters of agriculture and manufactures. Writing to Jefferson from the city of Washington on August 30, 1809, several years before Bradbury showed interest in the subject, Thornton noted, “Nothing has yet been done towards the Establishment of a Botanic Garden. Mr. Hamilton has a thousand valuable Exotics to dispose of at this time at the woodlands.” William Hamilton, owner of the Woodlands near Philadelphia, and was another friend with which Jefferson shared botanical interests. Jefferson wrote one more friend, Dr. Caspar Wistar, in 1807, that he hoped to send his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, to Philadelphia for his education, believing that Philadelphia was home to the most learned scientific minds, including Mr. Hamilton of the Woodlands. In a letter from 1808, Jefferson referred to Hamilton’s Woodlands as a botanical garden where some of the seeds brought back by Lewis and Clark “have been very successfully raised.” Although Jefferson later responded to Thornton’s gift of figs and tarragon that accompanied the 1809 letter, he left out any reference to a botanical garden.

Writing to Jefferson in 1812, Thornton again raised the matter of a botanical garden in Washington. Revealing his direct involvement in the endeavor, Thornton notified Jefferson that he applied to Congress to allow Charles Whitlow to take charge of the area “destined for a Botanical Garden” near the President’s Square. Appealing to Jefferson’s particular interest in useful plants, Thornton described Whitlow as “the person who has made so many valuable Discoveries in this Country of new Plants, and lately one of immense Importance as a substitute for Flax and Hemp.” Thornton then tried to attract
Jefferson’s attention with mention of Whitlow’s ties to the collections of the botanical gardens of the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge. While Jefferson, in his response to Thornton’s letter, did comment on Whitlow’s possible substitute for flax and hemp, he again made no reference to Thornton’s entreaties for a botanical garden in the nation’s capital. Then again, five years later, Thornton brought up the nation’s need for a botanical garden. In addition to the Urtica, or flax and hemp substitute, Whitlow had also discovered a new species of Asclepias in Canada. Therefore, Thornton wrote, “If we only had here a botanic garden, we could send various valuable seeds to all parts of our country- and render incalculable benefits.” No response from Jefferson to this letter has yet been found.

Perhaps Jefferson was too busy to reply to Thornton on these matters because theyear, 1817, was one of considerable importance for the beginnings of the University of Virginia, then called Central College. 1817 saw the first meeting of the Board of Visitors in May, which included two other Presidents, Madison and Monroe, as well as the laying of the first cornerstone on October sixth. Jefferson was occupied with the design and construction of his Academical Village and asked Thornton to make a few sketches of ideas for the Pavilions that would “help us to provide snug and handsome Lodges” for the professors. In addition to Thornton’s extensive notes on architecture in response, he also made suggestions for the school’s grounds, including groves of trees, a fountain for ornament and in case of fire, a pond for swimming and skating, and, understandably due to Thornton’s previously demonstrated interests, a botanical garden. A second early advocate for a botanical garden at the University of Virginia was Dr. Thomas Cooper, a longtime friend of Jefferson’s with many similar philosophical interests who was selected to be the University’s first professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and natural philosophy, as well as a temporary law professor. Writing to Jefferson in 1819 with suggestions for the University, Dr. Cooper revealed that both he and Abbe Correa da Serra, a visiting Portuguese naturalist, recommended the Englishman Thomas Nuttall as botanist because of his extensive knowledge of American plants.

Cooper then went on to say “I wish a botanical garden was established, for it grieves me to see the annual present of seeds from the Jardin des Plantes to the Agricultural Society here, so negligently thrown away.” However, due to complications over construction delays and religious opposition, Dr. Cooper gave up his position at the University and was soon replaced by Dr. John Patton Emmet who was required to teach botany himself, along with the other sciences first delegated to Dr. Cooper.

Before Dr. Emmet was selected as Professor of Natural History, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque vied heavily for the position. Rafinesque, a naturalist who had met and impressed Jefferson once in 1804, wrote him numerous letters between 1819 and 1824 in a great effort to offer his “zeal and industry” in the teaching of Botany, Zoology, Mineralogy, and various other branches of science at the University of Virginia. In addition to presenting the University with his considerable collection of mineral, animal, and plant specimens, Rafinesque proposed to establish and direct a botanical garden at his
own expense, except for the cost of accompanying buildings and the salary of a gardener, and to supply this garden with his own stock of 300 to 400 kinds of European seeds, to be augmented annually by the addition of 1000 species of seeds from his various acquaintances.40 While Jefferson claimed to have put Rafinesque’s requests for employment before the Board of Visitors on multiple occasions, his strong desire to teach the sciences at the University of Virginia was never fulfilled.

While Jefferson showed some reluctance in becoming involved in the creation of various new botanical gardens, he obligingly accepted the role of middleman in the exchange of seeds, especially between European sources and botanical gardens at home in the United States. Jefferson directed many of these shipments from overseas, including the annual box from Thouin, to the botanical garden begun by physician David Hosack in New York City, the Elgin Botanical Garden. Begun in 1801, the garden was comprised of twenty acres around the site of what is now Rockefeller Center. Jefferson recommended that seeds be forwarded to Hosack’s botanical garden in 1816, 1818, and 1821. 

Writing to Jonathan Thompson in 1821, Jefferson explained that the Jardin des Plantes in Paris sent seeds to him annually, “depending on my applying it for the public benefit,” therefore he “generally had them delivered for a public garden at Philadelphia [possibly Bernard McMahon’s nursery and botanical garden] or to Dr. Hosack for the Botanical Garden at N. York.” It is essential to note that Jefferson could have sent these particular seeds to any one of his numerous plant-loving acquaintances, as he did on many occasions. However, both he and the French botanists believed that plants should be grown not merely for their ornamental qualities but more importantly for their ability to improve the nation’s agriculture and economy. Botanical gardens provided the proper location for the cultivation and dissemination of such beneficial plants.

Jefferson also considered the Cambridge Botanic Garden at Harvard College a worthy recipient of useful seeds, instructing a correspondent to forward seeds sent from Marseilles there in 1820. Established in 1807, the garden was directed by William Dandridge Peck until 1822. Peck’s successor was Thomas Nuttall, the botanist recommended several years earlier by Dr. Cooper to be employed by the University of Virginia. In 1818, Peck compiled A Catalogue of American and Foreign Plants Cultivated in the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Massachusetts in which he wrote “The Botanic Garden at Cambridge was intended for the cultivation of plants from various parts of the world, to facilitate the acquisition of botanical knowledge. It was also intended to receive all such indigenous trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, as are worthy of attention, as being useful in domestic economy, in the arts, or in medicine.”

Lily Fox-Bruguiere is the Garden & Outreach Coordinator for the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello. A University of Virginia graduate with an M.A. in Architectural & Landscape History, Lily has worked professionally as a gardener for 15 years, including 9 years at Monticello.

1806 Tho Jefferson (1743-1826) & Bernard M'Mahon

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

From an article written by Peter Hatch, Originally published as "Bernard McMahon, Pioneer American Gardener," Twinleaf, January 1993.

"Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon (1775-1816) has often been described as Thomas Jefferson's   (1743-1826) gardening mentor; and his classic work, The American Gardener's Calendar (1806), as Jefferson's horticultural "Bible." McMahon forwarded the newest vegetable and flower varieties to Jefferson, who would often follow the directions in the Calendar step-by-step when planting tulips in his flower beds or sea kale in his vegetable garden. McMahon also served as curator for the plants collected by the Lewis and Clark expedition, published the first seed catalog in the United States, and was honored by botanist Thomas Nuttall, who in 1818 bestowed the genus name Mahonia on a group of west-coast evergreen shrubs still popular in American gardens.

"McMahon's chief legacy was his American Gardener's Calendar, the most comprehensive gardening book published in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century; popularity and influence can be gauged by the eleven editions that were printed up to 1857. The 648-page Calendar was modeled on a traditional English formula, providing month-by-month instructions on planting, pruning, and soil preparation for the various horticultural divisions -- the Kitchen Garden, Fruit Garden, Orchard, Nursery, etc.

"McMahon borrowed extensively from English works, especially those of Philip Miller and particularly from John Abercrombie, author of Every Man his own Gardener, first published in York in 1767 under the name of Thomas Mawe, at the time a more recognizable figure. McMahon's 63 page General Catalogue of Recommended Garden Plants (3,700 species) was unrealistically biased in favor of traditional Old World species. It is doubtful whether a majority of them were then found in the United States; one also wonders how many American gardeners actually possessed an English-style Fruit Garden, much less a Greenhouse or Hothouse, in 1806. A renowned English contemporary, J. C. Loudon, suggested the derivative character of the Calendar in 1826: "We cannot gather from the work any thing as to the extent of American practice in these particulars."

"Nevertheless McMahon's Calendar appealed to Jefferson because it attempted to deal with some of the unique problems of American gardening. McMahon made a concerted effort to break away from English traditions in the way he celebrated the use of native American ornamentals, championed large-scale cider and seedling peach orchards that could be grazed with livestock, and admitted the harsh realities of eastern North America's continental climate.

"McMahon reinforced Jefferson's custodial pride in the culture of American plants. It was in the Calendar that American gardeners were first urged to comb the local woodlands and fields for "the various beautiful ornaments with which nature has so profusely decorated them." Wildflowers, according to McMahon, were particularly suited for the hot, humid summer when American gardens "are almost destitute of bloom." McMahon continued, "Is it because they are indigenous that we should reject them? What can be more beautiful than our Lobelias, Asclepias, Orchis, and Asters? In Europe plants are not rejected because they are indigenous; and yet here, we cultivate many foreign trifles, and neglect the profusion of beauties so bountifully bestowed upon us by the hand of nature."

"McMahon's Calendar also included the first American essay on landscape design. Titled, "Ornamental Designs and Plantings," this eighteen-page treatise may have inspired Jefferson's design schemes for the Roundabout flower border and oval beds on the West Lawn at Monticello. Following the dictates of English landscape designer Humphrey Repton, McMahon promoted the new, informal style of naturalistic gardening. He urged his readers to "consult the rural disposition in imitation of nature" that would include "winding walks, all bounded with plantations of trees, shrubs, and flowers in various clumps." The use of broad lawns, thickets, and irregularly-shaped flower beds were further ways of banishing traditional, formal landscape and garden geometry. Few American gardening books have so thoroughly combined landscape gardening and horticulture like Bernard McMahon's The American Gardener's Calendar. McMahon's writings provided a foundation for the popularity of Andrew Jackson Downing, generally considered the father of landscape design in this country.

"Who was Bernard McMahon? Information on this gardening pioneer is scanty. Born in Ireland "of good birth and fortune," he moved to Philadelphia in 1796 to avoid political persecution and soon established a seedhouse and nursery business by 1802. In that year (or perhaps in 1803) he published a broadsheet "CATALOGUE OF GARDEN GRASS, HERB, FLOWER, TREE & SHRUB-SEEDS, FLOWER ROOTS, ETC. " that included 720 species and varieties of seed. Considered the "first seed catalogue" published in this country, it is a landmark index to the plants introduced and cultivated in the United States at that time. For instance, this list supplements the documented plantings of Jefferson in the yearly plantings of the flower gardens at Monticello. In 1804 another catalogue of thirty pages, mostly devoted to native American seeds, was published."

"Beginning in 1806 McMahon was trusted with seeds and plants collected from the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson insisted that these new discoveries were the property of the expedition and of the federal government, so McMahon was forced, perhaps rightfully so, to grow these novelties under restriction in a quarantine-like situation. As well, sticky complications and fierce personal rivalries arose over the description, illustration, and release of the plants, which included golden currant (Ribes aureum, Snowberry  (Symphoricarpus albus), and Osage orange (Maclura pomifera): as many as 25 undescribed species. Botanical historian and scholar, Joseph Ewan, observed, "It must have tried his soul on occasion to have to weed and water these plantings through the years without realizing thereby either the aura of publicity for his nursery or the personal satisfaction of guardianship for what were precious discoveries of new genera and species eventually announced, not in America, but in England!"