CHAP. II. BRITISH ISLANDS. R 85 
greater number of trees and shrubs introduced were received by 
Conrad Loddiges, and chiefly from William Bartram, the son of 
John. The Bartrams, indeed, and André Michaux, were the 
great collectors of American plants during the 18th century. 
Michaux sent almost every thing to France, by the government 
of which he was employed; but the Bartrams were Americans, 
and corresponded chiefly with the Kew Botanic Garden, and 
with the London nurserymen and amateurs. A number of trees 
and shrubs were introduced during the 18th century by John 
Fraser, but the chief accessions to the British arboretum and 
fruticetum made by this indefatigable collector were in the 
succeeding century. 
John Bartram, one of the most distinguished of American 
botanists, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1701. 
His grandfather, of the same name, accompanied William Penn 
to this country in 1682. John Bartram was a simple farmer ; 
he cultivated the ground for subsistence, while he indulged an 
insatiable desire for botany. He was self-taught in that science, 
and in the rudiments of the learned languages, and medicine 
and surgery. So great, in the end, was his proficiency in his 
favourite pursuit, that Linnzeus pronounced him “ the greatest 
natural botanist in the world.” He made excursions, in the in- 
tervals of agricultural labour, to Florida and Canada, herborising 
with intense zeal and delight. At the age of 70, he performed a 
journey to East Florida, to explore its natural productions ; at 
a period, too, when the toils and dangers of such an expedition 
far exceeded those of any similar one which could be undertaken 
at the present time, within the limits of the United States. He 
first formed a botanic garden in America, for the cultivation of 
American plants as well as exotics. This garden, which is 
situated on the banks of the Schuylkill, a few miles from Phila- 
delphia, still bears his name. He contributed much to the 
gardens of Europe, and corresponded with the most distinguished 
naturalists of that quarter of the globe. Several foreign societies 
and academies bestowed their honours upon him, and published 
communications from him in their Zransactions. John Bartram 
died in 1777, in the 76th year of his age. At the time of his 
death he held the office of American botanist to George ITI. of 
England. He was amiable and charitable, and of the strictest 
probity and temperance. (Zcyc. Amer.) 
William Bartram, fourth son of John Bartram, was born in 
1739, at the Botanic Garden, Kingsessing, Pennsylvania. At the 
-age of 16 years he was placed with a respectable merchant of 
Philadelphia, with whom he continued six years ; after which he 
went to North Carolina, with a view of doing business there as 
a merchant: but, being ardently attached to the study of botany, 
he relinquished his mercantile pursuits, and accompanied his 
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