232 Nations lately become Literary. [Ch. XXVI. 



York, before mentioned, was much devoted to the 

 study of botany, and made important contribu- 

 tions toward a knowledge of Am.erican plants ; 

 especially of that part of America which was in 

 the vicinity of his residence. !Mr. John Bartram*, 

 of Pennsylvania, was the first native American 

 who conceived and carried into etTect the plan 

 of a botanic garden f for the reception and culti- 

 vation of indigenous as well as exotic plants, and 

 of travelling for the purpose of accomplishing 

 this plan. He did much to explore the natural 

 history of his native country. Dr. John Mitchell J, 



&c. He was undoubtedly a man of various and extensive learn- 

 ing, of respectable talents, and of great literary industry. Sec 

 ll.3.YdiiQ'i Biography/, vol. ii, p. 131. 



* Mr. John Bartram was born near Darby, in Chester count)', 

 Pennsylvania, in the year 1701. His grandfather, of the same 

 name, had come to the colony in 1082, with the celebrated WiU 

 iiam Penn. This self-taught genius early discovered a great 

 thirst for the acquishion of knowledge, and especially of botani- 

 cal knowledge. He travelled in pursuit of it with unwearied di- 

 ligence, in various parts of his native country, from Canada to 

 Florida, and made such proficiency ni the study thai Linnaeus is 

 said to have pronounced him the " greatest natural botanist in 

 the world." He corresponded with many of the most distin- 

 guished men of science, both .in America, and in Europe. He 

 was elected a member of several of the most eminent societies 

 and academies abroad, and was at length appointed botanist to 

 his Britannic majesty George HI. He died in 1777, in the seven- 

 ty-sixth year of his age. 



f It cannot be said that Mr. Bartram formed a botanic garden, 

 in the scientific sense of the expression; but he made a large and 

 valuable collection of plants on his farm near Philadelphia, 

 which his sons have kept up to the present day. 



t Dr. John Mitchell, who was mentioned in a former chapter 

 as having gone from England to Virginia early in the last cen- 

 tury, appears to have been a man of observation, acutenoss, and 



