THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. Ill 



besides botany. General natural history and archaeology 

 also came in for a share of his attention. His literary work 

 made him an indefatigable student, and led him to under- 

 take several ambitious projects which were left unfinished 

 by him. 



Only three days before his death he wrote a paper on 

 a genus of plants which had been named in honor of him, 

 and requested his nephew, Dr. W. P. C. Barton, to make a 

 drawing to accompany it. The latter read the paper 

 illustrated by him at the next meeting of the American 

 Philosophical Society. Dr. Barton was elected to this 

 Society, January 16, 1789, before his return from student- 

 life abroad, and acted as one of its vice-presidents, begin- 

 ning with January 1, 1802. 



Dr. Barton was a patron of botanical science. Frederick 

 Pursh, in his Flora Americas Septentrionalis (London, 1814), 

 describes an excursion that he was enabled to take by the 

 aid of Prof. Barton in the beginning of 1805. Pursh, 

 in his exploration, traveled through the mountains of Vir- 

 ginia and the Carolinas, and returned along the coast, 

 reaching Philadelphia late in the autumn. Similar help 

 was extended to Thomas Nuttall, " whose zeal and services, '^ 

 to use the words of Dr. Barton, " have contributed essentially 

 to extend our knowledge of the northwestern and western 

 flora of North America, and to whom the work of Frederick 

 Pursh is under infinite obligations." 



Dr. Barton further speaks of Nuttall in the following 

 words : 



" I became acquainted with this 3^oung Englishman 

 in Philadelphia several years ago, and observing in him an 

 ardent attachment to and some knowledge of botany, I 



