12 The Life and Writings of 



hours of leisure, but withal with serious intent. But 

 now came again the yellow fever, in the summer of 

 1802, of which Rafinesque writes: &quot;Being much afraid 

 of this disorder, which had deprived me of a father, I 

 left the city and took refuge in Germantown; where 

 I had the good luck to be invited by Col. Forrest, a 

 Friend of Horticulture, to dwell with him, and travel 

 with him to collect Plants.&quot; This gave him a summer 

 of travel and botany, for the scourge which he sought 

 to escape did not disappear until the following October. 

 A considerable number of excursions about Germantown, 

 some of which extended into New Jersey and over Kast- 

 ern Pennsylvania, were made during this period. While 

 these were nothing more than botanical tramps, such as 

 the veriest tyro is compelled to take who desires an 

 acquaintance with the flora of any locality, Rafinesque 

 dignifies them by the name of &quot;journies&quot;; in this pecul 

 iarity he shows in a remarkable manner the influence 

 of his early reading. If not yet such, he surely would 

 be a veritable Marco Polo or von Humboldt! 



During this stay in Philadelphia Rafinesque had 

 frequent opportunity to visit the botanical gardens of 

 Marshall and Bartram, the former of which was not 

 far away at West Chester. Attention will again be 

 directed to these gardens in connection with a certain 



