28 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



send insects, birds, and their eggs and nests, terrapin and 

 other turtles, snakes, shells, wasps' and hornets' nests, and 

 fossils, which last were then regarded as " evidences of the 

 Deluge." " My inclination and fondness to natural produc- 

 tions of all kinds," he writes, " is agreeable to the old proverb, 

 4 Like the parsons barn refuses nothing'" During the second 

 year of his allowance Bartram complains that it does not recom- 

 pense him for his labours, and he also finds fault with Collin- 

 son for giving him seeds and cuttings that he has already, and 

 for not having answered some of his letters. Collinson, in a 

 businesslike reply, shows that Bartram's complaints are due to 

 his ignorance of commercial affairs, the difficulty of transat- 

 lantic communication, and to his exceeding the commissions of 

 his patrons whereupon the botanist promptly apologizes. 



In 1738 Bartram made a journey of five weeks through 

 Maryland and Virginia to Williamsburg, then up the James 

 River, and over the Blue Ridge Mountains, travelling in all 

 about eleven hundred miles. Most of his expeditions were 

 made without any scientific companion. " Our Americans," he 

 writes to a correspondent, " have very little taste for these 

 amusements. I can't find one that will bear the fatigue to 

 accompany me in my peregrinations." 



In an undated letter, written probably in 1739, to Colonel 

 Byrd, of Virginia, Bartram reports that he had been making 

 " microscopical observations upon the male and female parts 

 in vegetables." He had also made, he says, " several successful 

 experiments of joining several species of the same genus, 

 whereby I have obtained curious mixed colours in flowers, never 

 known before." To this he adds : " I hope by these practical 

 observations to open a gate into a very large field of experi- 

 mental knowledge, which, if judiciously improved, may be a 

 considerable addition to the beauty of the florist's garden." 

 It was in this " field of experimental knowledge " namely, 

 cross fertilization that Darwin afterward won a share of his 

 fame. Bartram evidently discussed this subject with Collinson, 

 for the latter writes in 1742 : "That some variegations may be 

 occasioned by insects is certain ; but then these are only annual, 

 and cease with the year." Permanent variegations, he says, 

 are produced by budding a sort of inoculation. 



That Bartram had a hostility to superstition, tempered with 

 much considerateness for persons, is shown by a letter in which 



