Elliott, Stephen, 1771-1830. Stephen Elliott papers, 1791-approximately 1947. Letters from James MacBride to Stephen Elliott, 1811-1812 September 3. gra00020. Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Botany Libraries, Harvard University.

24 'Dec. 1811

Salt Butter Flour

[?] S.C. Dec 27 12 1/4

Stephen Elliott Esq. {Esquire} Mail Beaufort

Pineville, Dec. 24 1811

Indeed, my dear Sir, no apology could have been necessary for the communication you made by Mr. Porcher, for I believe I feel in its fullest extent that en =thusiasm with which Flora inspires her votaries. Besides I have never enjoyed the pleasure of personal intercourse nor of epistolary correspondence with a single botanist who was familiar with indigenous botany & thus you may well concieve your letter was highly gratifying to my feelings.

Very probably you have been misled in the estimate you may have formed of my botanical acquirements. I am far from being a proficient, but with the plants which grow in the various soils & situations of a tract of country embracing a considerable part of the districts of Sumter & Williamsburg & of St. John's Parish together with all St. Stephens I am tolerably familiar. The mere pleasure which I took in the study of plants & other objects of Nat. history induced me to take up scientific works & with these I have employed a great part of the leisure of the last seven years of my life but with no view whatsoever to further publication.

Altho' I live in the same part of the country where Walter spent a considerable portion [?] & am on terms of intimacy with his only survi= ving children I have never been able to get into my hands his Flora. When a student, I procured it occasionally from public libraries to consult, but could never find it for sale notwithstanding I made considerable search. I frequently visit the site of his garden & have often explored the adja cent country & thus might be qualitifed to elucidate any obscurity in his work were it in my hands for a season or two.

In reviewing our botany I have had scarcely any other assistance than what Michaux's Flora afforded & you may well suppose I have seen many species not described, & doubtful gene =ra.

As far as I can be serviceable to you you may depend upon my exertions, at the same time let the nature of my services be definite. It can hardly be necessary to send you specimens which probably grow in your own woods. Let me know of what genera & species you need specimens & these I will transmit if in my power, also I will send you what I suppose may be local.

I am delighed with at your undertaking & make no doubt but its completion will lay science under great obligations to you. Much may be anticipated from the circumstance alone of your being a native & from the probability that your taste for botany developed itself ear= ly in life: for I am sure that when very young long before I knew the study of plants had been reduced to a science I could designate those wild plants which were so nearly allied as to enti= tle them to a common name, & this early exer= =cise has given me more readiness in collecting the species of my native woods than could be acqui =red by a foreigner.

Give me leave, my dear Sir, merely to suggest the propriety of enlarging the plan of your work so as to embrace succinctly facts relative to the uses, to which particular plants may be applied either in medicine or the arts. In this way you might remove from botany the imputation of its being a mere nomenclature, &

[page 2] diffiuse a taste for it, but you may probably hold the believe that a botanist is like a poet. The geographical range of plants is important not irrelevant to an understanding like yours. Many important & interesting facts relative to the economy & physiology of plants might too be introduced. Who would suppose on reading the jejune descriptions of a botanists that the sarraceniae Droserae, Dionea, & some species of Apocynum & asclepias were furnished by nature with contrivances for allowing & entrapping insects? & yet these facts if properly related might arrest the attention of persons of leisure & attach them ever after to the investigation of plants. Besides we stumble frequently on facts of this nature, so detached that unless they can be inserted into a general work will be lost.

Doubtless you have long ere now understood the cause of attraction to insects to & the manner by which they are entrapped by the tubular leaves of the Sarracenae together with the history [of] larva always found in the putrid masses at [the base?] of the tubes. What may be the design of nature in [this?] Does the plant receive nourishment from the putrid mass? Dr. J. E. Smith in his elements of botany was most egre =giously decieved in attempting to explain this vegetable phenomenon, & I am much surprized at the correct= ness of the suggestion of the Edinburgh reviewer.

Be assured, Sir, I feel a lively pleasure at the prospect of being engaged in a correspondence with one whose pursuits have been directed to objects which have since my earliest recollection afforded me amusement & delight.

I am yours with high respect

J Macbride

Chisolm & Taylor will put any letters directed to me as the last into the Pineville post office.

Pine hill, Feb'r 10, 1812

Dear Sir,

I rec'd yours of 17th alt. a few minutes previous to the setting off of our post, & these intervening moments I devote to a hasty reply.

Your kind intention of sending me a copy of Walter has been anticipated by my friend the Rev'd Mr. Gadsden who sends me one from the Charlston Library & by attending to the proper time of renew =al he has procured me the possession of it for a few months.

Your design of connecting entomology with your Flora I applaud highly. The connection is natural, important & highy interesting. What can reflect more disgrace on the state of natural sci =ence in this country than the ignorance which has prevailed respecting the causes of the desturction of our pine-forests? The evil is a devious one, & we can only hope to obtain a remedy from a minute attention to the history of the insect whose labours have proved so great a curse. In this way did the illustrious Linnaus point out a remedy for the destruc tive ravages of the cerambyx which took away at one time the [reputation?] & utility of thier ship timber.

To the medicinal properties of our plants I may be said to have paid some attention for 4 or 5 years past. Many of my observations have been embodied by Dr. Barton in his "collection," or rather, he intends doing so in the spring. As far as I can serve you in this department as well as in others you may command me. Does the Eriogonum Tomentosum of Michaux grow near you? What are its popular synonyms? This is the chrysosplenium oppontifol. [oppontifolium] of Walter as you doubtless know.

[verso page] I have run over your catalogue hastily & believe I can send you about 35 of the plants enumerated. Many of them are strangers to my botanical range. Michaux or his editors are frequently in error as it respects the habitat of particular plants. My 4 earlier have been in a great measure confined to "flat pine barrens" from which circumstanceI hope I may be the more serviceable to you.

It appears to me that our Orchideae want generic reformation. The genera are not well defined & Swartz's genus Cymbidium makes "confusion more confounded."

Be assured, my dear Sir, no man can more earnestly wish for the advancetment of Nat. history in all its branches than I do, & yet professional avocations are so urgent & necessary that my inclination must not always predominate. Therefore the fruits of my desultory exertions I consign most willingly to you. Don't think Sir of speaking in doubtful terms of the comple =tion of your work. Do all you can to wipe from the chartacter of Carolina the imputation of scientific & literary apathy.

Pursue the plan you have commenced of designating all the species of Michaux & Walter you have not seen & which you suspect grow in my range. I shall mark in Michaux those put in requisition now & will send on according to my ability.

I could send you now many peren= nial, fibrous & bulbus roots which would grow the next spring could I ascertain that you have them not already.

[recto page] Have you discovered as I understand a bush which answers well the purposes of hedging? Does your Mussaenda or Pincknega possess any celebrity similar to the other species of Cinchona in a medical sense Is your olea known in any domestic way?

In which state of forwardness, may I venture to ask, is your work? How .Wont you wish now to incorporate the physiological &c &c observations I could send.

Is it really time that the Croton cas= carilla (pungent & aromatic) & the Convolvul. [Convolvulus] galappa, grow in Georgia?

Excuse my dear Sir, the hasty scrawl for which I have delayed the [?] almost too long.

I am, Dear Sir, with great respect Yours J Macbride

10:Feb: 1812

[CHARLN S.C. ?] Paid 12 1/2

Stephen Elliot Esq {Esquire} Savannah Georgia

Mail.