of Mr. John Clayton. 143 



a long life in exploring aniJ describing its plants, and 

 is supposed to have enlarged the botanical catalogue 

 as much as almost any man who has lived*." It ap- 

 pears, however, from the information of Bishop Ma- 

 dison, and also from that of Mr. Page, that to England 

 belongs the honour of having produced this distin- 

 guished botanist, and learned man. 



Mr. Clayton is chiefly known to the learned, espe- 

 cially in Europe, by the Flora Virginica. The first 

 edition of this work appeared at Ley den, in the year 

 1748, in octavo : a more complete edition was pub- 

 lished, at the same place, in quarto, in 1762t. This 

 truly valuable work is very frequently referred to by 

 Linnaeus, and by all the succeeding botanists who 

 have had occasion to treat of the plants of North- 

 America. It is to be regretted, however, that they 

 so frequently refer to the Flora as the work of Grono- 

 vius, though its great value is derived from the mas- 

 terly descriptions communicated to the Leyden pro- 

 fessor by Mr. Clayton. 



As a practical botanist, Clayton was, perhaps, infe- 

 rior to no botanist of his time. His descriptions of 

 plants are, in general, so correct, that it is scarcely 



* Notes OM the State of Virginia, &c. p. 68. The original edi- 

 tion, of 1782. 



t Flora Virginica exhibensPlantas, qiias nobiiissinius vir D. D. 

 Johannes Claytoniis, Med. Doct. &;c., Sec, in Virginia crescentes 

 observavit, collegit et obtulit D. Job. Fred. Gronovio, cnjus stu- 

 dio et opera dcscriptae et in ordinem sexualem syslcmaticum re- 

 dactae sistuntur. Lugduni Balavorum ! 1762. 



