LIFE AND CHARACTER 25 



Cutler's visit took place in July, 1787, a year after Bartram 

 had been elected a member of the American Philosophical 

 Society. He came to make this visit, Cutler tells us, because 

 when he inquired of his Philadelphia friends. Dr. Gerardus 

 Clarkson and Dr. Benjamin Rush, " after Mr. Cox, the present 

 Professor of Botany in the University" of Pennsylvania, both 

 gentlemen hemmed and hawed and " Dr. Rush observed that 

 Mr. Bartram had much more botanical knowledge than Cox, 

 and employed much of his time in the examination of plants. . . . 

 Dr. Clarkson proposed a ride early in the morning to Bartram's 

 seat, two miles beyond the Schulkill. . . ." ^^ Accordingly early 

 the next morning Cutler, accompanied by a large group of 

 "members of Convention," ®® including Governor Martin, 

 James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, alighted at the 

 Garden from Dr. Clarkson' s "phaeton" and looked for Mr. 

 Bartram, whom they found, 



with another man, hoeing in his garden, in a short jacket and trowsers, 

 and without shoes or stockings. He at first stared at us, and seemed to 

 be somewhat embarrassed at seeing so large and gay a company so early 

 in the morning. Dr. Clarkson . . . introduced me to him, and informed 

 him that I wished to converse with him on botanical subjects, . . . He 

 presently got rid of his embarrassment, and soon became very sociable. 

 . . . We ranged the several alleys, and he gave me the generic and 

 specific names, place of growth, properties, etc., so far as he knew 

 them. . . . The other gentlemen were very free and sociable with him, 

 particularly Governor Martin, who has a smattering of botany and a 

 fine taste for natural history. 



Dunlap and Brown's visit must have taken place at a much 

 later time, for Dunlap says, 



Arrived at the Botanist's Garden, we approached an old man who, 

 with a rake in his hand, was breaking the clods of earth in a tulip bed. 

 His hat was old and flapped over his face, his coarse shirt was seen near 

 his neck, as he wore no cravat or kerchief; his waistcoat and breeches 

 were both of leather, and his shoes were tied with leather strings. We 

 approached and accosted him. He ceased his work, and entered into 

 conversation with the ease and politeness of nature's noblemen. His 



'* Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler. Cincinnati, 

 1888. I, 258. 

 '"' Apparently the Constitutional Convention. 



