VI PREFACE 



Under date of "London, Jan. 14, 1770," page 571 of the same 

 volume, occurs one of the most significant references to our unknown 

 "Botanist of Pennsylvania." It is written in a letter from John 

 Ellis to Dr. Garden, thus : "I had a letter from Linnaeus, with his 

 respectful compliments to you. He longs much to hear from you. 

 You have seen, no doubt, the Fly-trap or Dioncsa muscipula, which 

 Mr. Young, the Queen's botanist, brought over. It grows in North 

 Carolina, and is much esteemed here. I have sent Linnaeus the 

 characters of it, which gave him infinite pleasure." 



Before taking up further the subject of the "Queen's Botanist," I 

 will now quote the last reference to William Young in Smith's Lin- 

 naean Correspondence. It occurs on page 73 of Vol. II of that 

 work and is a much earlier reference to Young's discovery and ex- 

 portation of the Venus Fly-trap to England. The letter is one from 

 John Ellis to Mary, Duchess of Norfolk, and dated "London, Oct. 

 11, 1768," and confirms Young's statements on page 35 of this 

 Catalogue regarding his discovery of the Dioncea, Ellis, after 

 describing the "New Sensitive Plant," which he terms "one of the 

 rarest productions of the vegetable kingdom," writes the Duchess; 

 "A few of these plants were brought over from Philadelphia this 

 summer by one Mr. Young who sold them to Mr. James Gordon, 

 seedsman, Fenchurch Street, and Mr. Brooks, in Holborn. . . . 

 This is an entirely new Genus. I have sent its characters to Lin- 

 naeus, our father in botany, which I suppose he will adopt." 



Let us now turn to the most fascinating and reliable work relating 

 to the history of early American Botany and see what we can find 

 about William Young. I refer to Dr. William Darlington's "Me- 

 morials of John Bartram and Humphry Mai-shall." Philadelphia, 

 1849. As hinted hi the opening paragraphs of this Preface, Darling- 

 ton was evidently ignorant of Young's Catalogue or he would have 

 alluded to it in his historical Introduction to the "Memorials," and 

 necessarily given it two years priority over Marshall's Arbustrum, 

 as an American production. 



Darlington's book helps clear up the mystery of the "Queen's 

 Botanist." 



A letter from John Bartram to Peter Collinson is the first reference 

 (page 266) to that dignitary. "Sept. 23rd, 1764. Dear Peter: 

 . . . My neighbour Young's sudden preferment has astonished 

 great part of our inhabitants. They are daily talking to me about 

 him, that he has got more honour by a few miles traveling to pick 

 up a few common plants than I have by near 30 years travel, with 

 great danger and peril. It is shocking, the plants you have had, 



