| John Bartram |
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| 1699 births | |
| 1777 deaths | |
| american botanists | |
| botanists active in north america | |
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John Bartram (b. May 23 , 1699 O.S., in Darby, Pennsylvania . d. September 22 , 1777 , in Philadelphia .) was an American Botanist . Linnaeus said he was the "greatest natural botanist".Duyker, Edward, Nature's Argonaut. Daniel Solander 1733-1782, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1988, p66 BACKGROUND Bartram was born into a Quaker family. He travelled extensively in the eastern United States collecting plants, from Lake Ontario in the north, to Florida in the south and the Ohio River in the west. Many of his acquisitions were transported to collectors in Europe . Described as the ''father of American Botany'', he founded the 12 acre Bartram Botanical Gardens in Kingsessing on the bank of the Schuylkill , about three miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , and frequently cited as the first in America. He was one of the co-founders, with Benjamin Franklin , of the American Philosophical Society in 1742 . CONTACT WITH OTHER BOTANISTS Bartram was particularly instrumental in sending seeds from the New World to European gardeners: many American trees or flowers were first introduced into cultivation in Europe by this route. Before 1743, John Bartram's work was partly financed by an associate of his English Quaker friend, of Thorndon Hall, Essex who was the foremost collector of American trees and shrubs in Europe. Earl Petre's untimely death in 1743 led to his American tree collection being auctioned off to Woburn, Goodwood and other large English country estates; and thereafter Peter Collinson became Bartram's financier. ''Bartram's Boxes'' as they then became known, contained seeds and sometimes dried examples of foliage, and were regularly sent back to Peter Collison for distribution in England to a select list of clients, including John Busch, progenitor of the exotic Loddiges nursery in London. In 1765 George III made Bartram Royal Botanist , a post he held until his death. He was married twice, firstly in 1723 to Mary Morris, who bore him two sons, Richard and Isaac, and after her death, in 1729 to Ann Mendenhall who gave birth to five boys and two girls. His third son, William Bartram (1739-1823) was to become a famous Botanist , natural history artist, and Ornithologist , in his own right, and author of ''Travels Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida,….'' Philadelphia, James & Johnson, 1791. His name is remembered in plants such as the subtropical tree Commersonia bartramia (Christmas Kurrajong) growing from the Bellinger River in coastal eastern Australia to Cape York , Vanuatu and Malaysia . He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm. Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus called Bartram the greatest natural botanist in the world. John Bartram High School in Philadelphia is named after him. SEE ALSO
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