2 6 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



the west bank of the Schuylkill River, at Kingsessing, near 

 Gray's Ferry (now within the limits of Philadelphia), and was 

 bought by him September 30, 1728. "Here he built with his 

 own hands," says William, " a large and comfortable house of 

 hewn stone, and laid out a garden containing about five acres." 

 A view of this house, which is still standing, is given herewith. 

 The year of its erection is shown by a stone in the wall on 

 which is cut " JOHN ?{c ANN BARTRAM, 1731." Another inscrip- 

 tion on a stone over the front window of his study reads : 



11 'Tis God alone, Almighty Lord, 

 The Holy One, by me adored. 



"JOHN BARTRAM, 1770." 



That the building was a labour of love is attested by the care 

 bestowed upon the carved stonework around the windows and 

 doors and the pillar under the porch. John Bartram must have 

 been a good stonecutter and mason, for this is one of four 

 stone houses that he built in his lifetime. 



Nearly all the extant information concerning the lives of 

 the two Bartrams has been embodied in the Memorial of John 

 Bartram, by William Darlington, published in 1849. This vol- 

 ume contains the sketch of John Bartram by his son William, 

 with some additions by the editor, and over four hundred 

 pages of correspondence. About a fourth of these letters are 

 from his friend Peter Collinson ; the others are from eminent 

 botanists in Europe and America, and from Bartram to these 

 various correspondents. Darlington also reprinted a sketch of 

 John Bartram, which appeared in the Letters from an American 

 Farmer, by J. Hector St. John, published in London soon after 

 Bartram's death. The " letter " describing Bartram purports 

 to be written by a Russian traveller, who is evidently a myth, 

 although in all important respects the account represents the 

 botanist as he was. As to how Bartram's interest in botany 

 was aroused, the " Russian gentleman " has a very pretty story, 

 telling of a sudden awakening after the botanist had married; 

 but Bartram himself is better authority, and he writes to Col- 

 linson, May i, 1764, "I had always since ten years old a great 

 inclination to plants, and knew all that I once observed by 

 sight, though not their proper names, having no person nor 

 books to instruct me." 



He was encouraged to study systematically by James Logan 



