without any scientific companion. "Our Americans," he writes to a correspondent, "have very little taste for these amusements. I can't find one that will bear the fatigue to accompany me in my peregrinations."
In an undated letter, written probably in 1730, to Colonel Byrd, of Virginia, Bartram reports that he had been making "microscopical observations upon the male and female parts in vegetables," He had also made, he says, "several successful experiments of joining several species of the same genus, whereby I have obtained curious mixed colors in flowers, never known before," To this he adds: "I hope by these practical observations to open a gate into a very large field of experimental knowledge, which, if judiciously improved, may be a considerable addition to the beauty of the florist's garden," It was in this "field of experimental knowledge"—namely, cross-fertilization—that Darwin afterward won a share of his fame. Bartram evidently discussed this subject with Collinson, for the latter writes in 1742: "That some variegations may be occasioned by insects is certain; but then these are only annual, and cease with the year," Permanent variegations, he says, are produced by budding—a sort of inoculation.
That Bartram had a hostility to superstition, tempered with much considerateness for persons, is shown by a letter in which he tells of a visit to Dr. Witt, of Germantown, another of Collinson's correspondents. He says: "When we are upon the topic of astrology, magic, and mystic divinity, I am apt to be a little troublesome, by inquiring into the foundation and reasonableness of these notions—which, thee knows, will not bear to be searched and examined into: though I handle these fancies with more tenderness with him than I should with many others that are so superstitiously inclined."
One of the botanists whose offices Collinson had secured in identifying Bartram's specimens was Prof. Dillenius, of Oxford, and in 17-40 Collinson writes for some mosses for him, saying, "He defers completing his work till he sees what comes from thee, Clayton, and Dr. Mitchell." In the same year a list of specimens which had been named by Dr. J. F. Gronovius, of Leyden, was returned, and contained this entry: "Cortusæ sive Verbasci, Fl, Virg., pp. 74, 75. This being a new genus, may be called Bartramia." The name Bartramia is now borne by a diff'erent plant—a moss growing in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.
Bartram's correspondence with Gronovius began about 1743, and extends over a dozen years or more. Gronovius writes at length, very appreciatively, and makes many requests. He sends his books as they appear, and before the publication of his Index
