48 NATURE STUDY. 



Oats ' ' would seem to indicate that the sowing of crops 

 was a precarious business in the " Old Bay State." 



Ivater a catalogue of Virginian plants was prepared by 

 one Rev. John Banister, who illustrated some of the rarer 

 species by his own drawings, but the real pioneer of early 

 botany was John Bartram. 



His great grandparents lived and died in Derbyshire, 

 England; the grandfather, John, son of Richard Bartram, 

 removed to Pennsylvania with his family and settled near 

 Darby in the same year that the city of Philadelphia was 

 founded. His son William became the father of John, the 

 botanist, who was born March 23, 1699. This John im- 

 proved the meagre opportunities of getting an education 

 at that primitive date and early turned his attention to 

 farming. At the same time he was keenly observ-ant of all 

 things in nature, studied medicine and surgery and read 

 such of the Greek and Latin classics as he was able to pro- 

 cure. 



This does not read so unlike the story of many an enter- 

 prising boy destined to become well known in our nation's 

 history, and many of our physicians have been good bota- 

 nists, so it was quite natural that young John Bartram 

 should become especially interested in the study of the 

 plants whose healing properties he so eagerly sought. 



No other scientist of that date brought to notice so many 

 of the undescribed species in this country, and he likewise 

 established the first botanical garden in America. One 

 hundred and seventy-five years ago the coming month, a 

 tract of land was purchased on the right bank of the river 

 Schuj'lkill below the cit}^ of Philadelphia, and herein was 

 collected a great variety of trees, shrubs and plants, the 

 fruits of his travels, together with those species received in 

 exchange from the Old World. 



This garden comprised several acres, and grew, we are 



