THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 121 



Delaware, for the practice of his profession, and soon 

 afterward was married to Miss Hannah M. Webster, of that 

 city, a lady of superior intellectual endowments, and favored 

 with a finished classical education, unusual for that day. 

 At Wilmington he devoted his leisure to the study of the 

 plants of that vicinity, and while there in 1811 he attracted 

 the attention of Dr. Muhlenberg, of Lancaster, who sought 

 a correspondence with him, which was actively maintained 

 until Muhlenberg's death in 1815. Dr. Darlington in his 

 ReliquicX Baldwinianx has given this correspondence to the 

 world, and the letters on both sides, ninety in all, are 

 characteristic of the respective writers, and illustrative of 

 the formative period of American botany. 



Pulmonary weakness forced Dr. Baldwin, in the autumn 

 of 1811, to resort to a milder climate, and he removed to the 

 state of Georgia, residing chiefly at Savannah and St. 

 Mary's. Here was a new and interesting field for botanical 

 research, which he cultivated with great ardor, making long 

 journeys on foot, with knapsack on his back, often entirely 

 alone, penetrating far into the territory of the aborigines, 

 among whom his peaceful principles and gentle bearing 

 secured liim a kind reception. In 1812 war with Great 

 Britain interrupted these pursuits, and called into use his 

 professional abilities as a surgeon of a gunboat flotilla 

 stationed at St. Mary's. For two years he ministered to the 

 sick and distressed with no other aid than that of his wife. 

 After the close of the war he was stationed at Savannah, 

 where he was brought into close and friendly communication 

 with Stephen Elliott, author of the " Sketch of the Botany 

 of South Carolina and Georgia."* His correspondence 



* 1821-24. Elliott, A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia, in 

 two volumes. Charlestown, I : x, 14, 606 pp., 12 tab., II : 1824, viii, 743 pp. 



