Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/850

 of boys in the colonies, he was brought up to a farming life, and his education was only such as the country schools of the time afforded. After reaching adult years he studied Latin a little, so as to be able to pick out the descriptions of plants in the Latin works of European botanists. In a sketch of John Bartram, written by his son William, it is stated that he had an inclination to the study of physic and surgery and did much toward relieving the ailments of his poor neighbors. In January, 1723, he married Mary, daughter of Richard Morris, of Chester Meeting, by whom he had two sons—Richard, who died young, and Isaac, who lived to old age. His wife Mary died in 1727, and in September, 1729, he married Ann Mendenhall, of Concord Meeting, who survived him. John and Ann Bartram had nine children, five boys and four girls. Of these the third son was, he and his twin



sister, Elizabeth, being born February 0, 1739. The ground on which John Bartram laid out the first botanic garden in America was on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, at Kingsessing, near Gray's Ferry (now within the city limits of Philadelphia), and was bought by him September 30, 1728. "Here he built with his own hands," says William, "a large and comfortable house of hewn stone, and laid out a garden containing about five acres." A view of this house, which is still standing, is given in the