THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 65 



a short distance from a very beautiful yellow-wood, Cladrastis 

 lutea. Further down, this path runs near the great 

 cypress, Taxodium distich um brought to the garden by 

 Bartram, and now seven feet in diameter. John Bartram * 

 while on his journey through the Florida swamps lost 

 his whip, and in looking for a switch saw a small sapling- 

 growing erect by the river-side. He stopped his horse, 

 got down on the ground, and pulled it up by the roots. 

 Instead of using it for a whip as was his intention, he put it 

 in his saddle-bag and brought it home, planting it in the 

 northern part of his garden, predicting at the time that it 

 would grow to an immense height. His saying proved true, 

 for to-day it is seven feet in diameter, and 150-175 feet high. 



In the southern part of the grounds are the fine magno- 

 lias ; one of them M. acuminata, was first made known by 

 John Clayton in 1736. In the garden there stands a speci- 

 men undoubtedly the one which Bartram discovered on the 

 Susquehanna during his trip with Conrad Weiser to the 

 Five Nations in 1743. Bartram sent plants to Peter Collin- 

 son, in whose gardens and in those of Lord Petre it was 

 first cultivated in Europe. Near by grows the " rose bay," 

 as they first called the rhododendron, and a noble mossy- 

 cup oak, one of the finest trees on the place. In other parts 

 of the garden are found the following : 



Magnolia Fraseri, discovered by William Bartram in 

 May, 1776, on the head-waters of the Keowee. It was intro- 

 duced probably from Bartram's garden ten years later. 



Asimina triloba was first cultivated in 1736 bv Peter 



t/ 



Collinson, who probably received it from John Bartram. f 



* Probably obtained in Delaware. I give the usual version of the story. The 

 tree, alive in 1S90, is now dead. 



fSABGENT Silva of North America, I, 24. 



