Constantine Smaltz Rafinesque, an American botanist, born of French parents in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, in 1784, died in Philadelphia, Sept. 18, 1842. He came to America in 1802, collected a large number of botanical specimens, and in 1805 went to Leghorn, and thence to Sicily, where he remained ten years. While there he published three scientific works in French. Sailing for New York in 1815, he was wrecked on the coast of Long Island, and lost his collections and labors for 20 years. He became a teacher, made a tour to the west in 1818, and was for a time professor of botany in Transylvania university, Lexington, Ky. Finally he settled in Philadelphia, and established in 1832 "The Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge," of which only eight numbers appeared. He published "Annals of Kentucky" (8vo, Frankfort, 1824); "'Medical Flora of the United States" (2 vols. 12mo, Philadelphia, 1828-'30); "The American Nations, or Outlines of a National History" (2 vols. 12mo, 1836); and "A Life of Travel and Researches" (1836). He also wrote many smaller botanical and zoological works, several of which were left unfinished; and he needlessly introduced so many new genera and species as to produce great confusion. "The Writings of C. S. Rafinesque on Recent and Fossil Conchology" has been edited by W. G. Binney and G. W. Tryon, jr. (8vo, Philadelphia, 1864).