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though invisible, hand our better nature. Like the mysterious stars, though with a warmer attraction, they lift and beckon us up. The light still burns, the fountain flows, the music

sounds for us."

We have considered at some length this volume of sermons, because it appears to us to have its foundation deep in religious ideas and sentiments, to present much of the rich substance of religious thought, to evince more than common power in evolving the real soul of religion from religious maxims, and to indicate a mind which, in the region of spiritual meditation, moves with certainty and ease while it moves with becoming humility and awe. As a contribution to literature, we think it worthy of consideration for the beauty of its style and the nourishing quality of its thoughts; and though we would speak less confidently of it as a contribution to theology, it certainly possesses some rare qualities, which give it no mean station among the compositions of religious and contemplative minds.

Miss Batchelder

ART. VIII. Memorials of JOHN BARTRAM and HUMPHRY MARSHALL, with Notices of their Botanical Contemporaries. By WILLIAM DARLINGTON, M. D., LL. D., &c. Philadelphia Lindsay & Blakiston. 1849. 8vo. pp. 585.

THE name of John Bartram stands first on the long list of eminent men who have enwreathed their names with trophies from our North American Flora. He was the earliest explorer of the botanical wonders of the New World, from the then continuously wooded shores of Ontario and Cayuga to the source of the San Juan in Florida. The meagre sketches of his life, which have appeared in encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries, have made his name but lightly known to the public, though he has long been honored by the scientific world as the patriarch of botany in America. He was the contemporary of Linnæus, who considered him the best practical botanist of the age; and while monuments have

been erected, medals struck, and memoirs written in commemoration of the Swedish naturalist, three quarters of a century elapsed after the death of Bartram before he found a biographer. When standing under the splendid cypress planted by the patriarch's own hands in the garden which, had it been duly preserved, would be his best monument, we hoped that some other memorial of him, equally interesting and more generally known, might yet appear and keep his memory green. This wish has now been fulfilled by the publication of his correspondence in a far more perfect form than could have been expected after the lapse of so many years. His letters are quaint and characteristic, and are written with delightful simplicity and frankness; apart from their value as contributions to the history of natural science in this country, they throw more light upon the manners of the times and the character of the man, than could be derived from any formally prepared biography.

The Bartram and Marshall Memorial is a handsomely printed octavo volume, with engraved illustrations representing the houses of both botanists, fac-similes of their handwriting, and the cup and gold medal that were presented to Bartram, the former by Sir Hans Sloane, and the other by a society of gentlemen at Edinburgh. It is edited by an enthusiastic botanist, now nearly the Nestor of his brethren, who has passed his life near the locality where these pioneers of Amercan botany lived and died. Dr. Darlington is already favorably known to the public as the compiler of Reliquia Baldwiniana, and of a Flora of his own town and county. He has never lost sight of his favorite study amid the din and bustle of the other avocations in which he has been actively engaged; and it is honorable to his feelings that he has given so much time to commemorating the services of those who preceded him in devotion to this delightful science.

It is well that these papers came into the hands of one so able and desirous to do honor to the memory of the writers of them; for if a few years more had passed, it seems that the curious might have sought in vain for any relics of them. The editor tells us that,

"These ancient manuscripts were not only jumbled together in a chaotic mass, but were generally much injured by time, and many of them scarcely legible; so that it required no little care

and patient perseverance, to decipher and arrange them. This was especially the case with the letters from JOHN BARTRAM to his friends, of which letters he seems to have been in the habit of retaining the original rough draughts. It is, in fact, too probable, that if the opportunity thus kindly afforded by Colonel CARR and his lady had not been embraced, the portion of the correspondence here preserved would, ere long, have been scattered among the various branches of the family, and the recovery of it rendered wholly impracticable."

Dr. Darlington has performed his task with ability. The biographical notes are interesting, and though shorter than we could wish, are sufficiently explicit to give the reader a fair knowledge of the character and station of the persons to whom they relate. We think the harmony of the different portions of the book would have been better preserved, if the correspondence had been arranged in chronological order throughout; as it is, the letters which passed between Collinson and Bartram, extending from 1734 to 1768, are placed first, and occupy about half of the volume. Bartram's other correspondents were many of the most celebrated men of the last century, among whom may be mentioned Gronovius, Dillenius, Kalm, Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Franklin, Dr. Fothergill, Miller, Catesby, and Wilson. We regret that none of Linnæus's letters have been preserved in the collection, although there are allusions to them by the other correspondents. Bartram says, "Linnæus hath sent me the second edition of his Characteres Plantarum with a very loving letter, desiring my correspondence, to furnish him with some natural curiosities of our country. I hope by next ship to send him some."

The

Swedish naturalist was delighted with the plants he received from America, and often regretted that he could never visit this country, which then, in its vast unexplored regions, contained such treasures of natural history; and he imposed upon all his friends who came hither the obligation of sending him specimens.

John Bartram, the subject of these memoirs, was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, on the 23d of March, 1699. He was the son of William Bartram, whose father, following the fortunes of William Penn, removed from Derbyshire, England, in 1682. John Bartram inherited a farm near Darby from his uncle, and was bred a husbandman; but he evinced in

early life an inclination for the study of physic and surgery, and as his biographer relates," he even acquired so much knowledge in the practice of this latter science as to be very useful, and in many instances to give great relief, to his poorer neighbors, who were unable to apply for medicine and assistance to physicians of the city. It is extremely probable that, as most of his medicines were derived from the vegetable kingdom, this circumstance might point out to him the necessity of, and excite a desire for, the study of botany." He was the first American who conceived the idea of establishing a botanic garden, for which purpose, in 1728, he bought five acres of land having a favorable soil and exposure, on the banks of the Schuylkill, three miles from Philadelphia. Here he built with his own hands a comfortable house of hewn stone. This house and garden are still in existence, although modern innovation threatens their destruction. A railroad runs through the garden, and there is some danger that it will be converted into a coal and lumber yard.

Of the five botanic gardens mentioned as established in the United States before 1806, two have wholly disappeared, and only one, that at Cambridge, is still used for its original purpose. Dr. Darlington observes, "the last named, now under the skilful supervision of Professor A. Gray, is in a flourishing condition, and bids fair, if supported by an adequate endowment, to be a perennial monument of the liberality and love of science of those who projected it." The adequate endowment, of which it stands sadly in need, we hope may soon be supplied. Three years ago, the greenhouse in the garden had become so dilapidated from the want of funds for making the necessary repairs, that the plants were taken out of it, and distributed through the grounds. Some, too large to be removed, were left to await the chance of being killed by the cold; among these was an enormous Camelia, fifty years old, the first that was brought to this country. Last winter, a small sum was spared from the funds to fit up temporarily one of the compartments of the greenhouse; but the whole building is so much out of repair, that it would be better economy to erect a new one than to spend any more money upon the old edifice. The garden is kept in as good order as the trifling sum appropriated to it will admit; but even now, with the utmost frugality, the annual expenses exceed the interest

of the fund. The establishment cannot support itself, because it cannot be devoted to any great extent to the cultivation of flowers for sale; its objects are to bring together the vegetable productions of our own country and of other lands, to acclimate the foreign trees and shrubs which may prove useful or ornamental, and to distribute abroad the most curious of our indigenous plants. These purposes cannot be answered without incurring considerable expense; and we know of no worthier object to which the liberality of the patrons of science can be directed, than to the restoration and support of the garden at Cambridge.

But we return to the history of our botanical patriarch. John Bartram, from the time he was ten years old, evinced a great inclination for plants, and as he says in one of his letters, he could recognize at sight all that he had once observed, though he knew not their proper names, having had no person or books to instruct him. He received the usual education which in those days could be acquired in country schools; and he acquired also some knowledge of Greek and Latin, though probably not much, as he requests Gronovius to write to him in English, because he cannot easily make out his Latin. He was about thirty years old when he laid out his botanic garden, and filled it with the curious trees and flowers he had found in his various excursions; it soon attracted the attention of many persons, who encouraged him to persist in his labors. His particular friend, Joseph Breintnall, a merchant of Philadelphia, undertook to convey some of his collections and observations on natural history to Peter Collinson, in London, and thus laid the foundation of a friendship and correspondence which continued for fifty years. Bartram and Collinson both were Quakers, and both were passionately fond of botanical pursuits; the latter accumulated a large fortune, and was rather generous in the use of it, though his benevolence was somewhat tinctured by the peculiar straitness and precision of his sect. He writes to his American friend with a rather paternal and patronizing air, but with great cordiality and frankness. From a life of Collinson, published in the University Magazine of 1795, we extract the following: "John Bartram may almost be said to have been created an eminent naturalist by Mr. P. Collinson's assistance. He it was who first recommended to him

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