SCHOPF AMERICAN TRAVELS. 



and industry, almost without instruction, became the first botanist in 

 America, honored with their correspondence by Linnaeus, CoUinson, 

 and other savans. He was, to be sure, more collector than student, 

 but by his enthusiasm and love for plants, many new ones were 

 discovered. He made many long journeys on foot through the 

 mountain country, through several of the provinces, and (with Kalm 

 and Conrad Weisser) into the interior of Canada. After the Peace 

 of 1762 when both the Floridas were apportioned to Great Britain, 

 Bartram received a commission from the King to visit those two 

 provinces. Contrary to his own purpose his journal was published, 

 but Bartram should not be judged by that dry record. Whoever 

 wishes more information regarding him may find it in Hector St. 

 John's Sketches of American Manners. The Bartram garden is situ- 

 ated on an extremely pleasant slope across the Schuylkill and not far 

 from its junction with the Delaware. An old but neat house of stone, 

 on the river side, supported rather than adorned by several granite 

 pillars, was the residence of this honored and contented old man. 

 The son, the present owner of the garden, follows the employments 

 of his father and maintains a very respectable collection of sundry 

 North American plants, particularly trees and shrubs, the seeds and 

 shoots of which he sends to England and France at a good profit. He 

 is not so well known to the botanical world as was his father, but 

 is equally deserving of recognition. When young he spent several 

 years among the Florida Indians, and made a collection of plants in 

 that region ; his unprinted manuscript on the natives and products 

 of that country should be instructive and interesting. In the small 

 space of his garden there is to be found assembled really a great va- 

 riety of American plants, among others, most of their vines and 

 conifers, species of which very little is generally known. The Sarra- 

 cenia and several other marsh growths do very well here in dry beds 

 confirmation of what I have often observed with astonishment, namely, 

 that American plants grow anywhere, with little or no reference to 

 the place of their origin.* 



Nearer to Philadelphia, but also on the farther bank of the Schuyl- 

 kill, there lives a botanist ,who is the equal of Bartram neither in 

 knowledge nor spirit, although he makes more ado INIr. Young, by 

 birth a Hessian, who in a strange way has gotten to himself the title 

 of Botanist to the Queen. His father lived at this same place, by 

 what he could make on his bit of land ; the son was frequently in 

 Bartram's garden and found amusement in the variegated blossoms. 

 One day (so I was told at Philadelphia) he sent to London a paquet 

 of plants which he had collected in the garden, with a letter addressed 

 To the Queen. He had placed the paquet unobserved in the bag 

 which is usually kept open at the Coffee-house by ships shortly to 

 clear. Arrived at London the skipper was in a quandary whether to 

 deliver the paquet, of which he knew nothing, what it contained or 



''Sinc^ my return I have seen American trees and shrubs more than once, in England and Ger- 

 many, thriving on dry soils, whereas in America it had been my observation that these varieties were 

 to be found only in swampy places. 



