140 Memorandums of the Life and Writings 



" During the year preceding his decease, such was 

 the vigour of his constitution, even at this advanced 

 period, that he made a botanical tour, through Orange- 

 county. It is believed that he had visited most of the 

 settled parts of Virginia*. 



" He left behind him two volumes of manuscript, 

 nearly ■•copied and prepared for the press; and ^.hor- 

 tus siccus^ of folio size, with marginal notes, and di- 

 rections for the engraver, in preparing plates for his 

 proposed work. Mr. Jasper Clayton, grandson of the 



* Mr. Jefferson has informed me, that Clayton never crossed the 

 Blue-Ridge. This appears very probable. For had he crossed 

 this great mountainous tract, he could not but have observed (ar- 

 dent and active as he was, in the pursuit of his favourite study) 

 many of the fine vegetables which are common in this part of Vir- 

 ginia, but which are unknown to the east of tlie Ridge. After all, 

 however, it is difiicult to conceive, that the vigorous botanist should 

 have consented to leave altogether uni^xplored, the vegetable trea- 

 sures of the western parts of Virginia, especially towards the lat- 

 ter period of his life, Vr-hen, by reason of the removal of the Indian 

 tribes, it was much more safe to visit, and travel through, those 

 parts. Several years before the death of Clayton, Mr. John Bar- 

 tram (of whom we have given some account in the first purl of this 

 Journal) repeatedly visited the western, or transmonlane, parts of 

 Virginia, and was the first botanist to discover a considerable num- 

 ber of plants, of which no mention is made in the Flora Virginica. 

 But Clayton, there can be little doubt, had, at least, travelled as 

 far as the catiern foot of the BIue-Ridg/ : for, not to mention other 

 circumstances, he tells us, that he saw a species of Uubus, or 

 Bramble, in the county of Princess- Anne, on the I)anks of the rivcrf) 

 where it passes through the " Blue-MountainsS." Kditoh. 



t James-River. 



\ Flora Virginica, Sec. p. 78. 



