56 SOME AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANISTS 



and I shall rejoice if it is of the least service to 

 him. He tells me that he is appointed King's 

 Botanist in America. Is it really so? Surely 

 John is a worthy man ; but yet to give the title of 

 King's Botanist to a man w^ho can scarcely spell, 

 much less make out the characters of any one 

 genus of plants, appears rather hyperbolical. 

 Pray how is this matter? Is he not rather ap- 

 pointed or sent, and paid, for searching out the 

 plants of East and West Florida, and for that 

 service only to have a reward and his expenses? 

 Surely our King is a great King! The very idea 

 of ordering such a search is noble, grand, royal. 

 It may be attended with much use to mankind, 

 much honour to the Royal Patron ; and it will be 

 a further illustration of the power, wisdom, and 

 goodness of our great Heavenly Father." 



These remarks concerning his guest as King's 

 Botanist advert to Bartram's appointment and 

 reception of an order to discover the source of the 

 great river St. Johns. Four hundred miles he 

 travelled, and in the course of this journey made 

 an accurate survey of the river, its lakes and 

 branches, the soil, animals and climate, which 

 was published in London. 



There seems to have been a little rivalry be- 

 tween Bartram and Garden, though, referring 



