240 JOHN BARTRAM TO [1762. 



Croghan is well known to B. Franklin. To him I have wrote 

 a long letter, which I have desired B. Franklin to show thee, 

 before he sends it -to Croghan. * * I briefly mention these 

 wonders of wonders that, in thy next excursion to the heads of the 

 rivers, if thou art within an hundred miles of them, they deserve a 

 visit to see, what nobody knows is to be seen in the world beside. 



The Indian tradition is, that the monstrous Buffaloes (so called 

 by the Indians) were all struck dead with lightning at this licking- 

 place. But is it likely to think all the race were here collected, 

 and extinguished at one stroke ? 



P. COLLINSON. 



JOHN BARTRAM TO P. COLLINSON. 



August 15th, 17G2. 



Dear Peter : 



I wrote by Budden last, by whom I sent my Journal to Pitts- 

 burg, having a fine opportunity by my friend Taylor, who pro- 

 mised to deliver it to thee with his own hands. * * Our extreme 

 hot, dry weather still continueth, although we have once in two or 

 three weeks a shower that wets the ground two or three inches 

 deep ; but yet the ground is one foot deep as dry as dust. Yet 

 some plants that grow naturally in or near water, bear the dry 

 weather as well as any I have. * 



I am obliged to Solander for the names of the specimens of 

 my last collection. The names of most are very just, and show 

 the great learning and ingenuity of the Doctor ; but as dried 

 specimens are not to be depended upon, like the growing plant, so 

 he hath mistaken several. I shall begin with remarking a very 

 odd, new genus, 54. The Doctor calls it Asclepias linifolia. I 

 found one with broad leaves, near the coast of North Carolina. 

 The leaves are milky, and I thought it had been an Asclepias at 

 first, but observing the leaves growing alternately, the flowers and 

 seeds being so very different from that, or any other known genus, I 

 concluded it was new. It is surprising how it casts its long, rough, 

 misshapen seeds, like bits of rotten wood, out of the top of its long, 

 upright pods. I take it, the lower part of the pod contracts as it 

 dries, and, by slow degrees, squeezeth the seed out of the top of the 

 pod, which openeth by its contraction below. * * 



