146 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



tram, Coleridge could not have missed Bartram's description 

 of the " inchanting little Isle of Palms " on page 157, a " blessed 

 unviolated spot of earthl " nor of Bartram's own predicament 

 when, on the next page, he finds himself "' alone in the wilder- 

 ness of Florida." 



Bartram's " inchanting Isle " rises " from the limpid waters 

 of the lake ; its fragrant groves and blooming lawns invested and 

 protected by encircling ranks of the Yucca gloriosa; a fascinat- 

 ing atmosphere surrounds this blissful garden; the balmy Lan- 

 tana, ambrosial Citra, perfumed Crinum, perspiring their min- 

 gled odours, wafted through Zanthoxilon groves." When 

 Bartram at last " breaks away " from " the enchanting spot " 

 he traverses a " capacious semi-circular cove of the lake, verged 

 by low, extensive grassy meadows." Can we then fail to recog- 

 nize the source of Coleridge's 



. . . gardens bright with sinuous rills, 

 Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; 

 And . . . forests ancient as the hills, 

 Enfolding sunny spots of greenery (11. 8-11), 



or of his " green hill athwart a cedarn cover! " (1. 13) ? But 

 Coleridge's wilderness-plot called for a fountain, for it was to 

 be " green and jountainous." That too was supplied by Bar- 

 tram. Six pages beyond the Isle of Palms description Coleridge 

 read: 



I seated myself upon a swelling green knoll at the head of the 

 chrystal bason. Near me, on the left, was a point or projection of an 

 entire grove of the aromatic Illisium Floridanum; ... in front, just 

 under my feet was the inchanting and amazing chrystal jountain. . . . 

 (p. 165). 



When Coleridge writes that 



. . . from this chasm, tvith ceaseless turmoil seething, 

 As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, 

 A mighty fountain momently was forced: 

 Amid whose swift half -intermittent burst 

 Huge fragmefits vaulted like rebounding hail. 

 Or chajfy grain beneath the thresher's flail: 

 And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever 

 // flung up momently the sacred river (U. 17-24), 



