INTRODUCTION 27 



sent us the anatomic pictures in the museum of 

 the Pennsylvania Hospital, had 4000 plants in his 

 botanical garden near London. Dr. John Mitch- 

 ell, who came over to Virginia in 1700, sent 

 plants to Linnaeus and to Bartram, and in 1763 

 refers to the " white double daffodil " brought 

 over by the first settlers. American oaks planted 

 centuries ago still flourish in England while Wis- 

 teria * and " Virginia creeper " still climb over 

 the walls of hundreds of houses in foggy London. 

 Sponsorial compliments abounded in floral god- 

 children such as the Mitchella, Gardenia and 

 Bigclowui, which were as tenderly reared in 

 Europe as were the Boerhaavia, Meadia* and 

 Lobelia in America. 



There were anxious periods of waiting, for a 

 voyage of seventy days or more wrought havoc 

 with plants, insects and reptiles. Even war did 

 not upset botanical sympathies, and the published 

 correspondence in times of warfare and Indian 

 raids shows chiefly anxiety lest, a ship being cap- 

 tured by the enemy, seeds and plants should be 

 thrown overboard. Michaux," the great botanist, 

 speaks of the French Revolution (1789) merely 

 as a hindrance to his gathering specimens abroad. 



88 Perhaps our American Wisteria is cultivated in England, but the 

 common species there, as here, are of Chinese or Japanese origin. 

 (Greene.) 



"Richard Mead, M. D., London, 1673-1754. 



28 Andre* Michaux, botanist and explorer, 1746-1802. 



