■I > 11
a II
made on a grant of land taken up by his grandfather, who then resided there. His
father, Timothy Pickering, jr., died in the twenty-eighth year of his age, leaving to the
care of the mother — who lived to a good old age •—■ the two sons, Charles and his
brother Edward, who were much united in their earlier and later lives, and were not
long divided in death, the subject of this notice having been for only a year the
survivor.
Dr. Pickering was a member of the class of 1823 at Harvard College, but left
before graduation. He studied medicine, and took the degree of M. D. at the Harvard
Medical School in 1826. Living in these earlier years at Salem, he was associated
with the late William Oakes in botanical exploration ; and it is believed that
the two first explored the White Mountains together, following in the steps of the
first botanist to ascend Mount Washington, Dr. Manasseh Cutler of Essex County,
and of Francis Boott and Dr. Bigelow. His taste for natural history showed itself
in boyhood, both for botany and zoology, and probably decided his choice of a profession.
He may have intended to practise medicine for a livelihood when, about the
year 1829, he took up his residence at Philadelphia; but it is probable that he was
attracted thither more by the facilities that city offered for the pursuit of natural history
than by its renown as a centre of medical education. We soon find him acting
as one of the curators of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and also as librarian,
and with reputation established as the most erudite and sharp-sighted of all the
young naturalists of that region. His knowledge then, as in mature years, was
encyclopedic and minute ; and his bent was toward a certain subtlety and exhaustiveness
of investigation, which is characteristic of his later writings. Still, in those
days in which he was looked up to as an oracle, and consulted as a dictionary by his
co-workers, he had published nothing which can now be recalled, except a brief essay
on the geographical distribution and leading characteristics of the United States
flora, which very few of our day have ever seen.
When the United States surveying and exploring expedition to the South Seas,
which sailed under the command of then Lieutenant Charles Wilkes in the summer
of 1838, was first organized under Commodore T. Ap-Catesby Jones, about two
years before, Dr. Pickering’s reputation was such that he was at once selected as the
principal zoologist. Subsequently, as the plan expanded, others were added. Y e t
the scientific fame of that expedition most largely rests upon the collections and the
work of Dr. Pickering and his surviving associate. Professor Dana; the latter taking,
in addition to the geology, the Corals and the Crustacea, and other special departments
of zoology being otherwise provided for by the accession of Mr. Couthouy and
Mr. Peale. Dr. Pickering, although retaining the ichthyology, particularly turned
his attention, during the nearly four years’ voyage of circumnavigation, to anthropology,
and to the study of the geographical distribution of animals and plants ; to
the latter especially, as affected by or as evidence of the operations, movements, and
diffusion of the races of man. To these the subjects of his predilection, and to investigations
bearing upon them, all his remaining life was assiduously devoted. The
South Pacific exploring expedition had visited various parts of the world ; but it
necessarily left out regions of the highest interest to the anthropological investigator,
those occupied in early times by the race to which we belong, and by the peoples
with which the Aryan race has been most in contact. Desirous to extend his personal
observations as far as possible. Dr. Pickering, a year after the return of the
expedition, and at his own charges, crossed the Atlantic, visited Egypt, Arabia, the
eastern part of Africa, and western and northern India. Then, in 1848, he published
his volume on “ The Races of Man, and their Geographical Distribution,” being the
ninth volume of the Reports of the Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition. ^ Some time Mter-
wards, he prepared, for the fifteenth volume of this series, an extensive work on “ 1 he
Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants.” But, in the course of the printing,
the appropriations by Congress intermitted or ceased, and the publication of the
results of this celebrated expedition was suspended. Publication it could hardly he
called ; for Congress printed only one hundred copies, in a sumptuous form, for presentation
to States and foreign courts; and then the several authors-were allowed
to use the types and copper-plates for printing as many copies as they required and
could pay for. Under this privilege. Dr. Pickering brought out in 1854 a small edition
of the first part of his essay, — perhaps the most important part, — and m 1876
a more bulky portion, “ On Plants and Animals in their Wild State,” which is largely
a transcript of the note-book memoranda as jotted down at the time of observation
or collection.
These are all his publications, excepting some short communications to scientific
journals and the proceedings of learned societies to which he belonged. But he is
known to have been long and laboriously engaged upon a work for which, under his
exhaustive treatment, a lifetime seems hardly sufficient, — a digest, in fact, of the
history and migrations of all the animals and plants with which civilized man has had
to do from the earliest period traceable hy records. When Dr. Pickering died, he
was carrying this work through the press at his own individual expense ; had already
in type five or six hundred quarto pages ; and it is understood that the remainder, of
about equal extent, is ready for the printer. This formidable treatise is entitled
“ Chronological History of Plants: Man’s Record of his own Existence, illustrated
through their Names, Uses, and Companionship.” Its character is indicated ,in the
brief introductory sentences : —
“ In the distribution of species over the globe, the order of Nature has been
obscured through the interference of man. He has transported animals and plants
to countries where they were previously unknown ; extirpating the forest and cultivating
the soil, until at length the face of the globe itself is changed. To ascertain
the amount of this interference, displaced species must be distinguished, and traced
each to its original home. Detached observations have already been given in the
twenty-first and succeeding chapters of my ‘ Races of Man ; but, when such observations
are extended to all parts of the globe, the accumulated facts require some
plan of arrangement. A list will naturally assume the chronological order, beginning