116 Di*. Hooker on American Botany. 



must have done much towards recommending the study of 

 botany in that country. 



Mr. Marshall, author of a work on the forest trees of 

 America, was then living, and he imparted to Pursh some 

 useful materials, principally afforded by his garden, rich in 

 trees and shrubs. 



The sons of the celebrated John Bartram, before men- 

 tioned, possessed an old established garden, founded indeed 

 by the elder Bartram, at Philadelphia, on the banks of the 

 Delaware. Mr. William Bartram, the well-known author 

 of the travels through North and South Carolina, was then, 

 and we believe is still living; a man who merits the gratitude 

 of every naturalist, for the cordial reception which he 

 gave to Wilson, the ornithologist, at the period when that 

 highly-gifted individual had scarcely a friend in the world. 

 It was the advice and encouragement that Mr. Bartram gave 

 him that was mainly the cause of the appearance of one of 

 the most valuable works on science that was ever published 

 in any country, the American Ornithology* Mr. Pursh 

 appears to have received an equally kind reception and much 

 valuable information from Bartram. 



In 1802, Mr. Pursh had the charge of the extensive gar- 

 dens of W. Hamilton, Esq. called the Woodlands, which 

 having, immediately previous, been under the charge of Mr. 



* We cannot help here, though but little connected with the subject of this 

 paper, making an extract from the interesting life of Wilson, published by Mr. 

 Ord, in the 9th volume of the American Ornithology. " His residence being 

 but at a short distance from the botanical garden of Messrs. Bartram, situated on 

 the western bank of the Schuylkill, (a sequestered spot, possessing attractions of 

 no ordinary kind,) an acquaintance was soon contracted with that venerable na- 

 turalist, Mr. William Bartram, which ripened into an uncommon friendship, and 

 continued without the least abatement until severed by the hand of death. Here 

 it was that Wilson found himself translated, if we may so speak, into a new exist- 

 ence. He had long been a lover of the works of nature, and had derived more 

 happiness from the contemplation of her simple beauties, than from any other 

 source of gratification. But he had hitherto been a mere novice ; he was now 

 about to receive instructions from one whom the experience of a long life, spent in 

 travel and rural retirement, had rendered qualified to teach. Mr. Bartram soon 

 perceived the bent of his friend's mind, and its congeniality to his own, and took 

 every pains to encourage him in a study, which, while it expands the faculties and 

 purifies the heart, insensibly leads to the contemplation of the glorious author of 

 nature himself." 



