144 Memorandums of the Life and Writings 



possible to remain in doubt concerning the precise spe- 

 cies which he describes. This is especially the case 

 in the latter numbers which he transmitted to Grono- 

 vius : for he had now become better acquainted with 

 the system of Linnaeus, besides enjoying that encreas- 

 ing facility in accurate description, of which none but 

 the progrcssii)e naturalist can form a correct idea. So 

 long as the science of botany shall be cultivated (in 

 America at least), the services of Clayton will be grate- 

 fully remembered; and I shall consider it as a duty in- 

 cumbent upon myself to preserve, in every case, his 

 original descriptions in my intended account of the 

 plants of the rich and extensive countr}' of Virginia*, in 

 exploring which I have ever experienced sensations 

 of a pleasurable kind, when I reflected, that I was tread- 

 ing the ground over which Clayton had so often passed 

 before me. 



Mr. Clayton was a member of some of the most 

 learned literary societies of Europe, and corresponded 

 with Gronovius, Linnaeus, and others of the ablest bo- 

 tanists of that portion of the ^vorld. But he was fk>t 

 brought up to the profession of physic, much less had 

 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, as we 

 are led to suppose from the title-page, and from the de- 

 dicationf, of the last edition of the Flora Firginica. 

 This edition, it will be recollected, was not published 



* Proclronius of a Flora of the States of New- York, New-Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. 



t Nobilissinno et consultissinio viro D. D. Johanni Claytono, M. 

 D. et Botanico exJmio, Sec, Sec, S. P. D. Laur. Theod. Gronovius. 



