xiv HUMPHRY MARSHALL OF MARSHALLTON 193 



Marshall had a long career as a naturalist : 



Among his fields or by his ingle-nook 

 Reading for ever in Nature's open book. 



In 1785 we find him supplying Lettsom with two land 

 turtles ; one of them he judged to be fifty years old ; 

 for the farmers, he said, sometimes cut their initials and 

 a date upon the shells of these harmless little creatures, 

 which have been found still active above fifty years 

 afterwards. In the same year Marshall published the 

 Arbustum Americanum, an account of the trees and shrubs 

 native to the country, and the first work on botany issued 

 in America : it was poorly received. Marshall was a 

 tall grave man of homely aspect, with strongly marked 

 features, an ample forehead and a voice of deep tone. 

 He was very intelligent, combining study with active 

 habits, and took a close interest in the concerns of the 

 community around him, and especially in West-town 

 School. He died in 1801, aged seventy-nine years. 1 



Besides his collectors abroad, Fothergill enjoyed the 

 co-operation of. many growers of plants at home. John 

 Ellis and Philip Miller have already been mentioned. 

 James Gordon had a nursery in Essex Road, Mile End, 

 and a seed shop in Fenchurch Street ; Fothergill con- 

 stantly committed seeds to his care. Gordon introduced 

 some valuable trees into Britain : he was an upright and 

 skilful man, and tended his charges with an understanding 

 born of love. In order to facilitate his collections Fother- 

 gill printed " Directions for taking up Plants and Shrubs, 

 and conveying them by Sea." Each young plant was 

 to be carefully dug up, with a large ball of earth around 

 its roots, and placed upon mould and rotten leaves in a 



1 A paper by Marshall in 1786 on Agricultural Botany drew attention 

 to the instinct shown by cattle in their choice or refusal of different herbs, 

 as a subject worthy of study. On Marshall, see Darlington, op. cit. ; Harsh- 

 berger, op. cit. ; Bulletin of the Chester County Historical Soc., Penna., Sept. 27, 

 1913, for which the author thanks Gilbert Cope of West Chester ; Letter, 

 H. Marshall to B. Franklin, 1771, Atner. Phil. Soc. Calendar, iii. 43 ; H. A. 

 Kelly, op. cit. The genus Marshallia, Schreb., nat. order Composite, was 

 named after his nephew Dr. Moses Marshall. In the Phil. Trans. (Ixiv. 194) 

 is a paper, introduced by Franklin, of brief observations by Marshall of Spots 

 on the Sun, with pencil sketches. 



O 



