SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BAH TEAM. 831 



without any scientific companion. " Our Americans," he Avrites 

 to a correspondent, " have very little taste for these amusements. 

 I can't find one that will bear the fatigue to accompany me in my 

 peregrinations." 



In an undated letter, written probably in 1730, to Colonel Byrd, 

 of Virginia, Bartram reports that he had been making " micro- 

 scopical observations upon the male and female parts in vegeta- 

 bles," He had also made, he says, " several successful experi- 

 ments of joining several species of the same genus, whereby I 

 have obtained curious mixed colors in flowers, never known be- 

 fore," To this he adds : " I hope by these practical observations 

 to open a gate into a very large field of experimental knowledge, 

 which, if judiciously improved, may be a considerable addition 

 to the beauty of the florist's garden," It was in this " field of 

 experimental knowledge " — namely, cross-fertilization — that Dar- 

 win afterward won a share of his fame. Bartram evidently dis- 

 cussed this subject with Collinson, for the latter writes in 1742: 

 "That some variegations may be occasioned by insects is cer- 

 tain ; but then these are only annual, and cease with the year," 

 Permanent variegations, he says, are produced by budding — a 

 sort of inoculation. 



That Bartram had a hostility to superstition, tempered with 

 much considerateness for persons, is shown by a letter in which 

 he tells of a visit to Dr. Witt, of Germantown, another of CoUin- 

 son's correspondents. He says : " When we are upon the topic 

 of astrology, magic, and mystic divinity, I am apt to be a little 

 troublesome, by inquiring into the foundation and reasonableness 

 of these notions — which, thee knows, will not bear to be searched 

 and examined into : though I handle these fancies with more ten- 

 derness with him than I should with many others that are so 

 superstitiously inclined." 



One of the botanists whose offices Collinson had secured in 

 identifying Bartram's specimens was Prof. Dillenius, of Oxford, 

 and in 17-40 Collinson writes for some mosses for him, saying, 

 " He defers completing his work till he sees what comes from 

 thee, Clayton, and Dr. Mitchell." In the same year a list of speci- 

 mens which had been named by Dr. J. F. Gronovius, of Leyden, 

 was returned, and contained this entry : " Coyivsce sii'e Verhasci, 

 Fl, Virg., pp. 74, 75. This being a new genus, may be called 

 Bartramia." The name Bartramia is now borne by a diff'er- 

 ent plant — a moss growing in the Berkshire Hills of Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Bartram's correspondence with Gronovius began about 1743, 

 and extends over a dozen years or more. Gronovius writes at 

 length, very appreciatively, and makes many requests. He sends 

 his books as they appear, and before the publication of his Index 



