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early, the truth of the sexes of plants. This learned and emi- 

 nent man took a deep interest in John Bartram's devotion to 

 natural science, and helped to give him character with Peter 

 Collinson, and make him known to the savans abroad, to whom, 

 at that time, an opportunity to correspond with a great natural 

 botanist in the new world was of inestimable value. lie was 

 also, as we have already seen, cotemporary with Benjamin 

 Franklin, who contributed in no small degree with Logan and 

 Collinson to extend his reputation abroad. Indeed it may 

 with truth be said that there was scarcely an individual in this 

 country, after Logan and Franklin, who made himself more 

 highly esteemed in Europe in the age in which he lived, than 

 this Pennsylvania farmer. 



The ancient county of Chester, adjoining Philadelphia on the 

 south and west, was originally settled by the countrymen of 

 Linnaeus, and their descendants still nourish in the same region. 

 When William Penn came over, many of his agricultural friends, 

 with ample means and the characteristic virtue of thrift, located 

 themselves, as before observed, in this county. But little more 

 than a century and a half has rolled by, and there are now near 

 a hundred houses of worship of the society of Friends in what 

 was once Chester county ; the county of Delaware having since 

 been divided off from it on the south-east. This county gave 

 birth to John Bartram and Humphry Marshall, and it was fit 

 and proper that their natal soil should also produce for them a 

 memorialist. Its capital town, from whence this work origi- 

 nates, is not a little signalized for its attention to botanical 

 and horticultural pursuits. It has its Hall of the Cabinet 

 of Natural Science and its Horticultural Hall, with extensive 

 collections in the various departments of the works of nature. 

 A taste for the study of the natural sciences, and special de- 

 light in the cultivation of trees, plants, fruits and flowers, would 

 seem to be indigenous with the dwellers in that region. Their 

 anniversary horticultural exhibition is a great gala day, bring- 

 ing together thousands of the substantial citizens, with wives 

 and children, their countenances lighted up with a smile which 

 indicates the joy they take in it. 



Bartram and Marshall were farmers, and the sons of farmers ; 

 they cultivated their own acres and built their own houses 



