1760.] TO JOHN BARTRAM. 407 



you seemed desirous of having, when I had the pleasure of your 

 agreeable companj' here. I hope you got safe and well home, 

 and that you found your good wife and family all in perfect health. 



As we were just beginning a acquaintance, the parting with 

 you so soon made me very melancholy for some time ; and I have 

 since frequently wished that I could have prevailed with you, by 

 some means or other, to have stayed with me much longer. 



I quite forgot to show you my specimens of dried plants, of which 

 I have a pretty large collection, also, a few other natural curiosities. 

 Several plants, too, in my garden, which I wanted much to have 

 your opinion of, were entirely forgot to be shown you. But I hope, 

 if ever Providence orders it so that you should have a call into 

 this province again, you will make me ample amends for this last 

 transient visit. 



If you have any of the seeds ready of the underwritten plants, 

 the bearer will give 'em a safe conveyance to, dear friend, your 

 most sincere friend and humble servant, 



John Clayton. 



August 30, 1760. 



Dear Sir : 



Captain Bentley not setting out for Philadelphia so soon as he 

 intended, gives me the further opportunity of writing to you ; and, 

 as he tells me, he believes he shall stay there till the latter end of 

 September, and promises me to take particular care of anything 

 you shall please to send by him, I think it is happened very luckily 

 for me, especially as the season will be tolerably good for removing 

 rooted plants ; and he proposes coming from your city in a vessel 

 down Delaware, and then in his own vessel down Chesapeake Bay, 

 quite to within about three miles of my house. It will do much 



Virginia. As a practical botanist, he was perhaps inferior to no botanist of his 

 time. He left behind him two volumes of manuscript, nearly ready for the press, 

 and a Hortus siccus, which were unfortunately destroyed by the torch of an incen- 

 diary. He is chiefly known to the learned, especially in Europe, by the Flora 

 Virginica, published in 1739, at Leyden, by Gronovius. It is to be regretted 

 that succeeding botanists are in the habit of referring to that Flora, as the work 

 of Gronovius, though its great value is derived from the masterly descriptions 

 communicated to the Leyden Professor by Clayton. In America, his name is 

 familiar to every student of Botany, from the prevalence of the pretty little plant 

 (Claytonia Virginica), dedicated to his memory. See Barton's Med. and Phys. 

 Journ., vol. ii. 



