Pursh, Frederick

Pursh, Frederick

(1774–1820) botanist, explorer; born in Grossenhain, Saxony. He came to the U.S.A. in 1799 and managed a botanical garden near Philadelphia (1802–05). He undertook two botanical explorations of the territory from North Carolina to Vermont (1806, 1807). He wrote Flora Americae Septentrionalis (1814) which included many new species discovered by Lewis and Clark and was the most complete account to that time of the flora of the United States.