80 
The Garden Magazine, October, 1920 
A REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF AMERICANIZATION 
The famous Lady Petre Pear tree, shipped across the Atlantic 
in infancy (1760), and still enjoying a sturdy and fruitful old age 
swollen leaf bases, which form a cap over the axillary buds, 
are always a matter of interest to the botanically initiated. 
The Bartram Oak (Quercus heterophylla) which measures 
1 1 feet around, stands on a knoll a little distance south of 
the house and is still in a vigorous condition, al- 
though exposed like the other old trees of the 
place to the increasing smokiness of the neigh- 
borhood. A few Kentucky Coffee-trees near the 
house are probably descendants of the trees orig- 
inally planted by the Quaker botanist. Several 
species of Horsechestnut or Buckeye, are repre- 
sentative trees of this arboretum, and have been 
there from earlier days. Such are several fine 
Sweet Buckeyes (Aesculus flava) the largest 9 
feet in circumference with panicles of greenish- 
yellow flowers, Red Buckeyes (Aesculus Pavia), 
and European Horsechestnuts (Aesculus Hippo- 
castanum). The shrubby Aesculus parviflora (A. 
macrostachya) is here and also the hybrid Aes- 
culus carnea (A. rubicunda) a cross between the 
European Horsechestnut and the Red Buckeye. 
Several fine Silver-bell trees (Halesia tetraptera) 
remain alive from Bartram’s days and also the Fringe-tree 
(Chionanthus virginica), which becomes one of the show trees 
when in flower. 
The Cucumber-tree (Magnolia acuminata) and the Mountain 
Magnolia (M. Fraseri) are included in the collection of trees. 
The Great-leaved Magnolia (M. macrophylla), although originally 
grown in the garden, has disappeared, as also the evergreen 
species (M. grandiflora) perfectly hardy as far north as Phila- 
delphia. The North American Papaw (Asimina triloba) is 
represented by a small group of trees which flower profusely in 
April and May, and on these trees mature fruit is occasionally 
found; but, although the pulp is sweet and the fruits 
edible in autumn, they can hardly be recommended 
for extensive use. 
At the southern end of the old mansion stands an 
old Pear tree still in vigorous health known as “The 
Petre Pear tree” from the fact of its having been 
raised from a seedling sent over from England in 1760 
by Lady Petre. It is a famous old variety of Pear, 
scarcely known, however, out of Bartram’s own garden 
in Philadelphia. The Box trees planted about the 
house have reached a large size and it is difficult to get 
views of the house from certain vantage points on 
account of their dense foliage. A large Ginkgo (9 feet 
3 inches girth) grows in the northern part of the ar- 
boretum (perhaps the first Ginkgo tree planted in 
America, since it is much larger than the one in “The 
Woodlands” which some authorities surmise is the 
oldest), while at the southern end a Mossy-cup Oak, 
one of the largest trees of the place, has succumbed 
to the influence of the gases and smoke blown from 
the near-by railroads and manufacturing plants. 
“A Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs and Herbaceous 
Plants indigenous to the United States of America, 
cultivated and disposed of by John Bartram & Son 
at their Botanical Garden, Kingsessing, near Phila- 
delphia,” published in 1807, gives some idea of the 
extent and influence of their horticultural work. 
After the death of William Bartram the place came 
into the hands of Robert Carr, a printer, who married 
Ann M. Bartram, daughter of the John Bartram who 
was a nephew of William Bartram. And the business 
was extended by Carr apparently; for a committee 
of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which 
visited the garden in 1830, when it was still under 
his direction, found the estate to be in most excellent 
order, with frequent additions to its collections, so 
that it represented a rich depository of the American 
flora. 
Later the property passed to Andrew M. Eastwick in whose 
estate it remained until purchased by the City of Philadelphia 
in 1896 as a public park. Possession by the city will insure the 
preservation of the old stone cider-mill along the river front, 
and the house and other historic buildings of the arboretum. 
The old house, built by John Bartram himself, has been neg- 
lected of recent years, but with a sufficient appropriation of 
money it can be easily restored to the fine condition it enjoyed 
when John Bartram, having been put out of the Society of 
Friends on account of his Unitarian beliefs, inscribed over his 
study window and signed his simple creed: 
“It Is God Alone Almyty Lord 
The Holy One By Me Ador’d 
John Bartram, 1770” 
THE BARTRAM 
POTTING SHED 
AND 
TOOL HOUSE 
Where Bartram 
;pent many pleas- 
ant hours with his 
, plants 
