AN EARLY AMERICAN BOTANI.ST. 49 



told, luxuriantly for there was bestowed upon it all the lov- 

 ing arrangement and care which plants crave. 



The second botanical garden in America w^as established 

 also in Pennsylvania, Chester County, by Humphrey Mar- 

 shall. His example was followed by others, and fine col- 

 lections of forest trees were early made. Famous gardens 

 have since been instituted at New York, Cambridge and 

 Charleston, S. C. 



At the request of some of the European naturalists, John 

 Bartram performed a series of experiments on the Red 

 Campion, Lychnis dioica, to demonstrate the theory of sexes 

 in plants, as James lyOgan had done with the Indian corn. 



John Bartram appears to have been lov^able and virtuous 

 as a man, as would seem consistent with his chosen line of 

 work, and the following quaint extracts from letters con- 

 tained in a biographical sketch bring one close to the man 

 himself. 



Peter Collinson, a I^ondon correspondent, in writing to 

 Dr. Colden of New York, says of John Bartram — "I am 

 persuaded you would have been pleased with him ; you 

 would have found a wonderful natural genius — consider- 

 ing his education, and that he was never out of America, 

 but is an husbandman. His observations and accounts of 

 all natural productions that happen in his way (and I be- 

 lieve few escape him) are much esteemed here for their ac- 

 curacy." Dr. Colden, in a letter to P. Collinson, says — " I 

 had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Bartram at my house, this 

 summer. It is really surprising what knowledge that 

 man has attained merely by the force of industry and his 

 own genius. He has a lively fancy, and a surprising 

 memory and indefatigable disposition." Dr. Garden to 

 Dr. Colden writes — " One day he dragged me out of town, 

 and entertained me so agreeably with some elevated botan- 

 ical thoughts on oaks, ferns, rocks, etc., that I forgot I 



