406 JOHN CLAYTON [1760. 



Notwithstanding the failure of your eyes, you write as distinctly 

 as ever. 



With great esteem and respect, I am, my dear friend, 



Yours most affectionately, 



B. Franklin. 



Paris, May 27, 1777. 



My dear old Friend : 



The communication between Britain and North America being 

 cut off, the French botanists cannot, in that channel, be supplied 

 as formerly with American seeds, &c. If you, or one of your sons, 

 incline to continue that business, you may, I believe, send the 

 same number of boxes here, that you used to send to England ; 

 because England will then send here, for what it wants in that 

 way. Inclosed, is a list of the sorts wished for here. If you con- 

 sign them to me, I will take care of the sale, and returns, for you. 

 There will be no difficulty in the importation, as the matter is 

 countenanced by the ministry, from whom I received the list. 



My love to Mrs. Bartram, and your children. I am ever, my 

 dear friend, 



Yours most affectionately, 



B. Franklin. 



JOHN CLAYTON- TO JOHN BARTRAM. 



Gloucester, July 23d, 1760. 



Dear Sir : 



Having so fine an opportunity by my neighbour, Captain 

 Richard Bentley, I have sent you inclosed some of the seeds 



* Jhn Clayton, an eminent botanist of Virginia, was born at Fulham, in the 

 county of Kent, in Great Britain. He came to Virginia with his father, in the 

 year 1705, and was probably then in his twentieth year. His father was an 

 eminent lawyer, and was appointed Attorney-General of Virginia. 



Young Clayton was put in the office of Peter Beverly, who was Clerk or 

 Prothonotary for Gloucester County, Virginia. He succeeded Mr. Beverly as 

 clerk of that county, and filled the office fifty-one years. He died on the 15th of 

 December, 1773, in his eighty-eighth year. 



During the year preceding his decease, such was the vigour of his constitution, 

 and such his zeal in botanical researches, that he made a botanical tour through 

 Orange County ; and it is believed that he had visited most of the settled parts of 



