372 JOHN BARTRAM TO [1753. 



Pray, how doth our friend Kalm go on with his history of our 

 country plants ? He promised me to send me one, as soon as 

 printed, and that he would do me justice in mentioning what plants 

 or specimens I showed him ; hut I never can get a letter from him 

 since he left my house. I should be very well pleased to see what 

 he hath wrote of our plants. 



I here send thee two specimens of a curious evergreen Veratrum 

 [probably Helonias bullata, L.]. It grows in wet, swampy, shady, 

 cold ground. The root is white and fibrous, from which proceeds 

 sixteen, more or less, of longish narrow leaves, pointed at the ex- 

 tremity. The leaves of the second year lie on the ground, spread 

 in rays round the summer's leaves, which stood more erect, yet 

 bending towards the ground, and surrounding a central bud which 

 is set in the fall, and if for flowering, is like a pointed cone whose 

 base is near an inch diameter, which next spring shoots up a single 

 stalk eighteen inches high, with short pointed leaves set without 

 order round it, gradually diminishing in magnitude unto the spike 

 of flowers, two or three inches long, the petals of a flesh-colour, 

 the apices [anthers] bluish, and standing out longer than the 

 petals, which makes a pretty appearance. See the imperfect 

 specimen, as it flowered after transplanting. 



JOHN BARTRAM TO JARED ELIOT.* 



February the 12th, 1753. 



Respected Friend Eliot : 



I have been long waiting for an answer to my letter which I 

 sent last spring; but lately our good friend Benjamin told me 

 our letters had miscarried. So now I venture to trouble thee with 

 a few more of my rambling observations. * * 



* Jaeed Eliot, minister of Killings-worth, Connecticut, graduated at Yale Col- 

 lege, 1706 ; ordained 1709 ; and died 1763, aged 78. He was a botanist, and a 

 scientific and practical agriculturist. The White Mulberry tree was introduced 

 by him into Connecticut. He discovered a process of extracting iron from black 

 sand. He was the first physician of his day, in the Colony. Living on the main 

 road from Boston to New York, he was visited by many gentlemen of distinction. 

 Doctor Franklin always called on him when journeying to his native town. 

 For forty years he never omitted preaching on the Lord's day. Blake's Biog. 

 Diet. Of that worthy man, St. John de Crevecoiuk, in his " Lettres d'un Culti- 

 vateur Americain," says, " Qui ne connoit de reputation le savant Eliot, ce digne 

 ecclesiastique, ce vertueux et utile citoyen ? Qui n'a pas lu ses ouvrages agri- 

 coles?" 



