64 THE BOTANISTS ( )F PHILADELPHIA. 



with herbaceous plants and vines) that marks the site 

 of the old kitchen garden ; between this and the house was 

 the flower garden, and portions of the beds are yet outlined 

 by box borders that were planted about fifty years ago. 



The path is, perhaps, rather more attractive than the 

 lane. From its entrance into the grounds, across the bridge, 

 past the barns and to the house-door it is like turning the 

 pages of the earlier Collinson letters. First come the 

 " narrow-leaved oaks " and " noble white pines ; " close by the 

 bridge is " that curious tree from the Jerseys " (Hackberry, 

 Celtis occidentali*) ; near the west door a " sugar-tree " and 

 horse-chestnut ; the latter, perhaps, the one that Bartram 

 believed to have been the first to blossom in America. 



The garden which Bartram laid out adjoining his 

 house by the exercise of his skill, industry and taste, 

 became one of the most attractive places in the neighbor- 

 hood of the city. The ground occupied six or seven acres, 

 with a variety of soils and different exposure. The garden, 

 according to St. John, contained a great variety of curious 

 shrubs ; some grew in a greenhouse, over the door of which 

 were written these lines : 



"Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, 

 But looks through Nature up to Nature's God." 



From the house to the river the land falls gradually, 

 but directly in front of the house is a terrace, with remains 

 of a box-border along its outer edge, where it is upheld by 

 a dry stone retaining-wall, pierced by two narrow flights of 

 steps. From the terrace, paths originally led by circuitous 

 routes through the grounds and down to the river ; one of 

 them ran near the greenhouse, whose lines are still visible, 



