338 A BoraNIcAL DESCRIPTION OF THE 
a fine fpecimen, which flowered in the beginning of the- 
{pring of the year 1791, in the neighbourhood of Phila= 
delphia. Mr. Bartram and myfelf carefully examined the. 
plant, in the various ftages of its growth, and, together,, 
made the drawings which accompany this letter. 
Before I proceed to the more immediate defcription of: 
this plant, [think proper to.obferve, that although it has. 
already been difcovered im feveral different parts of North-. 
America, itis by no,means fo.common.a plant as. the Po- 
dophyllum peltatum and Sanguinarra canadenfis. 1 have 
never feen an extenfive tract of our country in which thefe 
plants were notto be found, They extend from the top 
of Canada to the termination of the higher grounds of’ 
the two Floridas.—Hitherto, I have not learned that the. 
Podophyllum diphyllum, of Linnzus.has been difcovered to 
the eaft of the great ranges of our mountains. No 
mention is made of it in the lift of ‘the plants growing in 
the vicinity of- the town of Lancafter, in this ftate, by my 
friend the Reverend Dr. Muhlenberg, than whom no man 
has ftudied the vegetables of a diftri@ with more elaborate 
attention, and happy fuccefs*. Dr. James Greenway, 
a very refpectable botanift, who refides in Virginia, has. 
never feen our vegetable in that ftate. 
I am far, however, from aflerting that this plant is nota 
native of the Atlantic parts of North-America. The rich 
and happy countries of this great continent have, as yet, 
been very imperfectly explored. America has, indeed, 
produced fome few men of talents, who knew nature, and 
who loved her. Clayton, and the two Bartrams+ have 
done much. But an ocean of undifcovered pearls remains 
to be inveftigated. The eledtricity of your immortal Lin- 
né- 
* See this gentleman’s Index Flore Lancaftrienfis. 
John Bartram and his fon William Bartram. The father has paid the debt of nature : 
the fon {till lives, as a {trong proof that great natural genius will triumph over the diflicult- 
ies arifing out of the want of education, and that the ftudy and contemplation of nature are 
tayourable to the growth of extenfive benevolence and virtue, oy 
