SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BART RAM. 829 



accompanying picture. The year of its erection is shown by a 

 stone in the wall on which is cut "John ^ Ann Bartram, 1731." 

 Another inscription on a stone over the front window of his 



study reads : 



'''Tis God alone, Almighty Lord, 

 The Holy One, by me adored. 



"John Barteam, 1770." 



That the building was a labor of love is attested by the care be- 

 stowed upon the carved stone-work around the windows and 

 doors and the pillar under the porch. John Bartram must have 

 been a good stone-cutter and mason, for this was one of four stone 

 houses that he built in his lifetime. 



Nearly all the extant information concerning the lives of the 

 two Bartrams has been embodied in the Memorial of John Bar- 

 tram, by William Darlington, published in IS-IO. This volume 

 contains the sketch of John Bartram by his son William, with some 

 additions by the editor, and over four hundred pages of corre- 

 spondence. About a fourth of these letters are from his friend 

 Peter Collinson ; the others are from eminent botanists in Europe 

 and America, and from Bartram to these various correspondents. 

 Darlington also reprinted a sketch of John Bartram, which ap- 

 peared in the Letters from an American Farmer, by J. Hector St. 

 John, published in London soon af tei Bartram's death. The " let- 

 ter" describing Bartram purports to be written by a Russian 

 traveler, who is evidently a myth, although in all imj)ortant re- 

 spects the account represents the botanist as he was. As to how 

 Bartram's interest in botany was aroused, the " Russian gentle- 

 man " has a very pretty story, telling of a sudden conversion after 

 the botanist had married ; but Bartram himself is better author- 

 ity, and he writes to Collinson, May 1, 1764, "I had always since 

 ten years old a great inclination to plants, and knew all that I 

 once observed by sight, though not their proper names, having 

 no person nor books to instruct me." 



He was encouraged to study systematically by James Logan 

 (founder of the Loganian Library, in Philadelphia), who gave him 

 several botanical works. In order that his explorations, begun at 

 his own expense, might be extended, Bartram's friends prompted 

 him to seek the patronage of some wealthy and influential person 

 in the mother-country. Accordingly, a quantity of his specimens 

 and a record of some of his observations were sent to Peter Col- 

 linson, a Quaker merchant in England, who was greatly inter- 

 ested in horticulture. Bartram's consignment secured his inter- 

 est, and led to a correspondence, which lasted nearly fifty years. 

 The first letter in Darlington's collection is from Collinson, under 

 the date January 20, 17;54-'35, and refers to letters from Bartram 

 of the preceding November ; hence this correspondence probably 



