THOMAS JEFFERSON IN RELATION TO BOTANY
By RODNEY H. TRUE from The Scientific Monthly, Volume 3. 1916
The interest taken by Jefferson in the study of plants seems to have been shared by several of his plantation-owning neighbors. Indeed, the circumstances surrounding the Virginia planter before the coming to life of the slavery issue were probably as favorable to the development of the accomplishments, and graces as have ever existed. Large interests close at hand, supervised by his own eye, an abundant living and few distractions beyond those incident to the hospitalities of the times gave the possessor the leisure needed for the cultivation of such interests as might commend themselves to him. It is then hardly surprising that in a region shown by Bartram and others to be so rich in new and interesting plants there should be a marked activity in the study of botany among the men of leisure living there.
It is probable that Jefferson's early interest in the subject may have been such an amateur interest intensified by his inheritance of some of the tendencies seen in Isham Eandolph. It seems to have been characteristic of Jefferson that when his interest in a subject was really aroused he went into the matter as far as circumstances would permit. In his desire to have the necessary resources at hand, the available book markets were ransacked. Like the true collector, he was not satisfied to borrow a book, he must own it, then lend it generously to others and perhaps lose it.
A single letter may suffice to illustrate one of these characteristics. It was written in January, 1783, at Philadelphia, where Jefferson was Washington's Secretary of State, to Mr. Francis Bppes, a neighboring planter and father of his future son-in-law. Mr. Eppes, acting as Jefferson's emissary, was trying to get a much-desired book from his neighbor, Mr. Boiling. After writing about Gibraltar and affairs at the British court Jefferson says : "Since I came here there has been sold the Westover copy of Catesby's History of Carolina. It was held near a twelve month at twelve guineas, and at last sold for ten. This seems to fix what should be given for Mr. Boiling's copy, if you can induce him to let you have it, which I am anxious for."
It is not known what success Mr. Eppes had with Mr. Boiling, but among the remarkable collection of books which Jefferson made and which in 1815 became the nucleus of the present Library of Congress, there was a copy of Catesby. His botanical library became in time one of the best in America, a fact attested by the frequent loan of rare volumes to students of plants not so fortunate as to own copies themselves.
