For a few months after graduation he taught in Enfield, Connecticut, and then went to Virginia, where he was similarly employed for some three years, in the family of Hon.
L. Brent, and in the Peyton family at Warrenton, and at Arlington, where Robert E. Lee, afterwards general-in-chief of the Confederate army, was prepared by him for West Point.
He spent six months of the year 1829 in a botanical exploration of the New England states; and in this way formed the acquaintance of Dr. George Willard, of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, who induced him to settle in that town.
During his professional life he had devoted himself largely to botany, gathering a valuable library, second, it is believed, to no private botanical library in the country; and in the four years of his residence near Lake Superior, he made extensive botanical researches, and these were followed by a tour in 1863-4 down the Mississippi to Texas and Cuba, which resulted in very valuable collections.
He then returned to Uxbridge, where he spent the remainder of his life, mostly retired from medical practice and devoting his leisure to his favorite pursuit.