4i 8  Early  Botanical  and  Herb  Gardens.  {^eptembeMm" 
Another  quite  extensive  and  generally  well-known  garden,  dating 
back  to  the  Colonial  period,  was  that  of  Humphrey  Marshall,  a 
cousin  of  John  Bartram,  at  Marshallton,  Pa. 
Humphrey  Marshall  was  born  in  West  Bradford,  Chester  County, 
Pa.,  October  10,  1725,  and  died  November  5,  1801.  He  was  the 
eighth  child  of  Abraham  and  Mary  Hunt  Marshall.  At  an  early 
age  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  stone  mason,  which  vocation  he  followed 
for  a  number  of  years.  The  garden  at  Marshallton  was  not  founded 
until  1773,  from  which  time  Marshall  appears  to  have  devoted  all  of 
his  time  to  the  study  of  botany.  In  1780  he  began  to  prepare  an 
account  of  the  forest  trees  and  shrubs  of  North  America.  This  is 
said  to  have  been  the  first  truly  indigenous  botanical  book  published 
in  this  country  and  was  the  means  of  attracting  to  Marshallton  a 
number  of  widely  known  botanists  and  scientists. 
Frederick  Pursh,  in  the  preface  to  his  "  North  American  Flora," 
says:  "  I  next  visited  the  old-established  gardens  of  Mr.  Marshall, 
author  of  the  small  treatise  on  the  forest  trees  of  North  America. 
This  gentleman,  though  then  far  advanced  in  years,  and  deprived  of  his 
eyesight,  conducted  me  personally  through  his  collection  of  interest- 
ing trees  and  shrubs,  pointing  out  many  which  were  then  new  to 
me,  which  strongly  proved  his  attachment  and  application  to  the 
science  in  former  years,  when  his  vigor  of  mind  and  eyesight  were 
in  full  power." 
Although  Humphrey  Marshall  was  primarily  interested  in  trees 
and  shrubs,  his  correspondence  evidences  the  fact  that  he  also  ex- 
perimented quite  extensively  with  medicinal  plants. 
Dr.  Thomas  Bond,  who  appears  to  have  had  an  extensive  corre- 
spondence with  French  botanists,  with  whom  he  frequently  ex- 
changed plants  and  seeds,  wrote  to  Humphrey  Marshall,  under  date 
of  August  24,  1 78 1  :  "The  opium  you  sent  is  pure  and  of  good 
quality ;  I  hope  you  will  take  care  of  the  seed."  Indicating  that 
Marshall  was  among  the  first,  in  this  country,  to  make  satisfactory 
experiments  in  the  growing  of  the  opium  poppy  and  the  collection 
of  opium. 
Under  date  of  October  21,  1787,  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar,  another 
noted  medical  practitioner  of  Philadelphia,  wrote  to  Humphrey 
Marshall  asking  him  for  some  leaves  of  foxglove,  also  some  of  the 
seed. 
Withering's  observations  on  the  remarkable  properties  of  digitalis 
