THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 45 



" Indeed, to give the Doctor his due, he is very pleasant, 

 facetious and plaint, and will exchange as many freedoms 

 as most men of his years, with those he respects. His 

 understanding and judgment thee art not unacquainted 

 with, having had so long and frequent intercourse with 

 him by letters. 



" When we are upon the topic of astrology, magic, and 

 mystic divinity, I am apt to be a little troublesome, by 

 inquiring into the foundation and reasonableness of these 

 notions, which, thee knows, will not bear to be searched and 

 examined into ; though I handle these fancies with 

 more tenderness with him than I should with many others 

 that are so superstitiously inclined, because I respect the 

 man. He hath a considerable share of good in him. 



" The Doctor's famous Lychnis, which thee has digni- 

 fied so highly, is, I think, unworthy of that character. Our 

 swamps and low grounds are full of them. I had so con- 

 temptible an opinion of it as not to think it worth sending, 

 nor afford it room in my garden ; but I suppose, by thy 

 account, your climate agreeth so well, that it is much 

 improved. The other, which I brought from Virginia, 

 grows with me about five feet high, bearing spikes of 

 different colored flowers, for three or four months in the 

 year,, exceeding beautiful. I have another wild one, finely 

 speckled, and striped with red upon a white ground, and a 

 red eye in the middle, the only one I ever saw. 



" Our w^orthy friend Golden wrote to me he had received 

 a new edition of Linnaeus's Characteres Plantarum, lately 

 printed. He advised me to desire Gronovius to send it to 

 me. The first I saw was at the Doctor's, and chiefly by it 

 he hath attained the greatest knowledge in botany of any 

 I have discoursed with. John Bartram." 



