LIFE AND CHARACTER 3 



stories. The one most commonly quoted is from Crevecoeur's 

 Letters, in which John Bertram answers Iwan Alexiowitz's ques- 

 tion: " Pray, Mr. Bertram, when did you imbibe the first wish 

 to cultivate the science of botany; was you regularly bred to it 

 in Philadelphia?" To which Bartram replied: 



One day I was very busy in holding my plough (for thee seest that I 

 am but a ploughman) and being weary ran under the shade of a tree to 

 repose myself. I cast my eyes on a daisy, I plucked it mechanically and 

 viewed it with more curiosity than common country farmers are wont to 

 do ; and observed therein very many distinct parts, some perpendicular, 

 some horizontal. What a shame, said my mind, or something that 

 inspired my mind, that thee shouldst have employed so many years in 

 tilling the earth and destroying so many powers and plants, without 

 being acquainted with their structures and their uses! This seeming 

 inspiration suddenly awakened my curiosity . . . this new desire did 

 not quit my mind; I mentioned it to my wife . . . her prudent cau- 

 tion did not discourage me; I thought about it continually at supper, 

 in bed, and wherever I went. At last I could not resist the impulse; 

 for on the fourth day of the following week, I hired a man to plough 

 for me, and went to Philadelphia. Though I knew not what book to 

 call for, I ingeniously told the book-seller my errand, who provided me 

 with such as he thought best, and a Latin grammar beside. Next I 

 applied to a neighboring schoolmaster, who in three months taught me 

 Latin enough to understand Linnaeus. . . . Then I began to botanise 

 all over my farm ; in a little time I became acquainted with every vege- 

 table that grew in my neighborhood; and next ventured into Mary- 

 land. . . . ■^ 



This account of a miraculous conversion has been accepted by 

 subsequent writers on John Bartram. In an article, for instance, 

 on the " Study of Natural Science," an anonymous writer retells 

 this story of the plucking of the flower — without mentioning 

 the source of his information — and concludes dramatically that 

 " . . . in the same hour the lover of nature became a natural- 

 ist, and the spirit then awakened never slept to his latest day." ^ 

 There are facts, however, contained in the literary remains of 

 John Bartram and his son William, that point to a more normal 

 transition of the lover of nature into a naturalist. On May 1, 



''Letters from an American Farmer, pp. 190, 191, 192. The italics are Creve- 

 coeur's. 



^The North American Review, LXI (October, 1835), 4l4. 



