^Tptimbef,11!™'}    Early  Bota?iical  and  Herb  Gardens.  415 
Witt  was,  however,  not  the  only  naturalist  in  this  colony  of 
simple-minded,  superstitious  and  easily  impressed  peasants  from  the 
Palatinate,  in  the  early  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century.  His 
neighbor  to  the  north  was  Daniel  Pastorius,  whose  memory  is  so 
elegantly  preserved  by  Whittier  in  the  poem,  "  The  Pennsylvania 
Pilgrim."  Pastorius,  like  Witt,  appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  con- 
siderable learning  and  carried  on  correspondence  with  scholars  and 
scientists  in  Europe,  supplying  them  with  information  and  specimens 
of  American  animals  and  plants.  Tradition  has  it  that  the  gardens 
of  these  two  scholars  adjoined  and  that  there  existed  a  friendly  rivalry 
between  them  to  secure  the  greatest  number  of  novel  or  interesting 
plant  specimens. 
Of  Pastorius,  Whittier  says  that  his  teachers 
"  Sought  out  their  pupil,  in  this  far-off  nook 
To  query  with  him  of  climatic  change 
Of  bird,  beast,  reptile  in  his  forest  range, 
Of  flowers  and  fruits  and  simples  new  and  strange. 
Pastorius  answered  all  ;  while  seed  and  root 
Sent  from  his  new  home,  grew  to  flower  and  fruit 
Along  the  Rhine  and  at  the  Spessart's  foot. 
While  in  return,  the  flowers  his  boyhood  knew 
Smiled  at  his  door,  the  same  in  form  and  hue, 
And  on  his  vines  the  Rhenish  clusters  grew." 
Christopher  Witt,  however,  appears  to  have  had  the  larger  gar- 
den, and  certainly  had  a  wider  range  of  acquaintances.  He  is  known 
to  have  supplied  a  number  ot  European  correspondents  with  Ameri- 
can seeds  and  plants.  Witt's  correspondence  with  European  scien- 
tists extended  over  practically  the  whole  of  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  in  the  earlier  decades,  at  least,  was  quite 
extensive. 
Among  the  better  known  of  his  correspondents  was  Peter  Collin- 
son,  a  London  merchant  and  well-known  naturalist  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Collinson  was  born  January  28,  1693-4  and  died  August 
1 1,  1768,  in  the  seventy-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He  is  known  to  have 
had  an  extensive  correspondence  with  the  leading  naturalists  of 
Europe,  and  through  him  Witt  became  known  to  a  large  number  of 
people  who  were  interested  in  botany. 
Among  Collinson's  American  corre  spondents  was  James  Logan, 
an  associate  and  friend  of  William  Penn,  and  one  of  the  first  Gover- 
nors of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania.    Jame  s  Logan  was  also  inter- 
