INTRODUCTION 13 



the author writing on specimens sent him from 

 Canada, and it seems probable that Thomas Har- 

 iot (or Harriott) (1560-1621) was really the first 

 to write on the natural history of America 

 in his Briefe and True Report of the new 

 found Land of Virginia (1590). Harriott was 

 the friend of Raleigh and was sent out by 

 him to America. Two other Englishmen, John 

 Josselyn, living in Boston, and the Rev. John 

 Banister, who came over and settled in America, 

 added to the literature in New England's 

 Rarities, 1672, and A Catalogue of Plants Ob- 

 served in Virginia, 1680. The statement that 

 Banister ever travelled, except from England to 

 Virginia (where he settled and remained until 

 his death) appears to be without foundation. 



There still exists some of the Botanic Garden 

 made by Dr. John Bartram, about 1730, on the 

 right bank of the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. 

 From this garden the doctor sent collections of 

 seeds and plants to his friend Peter Collinson 2 in 

 London. He also conducted A series of experi- 

 ments on the Lychnis dioica, illustrative of the 

 doctrine of sex in plants. 



1739 saw the publication of the first systematic 

 enumeration of North American plants, edited 

 by Gronovius at Leyden, Holland, to which I 

 have referred in the life of John Clayton. 



2 Peter Collinson, F. R. S., 1693-1768. 



