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Frederick Pursh, Mountain Laurel [Plate 14, Catalogue] from Flora Americae Septentrionalis Kalmia Lataforia, 1814.
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Frederick Pursh,  Mountain Laurel [Plate 14, Catalogue] from Flora Americae Septentrionalis 
Kalmia Lataforia

Credit: "Stuffing Birds Exhibit" related to Lewis and Clark. The American Philosophical Society

German botanist Frederick Pursh spent close to a year arranging the herbarium specimens collected during the Expedition and preparing drawings for Lewis's planned history. After Lewis's death, Pursh took 39 of the specimens to Europe. In 1814 Pursh introduced these to the scientific world in his Flora Americae Septentrionalis Kalmia Lataforia, which included 13 illustrations drawn from the actual specimens. Including more than 3,000 species, this was the first botanical study to cover the entire continent.

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