John Bartram (1699-1777), Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), & Pehr Kalm (1716-1779) A Few Hard Feelings -

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Pehr Kalm (1716-1779), & John Bartram (1699-1777)

Pehr Kalm (1716-1779), sometimes Peter Kalm, was the son of a Lutheran minister. He was born in Angermanland, Sweden, in 1716, & attended college in Finland before moving to Uppsala University in Sweden in 1740. 

Pehr Kalm (1716-1779) by J. G. Geitel, c. 1764, (Some uncertainty remains if the portrait depicts Kalm). Satakunta Museum, Björneborg, Finland

Here he studied under scientist Linnaeus (Carl von Linné), who became his friend as well as mentor. Linnaeus was most interested in organizing all plants & animals into a coherent system of names & relationships. The modern system of Latin binomials originated with his work.  

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)

As Europeans fanned out across Asia, Africa, & the Americas during the 18C, students & colleagues of Linneaus kept a steady stream of specimens flowing back to the great systematizer in Uppsala. As one of Linnaeus’ best students, Kalm was selected in 1747 to travel to North America to collect seeds of plants that might prove useful for agriculture & industry. After the trip to British Clonial America, Kalm devoted most of his remaining years to caring for, studying & lecturing about the American plants he brought home to Sweden.

Kalm arrived in Pennsylvania in 1748, & made his base of operations the Swedish ex-patriate communities in southern New Jersey, where he served as pastor of a local church & married in 1750. He made trips as far west as Niagara Falls & as far north as Quebec before returning to Sweden in 1751. Although botany was his main reason for traveling, Kalm trained his scientist's eye on all aspects of American culture & his careful, dispassionate observations show colonial settlement life in great detail. The following article is fascinating.

Pehr Kalm, the Link Between Linnaeus & Philadelphia by by Paula Ivaska Robbins

"Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) sent several of his best students abroad to discover plants that might be brought back to enrich the Swedish kingdom, which then consisted of both Sweden & Finland. The northern British colonies in America & the French colony of Canada were particularly attractive because Linnaeus & others thought their climates were similar to Sweden’s, & North American plants were known to survive the cold Scandinavian winters. Linnaeus already knew about the great botanist John Bartram of Philadelphia, & as early as 1738, he had requested seeds from Bartram.

"One of Linnaeus’ favorite students at Uppsala University was Pehr (or Peter) Pehr Kalm (1716-1779), who had grown up in Finland & attended Åbo Akademi in Turku, Finland, before moving to Sweden. There Kalm supervised the gardens & plantation of his patron, Baron Sten Carl Bielke, Linnaeus’s close friend & a fellow founder of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science. Through the efforts of Linnaeus & Bielke, as well as other scientists, including Anders Celsius, the Swedish inventor of the centigrade thermometer, Kalm was groomed in preparation for a journey of exploration. He was appointed lecturer in natural history & economics at Åbo Akademi, & the stipend for that post plus contributions from Uppsala University & the Swedish government’s Department of Manufactures funded Kalm’s journey to North America (along with his faithful servant, Bielke’s gardener & handyman, Lars Jungström).

"The trip was supposed to last only 2 years, but it was almost 4 years from the time they left Uppsala in October 1747, until their return in June 1751. First, they were shipwrecked on the way to England & had to spend several months in Norway. Then, because of the war between England & France, they were unable to obtain passage for America until August of 1748. However, Kalm used his 6 months in England to improve his command of English, to meet many influential British botanists, & to learn much more about American plants.

"Kalm finally arrived in Philadelphia on September 15, 1748, & was met by Benjamin Franklin, to whom he had been recommended by several mutual acquaintances in England. Franklin introduced Kalm to many of his friends & Kalm wrote that Franklin gave him “all necessary instructions & showed [him] kindness on many occasions.” Kalm immediately set about learning as much as possible about American plants before the onset of winter. Kalm spent many hours in the company of John Bartram (1699-1777), who was most hospitable & helpful, teaching him to identify many American plants he had not seen before, & answering his numerous questions.

"Philadelphia impressed the young scientist, who wrote: "It will be easy to conceive why this city should rise so suddenly from nothing into such grandeur & perfection without any powerful monarch contributing to it, either by punishing the wicked or by giving great supplies of money. And yet its fine appearance, good regulations, agreeable location, natural advantages, trade, riches & power are by no means inferior to those of any, even of the most ancient, towns in Europe. It has not been necessary to force people to come & settle here; on the contrary foreigners of different languages have left their country, houses, property & relations & ventured over wide & stormy seas in order to come hither. Other countries, which have been peopled for a long space of time, complain of the small number of their inhabitants. But Pennsylvania which was no better than a wilderness in the year 1681, & contained hardly 1,500 people, now vies with several kingdoms in Europe in the number of inhabitants. It has received hosts of people which other countries, to their infinite loss, have either neglected, belittled or expelled." (Travels in North America, 1770; reprinted, New York: Dover Publications, 1937, p. 33).

"Kalm was also introduced to fellow Swedes, including the portrait painter, Gustav Hesselius. They soon took him across the Delaware to Raccoon (now Swedesboro) in New Jersey, where lived many of the descendants of the Swedish & Finnish settlers of New Sweden (1638-55). On his arrival at Raccoon, Kalm discovered that the Church of Sweden missionary to the congregation in Raccoon, Johan Sandin, had died the previous month. Kalm & Sandin had been friends & fellow students at the university in Uppsala, so Kalm stayed as a guest in Sandin’s home & attended with great care to his surviving family, a widow with a young daughter & a new-born infant.

"Kalm had originally studied theology, intending to follow in the footsteps of his father & become a minister. Therefore, he naturally stepped in as substitute preacher for the Raccoon congregation. During his stay in America, he spent 3 winters in Raccoon, preaching nearly every Sunday in the Raccoon Church & also delivering funeral sermons. His friendship & care for the widow Anna Margaretha Sjoman Sandin resulted in their marriage in Philadelphia in February of 1750.

"When weather permitted, Kalm left the Philadelphia area & traveled up the Hudson to Canada, where he stayed for some time in 1749, studying in the area around Quebec & Montreal as the guest of the French king. In the summer of 1750, he traveled to Niagara Falls; his description of that natural wonder was the first written by a trained scientist & was widely read. Kalm discovered many plants native to the St. Lawrence, Hudson, & Delaware valleys that were new to Europeans. He provided Linnaeus with more than 100 American plants for his herbarium.

"Kalm returned to Finland, where he was a popular teacher at Åbo Akademi for many years until his death in 1779. He died disappointed that he had not succeeded in growing any North American plants that added substantially to the economy of the Swedish kingdom. He wrote a 2-volume account of his travels that was later translated into German, French, & English, but was unable to find a publisher for the 3rd volume, which perished in a fire. He also wrote many articles about American plants & animals & supervised papers written by his students on American subjects. Kalm’s value to us, more than 250 years later, is primarily through the clear & objective descriptions he wrote of the people & places he saw during his journey. He also served to spread knowledge of & interest in Linnaeus’ system in the American colonies.

"Unfortunately, the impression that Kalm made on several of his acquaintances in Philadelphia was not a favorable one. They were not pleased with some of the conclusions that Kalm made in his Travels, when they were finally translated into English in 1770. An early 20C Philadelphia botanist, John Harshberger, wrote of Kalm, “he seems to have been remarkably credulous; &, moreover, it is alleged, took to himself the credit of some discoveries which rightfully belonged to John Bartram.”  James Logan, then elderly & in poor health, was suspicious that Kalm was really a spy for the French. Bartram complained several times that he had received no letter of thanks or copies of Kalm’s publications. Franklin wrote of Kalm, “It is dangerous conversing with these Strangers that keep Journals.”

Kalm's journal of his travels was published in Stockholm, Sweden, as En Resa til Norra America published in 3 volumes between 1753 & 1761. Before that, his short account of his visit to Niagara Falls had been published in John Bartram's Observations... (London, 1751). 

English Edition...Kalm, Peter. Travels into North America; Containing Its Natural History, & a Circumstantial Account of Its Plantations & Agriculture in General, with the Civil, Ecclesiastical & Commercial State of the Country, the Manners of the Inhabitants, & Several Curious & Important Remarks on Various Subjects. By Peter Kalm. Translated into English by John Reinhold Forster. Enriched with a Map, Several Cuts for the Illustration of Natural History, & Some Additional Notes. In Two Volumes. (London: Printed for T. Lowndes, 1771).

John Bartram (1699-1777) & Alexander Garden (1730-1791) Botanists Meet

Scottish physician, botanist and zoologist, Dr. Alexander Garden (1730-1791) of Charleston wrote of a visit to John Bartram in 1754: 

His garden is a perfect portraiture of himself, here you meet with a row of rare plants almost covered over with weeds, here with a Beautifull Shrub, even Luxuriant Amongst Briars, and in another corner an Elegant & Lofty tree lost in common thicket. On our way from town to his house he carried me to severall rocks & Dens where he spewed me some of his rare plants, which he had brought from the Mountains &c. In a word he disclaims to have a garden less than Pensylvania & Every den is an Arbour, Every run of water, a Canal, & every small level Spot a Parterre, where he nurses up some of his Idol Flowers & cultivates his darling productions. He had many plants whose names he did not know, most or all of which I had seen & knew them. On the other hand he had several I had not seen & some I never heard of...

John Custis' (1678-1749) Garden visited by John Bartram (1699-1777)

Virginia's John Custis IV standing by a cut tulip blossom ca. 1740 attributed to Charles Bridges. (Courtesy of Washington and Lee University, University Collections of Art and History, Lexington, Va.)

John Custis (1678-1749) was a prominent citizen of Williamsburg with an apparently most impressive garden. John Bartram, the Philadelphia naturalist and botanist, commented to Peter Collinson that Custis’ garden was second only to that of John Clayton, the English born Virginia naturalist of Gloucester County.

Peter Collinson (1694-1768) was an English Quaker woolen merchant. Collinson traded in textiles from an office in Grace Street in the city of London, while he maintained an extensive correspondence with American naturalists. His famous garden at Mill Hill contained many American plants, often obtained from both Bartram and Custis. Custis’ correspondence with Collinson, the subject of Swemm’s Brothers of the Spade, depicts both the joys and trials experienced by early gardeners in their exchange of plants across the Atlantic. He used his commercial links with the world to introduce many new species of plants into Britain. His gardens at Peckham and, later, Mill Hill became sites of pilgrimage for 18C scholars in horticulture.

Peter Hatch wrote that "A central reference in our restoration efforts at Monticello is Brothers of the Spade, published in 1957 & edited by the noted Virginia historian Dr. E.G. Swem. This is the story of a trans-Atlantic plant exchange as expressed in the correspondence of two indefatigable eighteenth-century gardeners, the likeable & cranky John Custis (1678 - 1749) of Williamsburg, Virginia, & his Old World botanical mentor, the illustrious Peter Collinson (1694 - 1768) of London. Custis, whose garden "means all the world to me," heard of Collinson's desire for the "mountain cowslip" or Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica). After Custis forwarded the "beautifull out of the way plant & flower" to London, an international friendship based on a mutual passion for plants & gardening evolved in a series of thirty-nine letters. Custis provided highly prized botanical rarities from the marshland & forests of eastern Virginia, from the fringe tree to the umbrella magnolia, while Collinson dispatched the latest in European garden fashion -- striped crown imperial lilies, white foxgloves, & variegated evergreens. The spirit of their friendship somehow overcame the frustrations of seeds that failed to germinate, captains who killed the plants by overwatering them, & voracious shipboard rats. The horticultural struggles of these two plantsmen seem endless, & yet, in the end, we learn the twin lessons of gardening: persistence & patience.

A warm & almost tender relationship developed between the two correspondents. Although a plain-spoken Quaker, Collinson was a worldy businessman with sophisticated horticultural expertise & self-confident wisdom. He perhaps plays the role of the older brother, dispensing advice on ways to rid the garden of moles (with a heavy spade), coping with the Virginia climate (with the shade & protection of evergreen hedges), & the best technique for retarding the early flowering of the almond tree (plant on the north side of buildings). But he also worries about Custis's debilitating illnesses, personally consulting with his London doctor, the respected Dr. John Fothergill, for professional diagnosis & medication. Concern about his new friend's seemingly overwhelming legal difficulties led Collinson to call on his well-placed English social connections. The tension between Custis & Collinson is between the bright-eyed innocence of the New World & the confident experience of the Old; the little brother & the big brother.

Much has been written about Collinson. His influence as botanical mentor to John Bartram & inspiration to Benjamin Franklin, his amazingly voluminous correspondence with the leading naturalists of Europe & America, & his pioneering contributions to English horticulture have been well documented. Perhaps because of his gruff, testy honesty, it was the garden world of John Custis that captured the imagination of this ordinary reader. Custis unblushingly defined his garden tastes when he admitted to being "a great admirer of all the tribe striped gilded & variegated plants; & especially trees; I am told those things are out of fashion; but I do not mind that I allways make my fancy my fashion." Custis provides vivid images of an early eighteenth-century town garden, "inferior to few in Virginia." He alludes to his twenty-year old English yews, "the balls or standards having heads as big as a peck & the pyramids in full shape." Of the simple flowers of the globe amaranth, Custis said, "I esteem it one of the prettyest things I ever saw." Custis also had "the best collection of lilacs" in America, & Collinson's tuberoses, double tulips, horsechestnut trees, & Catherine Peach all thrived in Williamsburg.

Yet most of the European plants sent by Collinson, if not dead on arrival, suffered from the vagaries of the Virginia climate. We hear of Custis's ordeal to find "hardy & Virginia proof" species that could withstand the temperamental continental weather: the droughts & heat of summer required not only shades & arbors but "3 strong Negros continually filling large tubs of water"; the killing blasts of scathing arctic cold destroyed his prized variegated evergreens. Custis reports "the seeds in general we have from England very often never come up." This was all a great experiment. In the history of garden writing, few gardeners have failed, or at least confessed to failure, as often as John Custis.

The correspondence between Custis & Collinson is also a landmark reference to the introduction of species into American gardens. For the garden historian, the positive identification of introduction dates is the fuzziest & the most problematic issue in the field. Although difficult to verify, the European plants grown by Custis may have experienced their first trial in the New World in his Williamsburg garden. Collinson deliberately chose varieties & cultivars that had only recently become fashionable in Europe. They were unique gifts, & surely, the proprietor of a garden "inferior to few in Virginia" would expect the latest novelty in garden fashion: the Chili strawberry, Catherine peach, White Foxglove, China Aster, white currant, cyclamen, Arbutus unedo, Persian lilac, various species & rose cultivars, silver fir, white & red Dictamnus, globe thistle, European larch. If Custis was not the first New World gardener to grow these plants, he was certainly a pioneer in their cultivation.

John Custis's garden was a menagerie of striped, gilded, & variegated evergreens trimmed into fantastically-shaped round & pyramidal figures. Peter Collinson's garden was a botanical study collection of rare, curious, & recently discovered taxonomic species. For students of garden history today, Brothers of the Spade is an indispensable resource to the introduction of plants into North American gardens."

See Peter J. Hatch, Director, Monticello Department of Gardens & Grounds 1999 Twinleaf

Plant List compiled by Peter Hatch from
Brothers of the Spade
Correspondence of Peter Collinson, of London, and John Custis, of Williamsburg, Virginia, 1734-1746
By E. G. Swemm, Director Emeritus, William and Mary College
Published by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1949
Southern Garden History Plant Lists

Plants sent to Collinson by Custis
Botanical Name/ Common Name/ Date/ Custis’s Notes
?Arachis hypogaea peanut 1736 "Angola peas the pea grows in the
ground"
Ariseama triphyllum Jack-in-the-pulpit 1744 "Arum or Cuckow point, Lords &
Ladys, Skunk Weed or skunk Wort,
Indian Turnips"
?Asclepias tuberosa butterfly weed 1736/7 "Mountain or Orange [Clove?] Flower,
Dogs Bane, Apocinon"
Asimina triloba pawpaw 1743/4 papa, papaw
Canna indica Indian-shot 1735 "Indian frill, Cana Indica or Wild
Plaintain or Bonana”
Carya sp. 1735 "Hickerys"
Castanea pumila chinquapin PC 1735 "chinkapins"
Cercis canadensis 1735 "red bud"
Chionanthus virginicus 1735 "Fringe Tree"
Cornus florida 1735 "Dogwood Tree"
Cornus florida rubra 1736/7 "Red flowering Dogwood,” "peach
colour’d dogwood"
Cucumis melo 1738 "sweet smelling Mellon"
Cucumis sativus 1738/9 "long cucumber"
Curcurbita pepo melopepo 1741 "Bush squash that does not Run &
Ramble, eating squash”
Cypripedium acaule or Orchis
spectabilis
pink lady slipper or showy
orchid
1736/7 "Red [or?] White Moccasin flower"

Delphinium exalatum or D.
tricorne
 1737/8 "Wild Larkspur"
Diospyros virginiana 1735 "persimmons or Indian plumb"
Gillenia stipulata or G. trifoliata 1736/7 "Ipacacuana”
Gleditsia triacanthos 1735 "sweet locust pods," "Locus," "Honey
Locust"
Ilex vomitoria yaupon holly 1735 "yoppon or Carolina tea,” "cassenna”
Custis and Collinson
Virgina
 1734-1746
2
Iris verna or versicolor 1735 "Indian iris"
?Kalmia angustifolia sheep laurel 1735 "laurells,"[?]
Kalmia latifolia or K. angustifolia mountain laurel or sheep
laurel
1735 "ivy"
Lagenaria siceraria "pretty little gourd" 1741 "Little pear or snuffbox Gourd,"
Liquidambar styraciflua 1738 "sweet Gum"
Liriodendron tulipifera 1738 "Flowering poplar or Tulip Tree,"
"poplar"
?Magnolia grandiflora southern magnolia 1735 "laurells”
Magnolia tripetala Umbrella Magnolia 1737 "Umbrella," "umbrella tree"
Magnolia virginiana sweet bay magnolia 1736/7 "sweet White Flowering swamp Bay,"
"swamp flowering Bay smaller sort[of
magnolia that] grows with You in the
Swamps," "sweet flowering bay"[?]
Mertensia virginica Virginia blue-bells 1734 "mountain cowslip"
Morus alba 1736 "white Mulberry"
Myrica cerifera wax myrtle 1741 "candle myrtill berrys"
Oenothera biennis Virginia evening Primrose 1737/8 "anagra,” "Virginia Tree primerose”
Oxydendron arboreum sourwood 1736 “sorrellTree”
Panicum maximum or Sorghum
bicolor
 1742/3 "Guinea Corn"
Passiflora incarnata and/or P.
lutea
1737/8 "Passion flower 2 sorts," "Virginia
passion flower"
Physalis sp. 1739/40 "Ground Cherry"
Polygala senega Seneca snakeroot 1736/7 "Rattle Snake Root"
Prunus americana or P. angustifolia American or Chickasaw
plum
1742/3 "your Wild Scarlet plum"
Prunus Persica 1738/9 "peaches"
Prunus serotina 1739 "wild cherry"
Quercus phellos 1736/7 "narrow or Willow Leafed Okes"
Quercus virginiana 1736/7 "live oak acorns"
Rhus typhina staghorn sumach 1738 "sumach that produced Tufts of a Very
Bright scarlet," "Shomake"
Sanguinaria canadensis bloodroot 1735 "pocoone,” "pecoone”
Sassafras albidum 1737/8 "Sarsifrax,” "sassafras"
Taxodium distichum bald cypress 1736/7 "swamp Cypress Cones or Balls"
Viburnum prunifolium "Black Haws" 1737/8
Yucca filamentosa 1735 "silk Grass”
Zanthoxylum americanum 1736 "Toothache Tree"
Zea mays 1741 "Rair Ripe or Early Ripe Indian Corn"

UNIDENTIFIED:
"laurells" [1735] possibilities: Magnolia grandiflora,
Kalmia, Prunus caroliniana
"pearl tree” [1735]
"pellitory" [1742/3] Ptelea trifoliata?
Custis and Collinson
Virgina
 1734-1746
3
Plants sent to Custis by Collinson
Botanical Name Common Name Date Collinson’s Notes
Abies alba 1738 "silver fir"
Abies sp. 1741 "gilded firs ... which are natives of the
Alps"
Aesculus hippocastanum 1734 "horse chestnuts"
Alcea rosea 1735 "Hollihocks"
Allium neapolitanum lily leek 1737 "white moley"
Amaranthus tricolor Joseph’s coat 1742/3 "Amaranthus Tricolor"
Arbutus unedo 1737 “strawberry tree,” "Arbutus"
Asphodeline lutea 1737 "yellow asphodel,” "yellow asphodill"
Asphodelus albus 1739/40 "white Asphodills"
Brassica oleracea 1736 "cabbage"
Buxus sempervirens cv. 1736 “striped box"
Callistephus chinensis 1736 "China Aster"
Cedrus libani 1735 "Cedar of Lebanon"
Celosia cristata 1738 "tall coxcombs"
Chamaecyparis thyoides 1739 "white cedr"
Citrullus lanatus 1736 'Astrican Water Mellon"
Convallaria majalis 1738 "lilly of the valley"
Cucumis melo 1736 "Affrican Mellon," "Calmuc Mellon
with fruite 2 feet long," "Italian
Melon," "Muscovy Mellon 3 sorts,"
"Sir Charles Wagers Melon,"
“muskmellon"
Cucumis sativis 1736 "Muscovy Cucumber,” "cucumber,"
"long cucumber"
Cupressus sempervirens 1735 "cypress"
Cyclamen sp. 1739/40 "Cyclamens"
Cyclamen coum 1742/3 "spring cyclamen"
Dianthus chinensis 1738 "Double Flowering China or India
pink," "India pinks"
Dictamnus albus gas plant 1742/3 "White Fraxinelloes"
Dictamnus albus ‘ruber’ 1742/3 "Red Fraxinelloes"
Digitalis purpurea 1738 "rose colored foxglove"
Digitalis purpurea ‘alba’ 1737 “flatt?] stalk full of white long hollow
blossoms," "White Fox Glove"
Echinops sphaerocephalus or E.
ritro
 1738 "globe [thistle?]"
Eranthis hyemalis 1739/40 "spring Acconite”
Fragaria chiloensis 1736 "Chili strawberry"
Fragaria vesca hautboy strawberry 1736 "Houtboye”
Fritillaria imperialis crown imperial lily 1739 "orange colord"
Fritillaria imperialis lutea 1737 "yellow ones," "lemon colord crown
imperiall”
Fritillaria imperialis cv. 1738 "striped"
Gomphrena globosa globe amaranth 1737 "Amarantheodes,” "Amaranthoides"
Helichrysum orientale 1736 "yellow everlasting flower"
Hesperis matronalis cv. dame's rocket 1735 "Double Rockketts,” "white double
rocketts"
Custis and Collinson
Virgina
 1734-1746
4
Hibiscus syriacus rose-of-Sharon 1736 "althea”
Ilex aquifolium cvs. 1738 "[gilded?] hollys," "silver holly," "gold
holly"
Ilex aquifolium "Ferox” 1736 "Hedge Hog Holley"
Jasminum sambac 1738 "Arabian jessamins"
Juniperus communis 1735 "juniper berrys"
Laburnum anagyroides golden chain-tree 1735 "laburnum"
Larix decidua 1736 “larch tree”
Laurus nobilis English laurel 1736/7 "Bay Berries,” "bays"
Lavandula stoechas French lavender 1735 "crysanthamum arabian stecus,”
"stecos"
?Lilium bulbiferum or
chalcedonicum
 1742/3 "fiery lily"
?Lilium martagon or chalcedonicum martagon lily? 1739 "red,” "scarlet," "sorts of martigons"
Lilium sp. 1736 "striped Lilly's”
Lonicera sp. 1740 "honey suckles"
Lonicera sp. 1735 "double honysuckles"
Lonicera periclymenum belgica Dutch Woodbine1740 "dutch [honeysuckles]"
Lycospersicon lycopersicon tomato 1742/3 "Apples of Love," "Tamiata”
Malus pumila var. paradisiaca paradise apple 1736 "dwarf apple trees [?] stocks"
Morus nigra 1738 "black mulberry"
Nerine sarniensis 1736 "Gurnsey Lillies"
Nicotiana sp. tobacco 1736 "tob: seed"
Phaseolus sp. 1737 "beans"
Phlomis tuberosa 1736 "Spanish sage trees"
Phoenix dactylifera 1735 "Dates"
Picea abies Norway spruce 1742/3 "spruce Firr"
Picea sp. 1738 "Spruces"
Pinus cembra Swiss stone pine 1738 “stone pines,” "Siberian Cedars"
Pistacia vera 1735 "Pistacioes Nutts, "Pistacios,"
"Pistacia”
Pisum sativum 1737 "peas"
Polianthes tuberosa 1735 "Tuberorse,” "Italian Tuberoses"
Polygonum orientale prince's feather 1736/7 "Oriental Persicary"
Primula x poliantha 1736 "polyanthus"
Prunus dulcis cvs. 1734 almonds: "green shell,” "brown shell,
"cornell,” "soft shell,” "hardshell,"
"thin shelld"
Prunus insititia damson plum 1736/7 "Bullice,” "Damosins"
Prunus padus or Cornus mas European bird cherry or
Cornelian cherry
1738 "cluster cherry"
Prunus persica cvs. 1737 "best peaches, "variety of peaches"
Prunus persica ‘Catherine’ 1740 "Catherine," "Katherine peach"
Prunus persica cv. 1734 "Double Blossome peach"
Prunus persica 'Nutmeg' 1736/7 "Nutmeg peach"
Prunus persica nucipersica 1737 "Nectarines"
Prunus sp. 1735 "chery seeds"
Prunus spinosa blackthorn plum 1736/7 "Sloes"
Pulmonaria officinalis lungwort 1735 "Jerusalem Cowslip"
Quercus suber cork oak 1736-37 "Evergreen Oke whose Bark is the
Cork wee use for Bottles"
Quercus ilex holly oak 1736/7 "Italian Evergreen Okes"
Ranunculus asiaticus Persian ranunculus 1741 "ranunculus"
Rancunculus ficaria 1737 "double yellow pile Wort"
Rhamnus cathartica 1742/3 "Buck thorn"
Ribes sativum 1738 'White Dutch'"White Currants,”
Custis and Collinson
Virgina
 1734-1746
5
 “dutch white currant bushes”
Rosa centifolia muscosa 1740 "Moss province"
Rosa x damascene var. 1740 "monthly rose"
Rosa x damascene versicolor 1742/3 "York & Lancaster Rose"
Rosa foetida Austrian briar rose 1736 "yellow rose"
?Rosa gallica versicolor Rosa Mundi 1740 “moonday rose"
?Rosa gallica 1736 "red rose"
Rosa x hemisphaerica 1735 "yellow province rose," "double yellow
rose," "other yellow rose"
Scilla peruviana 1737 "Blew & White Hyacinth of peru”
Spartium junceum 1736 "Spanish Broome"
Sternbergia lutea winter daffodil 1739-40 "Autumn Narciss with a yellow
Crocus Like flower"
Syringa vulgaris 1737 "lilacks" [other than "pale blew"]
Syringa persica 1738 "persian lilack, "persian lilock"
Tulipa cvs. 1735 "Double Tulips," "tulips," "early
tulips"
Vigna unguiculata 1736 "Italian beans," "black eyed indian
peas"
Vitis vinifera 1736 "grape seeds," "Vines," "White Grape"

UNIDENTIFIED:
“mountain flax” [1742] Swemm says snakeroot but JC
requests this as a medicinal plant he
believes to be very common in
England
“Oriental [?], plant of
paradice”
 [1744]
Spanish sage trees [1736] Phlomis tuberosa ?
“syringa[“?] [ 1741] listed among bulbs ?
Laurells [1736] "which I [JC] had very plenty of
before" Magnolia grandiflora, Laurus
nobilis, Prunus (Lauroceraus)
caroliniana?
"The name of the flower white
on one side red on the other"
Possibly Asphodelus albus -- white
w/brown bracts
“Drassenis” 1741] Swemm indexes as "Dracaena”
"small bulbous roots like
hyacinths"
 [1736] scilla?

1735 Peter Collinson (1694-1768) contacts John Bartram (1699-1777)

 Peter Collinson (1694-1768)

It is not known why Peter Collinson’s father felt it necessary to send him, at the tender age of two, to live with his grandmother in Peckham but gardeners in England & around the world would come to be thankful for the decision. For it was at Peckham that the young boy developed his gardening skills & the plant collecting bug which became a life long obsession. It was a formal garden, in the style of the period, noted for its topiary & lawns. As a child Peter remembered being taken to buy clipped yew hedges in the shapes of birds, dogs & men from the best nurserymen in London, suppliers such as Wrench of Parson’s Green & Parkinson of Lambeth. He would have been fascinated by the extraordinary nursery garden of Thomas Fairchild at Hoxton because Fairchild was a plant collector extraordinaire, uniquely skillful in germinating & nurturing exotic species including hothouse plants & fruits. His tree collection included important introductions from the American Colonies such as the tulip tree, American sycamore & the red flowered horse chestnut. These he supplied to the great houses & gardens of the age. One such garden belonged to Dr. Henry Compton, Bishop of London. As a child, Peter regularly visited this garden at Fulham Palace. In later years he reminisced wistfully, “Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, was a great lover of rare plants, as well such as came from the West Indies as North America, & had the greatest collection in England. After his death, the see was filled by Bishop Robinson, a man destitute of any such taste, who allowed his gardener to sell what he pleased, & often spoiled what he could not otherwise dispose of.”

The small garden in Peckham was inherited from his maternal grandmother . The garden was locally famous & consisted of a square plot, bisected by a path. At one end was a greenhouse in which Collinson kept his tender exotics.  The layout was arranged so that most of the flower beds caught the morning sun, which was, according to Collinson, important especially for the American plants...The Peckham plants were grown in long flowerbeds between 3 & 4 feet wide & all were labelled with numbers painted on pales or stakes placed in the soil, or drawn directly on the wall in the case of climbers & espalier fruit. These numbers were cross-referenced to a catalog of names - possibly like the classification beds at Kew Gardens.

Collinson also had a special germinating bed in Peckham, 6 foot by 3, for his newly arrived American plants.  His own garden at Peckham was not designed for contours & landscape, rather it was as complete a collection of rare & exotic specimen trees & herbaceous species as could be found outside Miller’s Chelsea Physic garden (which itself, derived in part from Collinson). Carl Linnaeus visited Collinson in his Peckham garden in late July 1736.

The Collinson family were well connected with leading figures in London, none more influential than Sir Hans Sloane who owned a massive private collection of natural specimens & archaeological artifacts from all over the world. Young Peter enjoyed helping Sloane catalog & display his collection & the 2 became close friends. It was Sloane who put Philip Miller in charge of the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1722 with the specific brief to develop rare exotic introductions ... The passion for new plants was the basis of a lasting friendship with Collinson, a relationship of some significance later for it was Miller who developed a comprehensive Botanical dictionary, which became the plant bible for gardeners on both sides of the Atlantic. Miller’s dictionary was published & financed in Pennsylvania by the good offices of Peter Collinson through another of his ... lifelong friends, Benjamin Franklin. Published in 1731, It was the first volume of its type to include helpful notes on the culture & maintenance of plants & was largely responsible for putting the art of gardening within reach of the ordinary man, a virtual reformation within horticulture, once the exclusive province of a privileged few.

As young Peter Collinson entered the textile trade of his father, his interest in plant introductions became an expensive pastime. For example, he financed the publication of Mark Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama Islands. This seminal volume, the most costly book of its day, consisted of etchings & notes from Catesby’s collections of plants on his trip to the Americas, a trip itself made possible by sponsors found by Collinson.

He was not the first to develop an interest in plants from the Americas, nor the first to acquire the knowledge & skills necessary for the cultivation of exotic species but he was the first to apply the principles of business to this enterprise & it was through his business skills that these rare & hitherto prohibitively expensive plants became accessible throughout the country & found their way into the great parks & gardens of the age. He was well acquainted with the ships’ captains who plied the busy Thames dockyards just down the street from his London Grace Street office & through them was able to send & receive packages across the major trading routes of the world. In particular, he exploited his connections with North America persuading them to send him specimens both animal & vegetable from that continent but was frequently frustrated.  “What was common with them but rare with us, they did not think worth sending. Thus I laboured in vain or to little purpose for some years for but few seeds of plants……neither money nor friendship would tempt them…”

In 1734 he received a letter from John Custis of Williamsburg, Virginia. Custis was a man of considerable charm & influence in Virginia. His son who died at 25 years had been married to Martha, later to become the wife of George Washington & he was a friend to the young Thomas Jefferson. He had been educated in England, had known Catesby during his 7 year stay in Virginia sharing his enthusiasm for the exchange of foreign plants...

His gifts probably crossed with corresponding boxes on passing ships in the Atlantic. Collinson writes,  “I am much obliged to you for your kind present but what much enhances the obligation, on my side, is that being an entire stranger you should take so much pains to gratify me. I can’t enough commend the method you took to convey this rare plant to my hands by sending the seed by one ship & the plant by another………..As a small token of my gratitude for your favour I desire your acceptance of a box of horse chestnuts. Why this name is imposed on this noble tree I can’t say for no horse that I ever heard will eat the nuts …….”.

Their friendship flourished & they had much in common, both being men of business with exceptional knowledge of the shipping trade. Their correspondence lasted until Custis ‘ death in 1749. Some quaint & interesting items emerge from it. For example, in reference to what we now call a tomato, Collinson asks Custis, “Pray what sort of fruit is your wild scarlet plum. Is it more for show than for taste….Apples of love are very much used in Italy to put when ripe into their broths & soups giving it a pretty tart taste….. They call it tamiata. I never tried it but I think to do it….”

It is nothing short of miraculous that Peter Collison managed to maintain his business & family life whilst keeping up the correspondence with all his gardening friends & contacts. He had by now attracted the attention of the major botanists of the age with whom he corresponded enthusiastically, notably Carl Linnaeus, & Peter Kalm of Sweden, Jan Frederik Gronovious of Amsterdam, Bernard Jussieu in Paris & Dr. Amman in Russia who from Siberia sent him many exotic trees & shrubs.

Although Peter Collinson is best remembered for his North American introductions, it should be noted that significant contributions came from other parts of the world. One of Peter Collinson’s introductions is now the very common street tree, Ailanthus altissima, the tree of heaven. He wrote in his journal of this tree,  “A stately tree raised from seed from Nankin in China, in 1751 sent over by Father D’Incarville, my correspondent in China to whom I have sent many seeds in return; he sent it to me & to the Royal Society. I have from China a tree of surprising growth that much resembles a Sumach, which is the admiration of all that see it. It endures our winters. We call ours the Varnish Tree”

Father D’Incarville also sent him the magnificent Pagoda tree...Another memorable East Asian introduction was the paper mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera of which he wrote,  “1751 Raised this year a mulberry from seed sent from China; it proves the paper mulberry described by Dr. Kaemfer in his Amoenitates exoticae, which I have given to the Chelsea gardens, to the Duke of Argyle, Lord Lincoln etc.,,”

A pressing issue of the times & one which resulted in an extreme polarization of views - the issue of plant nomenclature. Principle combatants were Linneaus & Miller, both had a reputation to lose: Linnaeus’ Systema naturae versus Philip Miller’s dictionary; academic aristocracy in conflict with practical horticulture. Miller was a man of the soil; Linnaeus was on a personal crusade to convince the international community to accept a binomial naming system based entirely on the sexual organs of plants.

Linnaeus arrived from Holland in 1736, the year after publication of Systema naturae, which expounded the principles of his binomial Latin nomenclature. As an employee of the Dutch East India Company, his mission, ostensibly, was to add to the Dutch collection of American species. His chief agenda, however, was to persuade the English botanical community to support his new naming system & first on his list was Peter Collinson. Linnaeus was very impressed with Collinson’s collection at Peckham...Collinson maintained a cordial & extensive correspondence with him & took no side other than that which might advance the cause of international harmony & understanding & the development of horticulture. As a result, Linnaeus’ colleague, Peter Kalm visited the Peckham garden...

A yet more important North American contact emerged in Pennsylvania though the intermediary offices of Benjamin Franklin...put him in touch with a farmer from Philadelphia called John Bartram. To his delight, Bartram was willing to send over boxes of materials & to do so as regularly as the unpredictable nature of shipping would allow. For this Collinson agreed to pay 5 guineas a box & so the stream of roots & seeds, dried insects & stuffed birds began. In return Collinson sent books, plant material & even clothes, being ever mindful of the practical needs of his correspondent. They never met but their friendship was lifelong & profound. A small sense of it may be gleaned from the numerous letters, which passed between them. A typical early exchange is dated February 1735. Bartram writes;  “I am greatly obliged to thee for thy present of a suit of clothes which came in the right time…”

John Bartram was a farmer, a son of a farmer, a man who built his own house & was hardened to the demands of the newly settled ‘back lands’ of Pennsylvania. He had plenty to fill his days but was possessed of an extraordinary enthusiasm for natural science & found the time for lengthy correspondence with like-minded planters & settlers on the eastern seaboard of North America. He created a model garden with an extensive collection of curiosities. No lesser international figure than Carl Linneaus called him “the greatest natural botanist in the world... “ Bartram lived at the sharp edge of 3 competing cultures, English, French & indigenous. Bartram was a man hardened by the realities of a hostile frontier. Collinson was no adventurer & traveled rarely... Collinson with Franklin’s help, lobbied powerful contacts on both sides of the Atlantic to have Bartram named as Botanist to the King (George III) in 1765, a position which gave him a significant annual income.

Where Bartram was unsure of a plant name he sent pressed samples & kept a numbered copy. Peter Collinson would, with Philip Miller’s assistance, identify the specimen & send back a reference. He sent Bartram a copy of Philip Miller’s  invaluable ‘Gardeners’ Dictionary’ via the Pennsylvania library, their normal means of communication. Collinson was careful to keep the American soil, which accompanied the plants in their boxes & he used it in his garden to acclimatize the seedlings. The costs of this operation were significant but were offset by the formation of a subscription service, a network established by Collinson & affectionately called the ‘Brothers of the Spade...’

In 1749, on the death of his wife’s father, Peter Collinson inherited Ridgeway House in Mill Hill together with 8 acres, a perfect site for his garden. He spent the next two years transplanting the entire collection & settled into his new home with great satisfaction; "Very few gardens (he records) if any excel mine at Mill Hill for the rare exotics which are my delight...”

Peter Collinson had a greenhouse at Mill Hill, & in February 1768 he gave a description to Bartram stating that …”whilst snow covered the garden without… out of my parlour I go into my Greenhouse 42 foot long which makes a pretty walk to smell the sweets of so many odoriferous plants, Winter without but Summery within...”

Though the garden had many of John Bartram’s American species, there were also many curiosities from elsewhere… & it is important to realize that Peter Collinson not only knew his plants but each one acted as a mnemonic for his friendships. With Bartram & Linnaeus Collinson shared his love of plants, but with Colden he added recollections of these friends: “As often as I survey my Garden & Plantations it reminds Mee of my Absent Friends by their Living Donations...

Ultimately, by 1767 there were signs that Peter Collinson was starting to curtail his horticultural activities. In September 1767, he warned Bartram that unless anything new or rare turned up, he should send nothing more.  By the following year, August 1768, Peter Collinson had died...

From the Mill Hill Preservation Society

18C Botany, Bartram, & the Greenhouse in Early America

The possibility of growing tender plants in greenhouses had fascinated early Americans at least since the 1st half of the 18C in colonial America. But the price of glass in colonial & early America remained high until nearly the middle of the 19C, making greenhouses available only to those with extra disposable income.

Mount Vernon's Greenhouse

As British America was being colonized in the 17th-century, English garden writers were focusing on greenshouses which needed glass to allow the sun to reach the growing plants. Glass was becoming more affordable & glass no longer needed to be hand-blown. In England, in 1664, diarist & gardener John Evelyn (1620-1706) advised, "Set your...Windows and Doors of the Green-houses and Conservatories open." And in his diary on 30 October 1683, he mentioned, "Greene houses for oranges and mirtles." Born in Surrey into a family that owned the monopoly on the manufacture of gunpowder in England, Evelyn was able to devote his life to intellectual pursuits. In addition to translating noted French gardening books, Evelyn was the author of Kalendarium Hortense. His Diary is full of references to gardens, & to his own famous garden at Sayes Court. In 1691, the London Gazette mentioned another "new Conservatory or Green-House" in a house-for-sale ad.
Detail John Evelyn (1620-1706) by Hendrick van der Borcht, 1641.

In early 18th century England, J. James' 1712 translation of Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond's (1679-1719) The Theory and Practice of Gardening; ; wherein is fully handled all that relates to fine gardening, commonly called pleasure gardens explained that, "Green-houses are large Piles of Building like Galleries...for preserving Orange-Trees, and other Plants...during the Winter." Le Blond was a French architect & garden designer who became the chief architect of Saint Petersburg in 1716, just 3 years before his death. He had derived his gardening expertise from André Le Nôtre (1613-1700), and he illustrated & helped write Dezallier d'Argenville's (1680-1765) seminal work on the principles of French formal garden design. In England, Phillip Miller had published a plan for a greenhouse in his 1754 Gardener's Dictionary, which was owned & read in the British American colonies.

Much like today, the 18th century colonial greenhouse was a glass-windowed structure of wood or brick or stone in which tender plants were reared & preserved. Revolutionaly iron & glass greenhouses would appear in the first half of the 19th-century allowing more light into the structures.
Virginian William Byrd II (1674-1768) painted by Hans Hysing 1724

Early in 18th-century Pennsylvania, botanist John Bartram (1699-1777) wrote to English botanist Peter Collinson (1674-1768), on July 18, 1740, about Colonel William Byrd's (1674-1744) grounds at Westover in Virginia. "Colonel Byrd is very prodigalle...new Gates, gravel Walks, hedges, and cedars finely twined and a little green house with two or three orange trees...he hath the finest seat in Virginia."

Twenty years later, John Bartram wrote to Peter Collinson in 1760, "I am going to build a green-house. Stone is got...to put some pretty flowering winter shrubs, and plants for winter's diversion, not to be crowded with orange trees."
Peter Collinson 1694-1768

John Bartram was much more than just a commentator on the homes of colonial gentry, but he certainly would have been intrigued by the possibilities of Byrd's early greenhouse. Born in Darby, Pensylvania, son a Quaker farmer, Bartram was the most important botanist in the colonies. His son William Bartram (1739-1823) helped him collect, replant, & ship his specimens. In 1728, John Bartram established a botanic garden at Kingsessing on the west bank of the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, where he collected & grew native plants. His correspondence with Peter Collinson, led to the introduction of many American trees & plants into Europe.
Charles Willson Peale's 1808 William Bartram

Greenhouses in Europe filled with Bartram's Boxes of American plants. His plant specimens & seeds traveled across the Atlantic to the gardens & greenhouses of Philip Miller, Linnaeus, German botanist Dillenius (1687-1747), & Dutch botanist Gronovius (1686-1762); and he assisted Linnaeus' student Swedish Pehr Kalm (1716-1779) during his collecting trip to North America in 1748-1750. Although Bartram never visited Britain, in 1765, he was appointed Botanist to King George III. Linnaeus called him "the worlds greatest botanist." Bartram traveled from Lake Ontario in the north, to Florida in the south and the Ohio River in the west. His Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, a trip taken from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766, was published. His son William accompanied his father documenting plants, animals, birds, & native peoples of North & South Carolina, Georgia & Florida. William published Travels, writings with his own illustrations in 1791, which impacted the 19th century romantic movement as well as natural history.

Not far from Bartram's nursery just outside of Philadelphia, John Smith described the plantation owned by the family of William Penn at Springettesbury Manor in 1745, "On our way thither we stopped to view the proprietor's greeen-house, which at this season is an agreeable sight; the oranges, lemons and citrons were some green, some ripe, some in blossom." Springettesbury Manor had been named in honor of William Penn's first ie, Gulielma Maria Springett (1644–1694).

Ten years later, Daniel Fisher also described the Proprietor's greenhouse, "What to me surpassed every thing of the kind I had seen in America was a pretty bricked Green House, out of which was disposed very properly in the Pleasure Garden, a good many Orange, Lemon, and Citrous Trees, in great profusion loaded with abundance of Fruit and some of each sort seemingly ripe then."Bartram traveled South in the colonies through Charleston several times, where greenhouses were used to entice real estate buyers.

In the South Carolina Gazette, November 14, 1748, a house for sale advertisement noted, "TO BE SOLD...Dwelling-house...also a large Garden, with two neat Green Houses for sheltering exotic Fruit Trees, and Grape-Vines."

Exotic plants captured the fancy of colonials early in the century; and by the end of the 18th-century, formal botanical gardens dotted the Atlantic coast. These were both outdoor and indoor, public and private garden areas, where proud collectors displayed a variety of curious plants for purposes of science, education, status, and art.

By 1760, Rhode Islander Abraham Redwood Jr was writing to his farm manager, "I desire that you put up in Durt one dozen of Small orange Trees...four young figg trees and some Guavas roots, to put in my greenhouse...twenty two feet long, Twelve feet wide, and Twelve feet high." In 1743, Abraham Redwood purchased 140 acres farmland near Newport, Rhode Island, where he built a country estate that was considered one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in North America, which grew plants & trees imported from all over the world.
Abraham Redwood 1709-1788

Josiah Quincy (1744-1775), who kept a journal as he traveled South from Boston for his health in 1773, was also impressed with a greenhouse, when he visited Philadelphia on May 3, 1773, and noted, "Dined with the celebrated Pennsylvania Farmer, John Dickenson Esqr, at his country seat about two and one-half miles from town...his gardens, green-house, bathing-house, grotto, study, fish pond...vista, through which is distant prospect of Delaware River."  John Dickinson (1732-1808), who was actually an attorney trained at Middle Temple, had married Mary Norris, daughter of Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and moved to the Norris estate of Fairhill, near Germantown. There he wrote, under the pseudonym "A Farmer,"12 essays against the Stamp Acts.
1773 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Norris (Mrs. John Dickinson) with their daughter Sally.

In 1787, clergyman, merchant, & lawyer Manasseh Cutler (1742-1823), wrote of the greenhouse at Gray's Tavern, in Philadelphia. "(The Greenhouse) is a very large stone bulding, three stories in the front and two in the rear. The one-half of the house is divided lengthwise, and the front part is appropriated to a green-house, and has no chamber floors. It is finished in the completest manner for the purpose of arranging trees and plants in the most beautiful order. The windows are enormous. I believe some of them to be twenty feet in length, and proportionably wide...We then took a view of the contents of the green-house, beautifully arranged in the open air on the south of the garden. Here were most of the trees and fruits that grow in the hottest climates. Oranges, lemons, etc., in every stage from blossoms to ripe fruit; pine-apples in bloom, and those were fully ripe."

Visiting English agricultural writer Richard Parkinson (1748-1815) stopped at John O'Donnell's (1743-1805) estate named Canton near Baltimore, in 1798. Irishman John O'Donnell had grown wealthy by sending the first ship into China in 1785, for trade goods to sell in America. Parkinson wrote that O'Donnell had, "a very handsome garden in great order, a most beautiful greenhouse and hot house...a very magnificent place for that country."
1787 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Sarah Chew Elliott (Mrs. John O'Donnell) in her garden in front of a curving wall with urns used as finials.

In 1793 Massachusetts, Boston merchant Joseph Barrell (1739-1804) was ordering plants & a gardener from Britain for his new Pleasant Hill greenhouse, "I want a person that understands green house plants...you will send the trees by the same opportunity the gardener comes that he may attend them on the passage."
John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) Joseph Barrell c 1767

Wishing for more land outside of Boston to try new gardening styles & modern farming techniques, Barrell purchased 211 acres of land across the Charles River in Charlestown, where he created a ferme ornée. Charles Bulfinch designed the house & grounds, one of his 1st commissions.
John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) Hannah Fitch (Mrs Joseph Barrell) c 1771

In Deborah Logan's journal, she mentioned that in 1799 Philadelphia,William Logan had a "Green house in town, as well as a good one (at Stenton). He had many rare and beautiful plants: indeed the large and fine orange and lemon trees which now ornament Pratt's greenhouses at Lemon Hill were originally of his raising."

William Logan (1717–1776) was the son of William Penn's secretary James Logan who became a Philadelphia Mayor & Supreme Court Justice. William inherited Stenton in 1751, and he used it as his country seat, while living in Philadelphia.

In the same year, English born seedsman and nursery owner William Booth of Baltimore advertised in the Federal Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser:" To Botanists, Gardeners and Florists, and to all other gentlemen, curious in ornamental, rare exotic or foreign plants and flowers, cultivated in the greenhouse, hot-house, or stove, and in the open ground. A large and numerous variety of such rarities is now offered for sale...After reserving a general and suitable stock, he had to spare a well assorted and great variety of those things comprising a beautiful collection, sufficient to decorate, furnish, and ornament a spacious or handsome greenhouse at once... The whole is a truly valuable collection such as is very rarely to be met with for sale on this side of the Atlantic -- indeed a moiety of them would comprise a very desirable and exclusive variety, consisting of many or most of the tropical fruits, and other rare and curious finely ornamental trees, scrubs and plants; with a numerous and abundant assortment of choice bulbous, tubrous, and fibrous rooted flowering and ornamental plants in mixtures... please apply to John Cummings, at the alms-house, Messrs. David and Cuthbert Landreth, gardeners and nursery-men... Now is as good time and proper season to build a green-house, and to remove plants."

Many of Booth's clients and contemporaries in the Chesapeake were becoming excited about collecting and displaying non-native varieties of plants. In his diary, silversmith, clockmaker, & gardener William Faris (1728-1804) noted in Annapolis that his neighbor Dr. Upton Scott (1722-1814) was, "fond of botany and has a number of rare plants and shrubs in his greenhouse and garden." The practical Faris used his cellar as his greenhouse.

Some gardeners & plant collectors were obsessed with showing off their unusual plant collections to visitors. In November of 1803, Manasseh Cutler (1722-1823) wrote to Mrs. Torrey about his visit to William Hamilton's (1745-1813) Woodlands, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "We then took a turn to the garden and greenhouses...ornamented with almost all the flowers and vegtables the earth affords...The greenhouses which occupy a large space of ground, I cannot pretend to describe. Every part was crowded with trees and plants, from the hot climates, and such as I had never seen...He assured us, there was not a rare plant in Europe, Asia, Africa, from China and the islands in the South Sea, of which he had any account, which he had not procured...When we turned to rare and superb plants, one of the gardeners would be called, and sent with a lantern to the green house to fetch me a specimen to compare with it. This was done perhaps twenty times."
Benjamin West (American-born painter, 1738–1820) William Hamilton (1745-1813) of Woodlands with His Neice

Authors Joseph Dennie & John Elihu Hall reported on the greenhouse at the Woodlands in their 1809 Portfolio II, "The front, including the hot-house on each side, measures one hundred and forty feet, and it contains nearly ten thousand plants, out of which number may be reckoned between five and six thousand of different species, procured at much trouble and expense, from many remote parts of the globe, from South America, the Cape of Good Hope, the Brazils, Botany Bay, Japan, the East and West Indies, &c. &c. This collection, for the beauty and rich variety of its exotics, surpasses any thing of the kind on this continent; and, among many other rare productions to be seen, are the bread-fruit tree, cinnamon, allspice, pepper; mangoes, different sorts, sago, coffee from Bengal, Arabia, and the West-Indies, tea, green and bohea, mahogany, magnolias, Japan rose, rose apples, eherimolia, one of the most esteemed fruits of Mexico, bamboo, Indian god tree, iron tree of China, ginger, olea fragrans, and several varieties of the sugar cane, five species of which are from Otaheite. To this green-house, so richly stored, too much praise can hardly be given. The curious person views it with delight, and the naturalist quits it with regret."

On Christmas day in 1803, in Prince George's County, Maryland, Rosalie Stier Calvert (1795-1821) wrote to her father who had returned to Europe, "I am also going to have a small greenhouse built where you planned it--at the wash-house. The cellar makes a very good orangerie." In another letter to her father in 3 years later, she mentioned that the cellar would no longer serve as the greenhouse, "We also have to build a small house, a smoke house, a sairy, and an orangerie."
Gilbert Stuart (Early Americn artist, 1755-1828). Rosalie Stier Calvert (1778 -1821) in 1804

I can find only one other reference to an orangery or orangerie in early America beside those of Rosalie Stier Calvert, leaving me to suspect that the term orangery became popular in America in the 19th century when refering to greenhouses, old and new.

There are earlier references in England, where John Evelyn wrote in his diary on 4 July 1664, "The orangerie and aviarie handsome, and a very large plantation about it." Another reference appears in the 1705 London Gazette, "The Mansion-House, called Belsize, ...with...a fine Orangarie, is to Lett."

In America in 1790, Thomas Lee Shippen, describing Stratford Hall in Virginia, to his father reported, "It was with great difficulty that my Uncles, who accompanied me, could persuade me to leave the hall to look at the gardens, vineyards, orangeries and lawns which surround the house."

By the time Englishman John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) wrote his 1822 Encyclopedia of Gardening, the orangery had fallen out of favor. He wrote, "The orangery is the green-house of the last century, the object of which was to preserve large plants of exotic evergreens during winter, such as the orange tribe, myrtles, sweet bays, pomegranates, and a few others. Geraniums, heaths, fuchsias, and other delicate plants requiring much light, were then unknown. The orangery was generally placed near to or adjoining the house, and its elevation corresponded in architectural design with that of the mansion. From this last circumstance has arisen a prejudice highly unfavorable to the culture of ornamental exotcis, namely, that every plant-habitation attached to a mansion should be an architectural object, and consist of windows between stone piers or columns, with a regular cornice and entablature. By this mode of design, these buildings are rendered so gloomy as never to present a vigorous vegetation, and vivid glowing colors within ; and as they are thus unfit for the purpose for which they are intended, it does not appear to us...that they can possibly be in good taste."

In Maryland, Rosalie Calvert grew plants in pots that could be brought outside in warm weather or ornament the interior of Riversdale house in winter. In 1803, she wrote, “I have arranged all the orange trees and geraniums in pots along the north wall of the house, where they make a very pretty effect, and the geraniums, being shaded, bear many more blossoms and are growing well.”

By 1809, she had added several more types of potted plants, and wrote that they were “a marvelous source of entertainment for me—geraniums, heliotropes, jasmines, China rose bushes, etc. I don’t have any aloes or any of those other plants whose only recommendation is their rarity and which lack beauty.” Heliotropes, she wrote, would be transplanted “outdoors in the summertime with the geraniums, jasmine, rose bushes, etc.”  While we do not have a painting of Rosalie Calvert's indoor parlor plant arrangement, we do have this painting from Connecticut in 1816,

George Freeman (Connecticut artist, 1787-1837) Widow Elizabeth Fenimor Cooper 1816

Rosalie Calvert's orangerie never materialized. Instead, she used a central room of the house, her “grand salon,” with three large south-facing triple-hung windows, as her conservatory. She bragged to her father in 1813 about “my lemon trees. I have four superb specimens which in winter we place in the four corners of the salon, where they make a lovely effect. Last November one of them produced 87 large lemons.”

American diplomat David Bailie Warden visited Riversdale and described Rosalie's salon, "The hall is ornamented with lemon-trees, geraniums, polianthusses, heliptropes, and other plants, which in the summer evenings, invite the humming-birds to taste of their sweetness; and afterwards struggling to escape, they fly incessantly backwards and forwards near the ceiling, until from fatigue they perch on a stick or rod, when they are easily taken by the hand."

Another nurseryman living in Philadelphia was also promoting plants and pleasure gardens. In 1806, Irish American horticulturalist, seedsman, & writer Bernard M'Mahon (1775-1816), whose book would be read by gardeners in America for the next 50 years, explained the difference between the greenhouse and a conservatory,

"A Green house is a garden building fronted with glass, serving as a winter residence, for tender plants from the warmer parts of the world, which require no more artificial heat than what is barely sufficient to keep off the front...A greenhouse should generally stand in a pleasure ground and if possible, upon a somewhat elevated and dry spot fronting the south...the building ought to be of brick or stone, having the front almost wholly of glassowrk, ranging lengthwise east to west, and constructed upon an ornamental plan...

"The Greenhouse and Conservatory have been generally considered as synonimous; their essential difference is this: in the greenhouse, the trees and plants are either in tubs or pots, and are planted on stands or stages during the winter, till they are removed into some suitable situation abroad in summer.

"In the conservatory, the ground plan is laid out in beds and borders, made up of the best compositions of soils that can be procured, three or four inches deep. In these the trees or plants, taken out of their tubs or pots are regularly planted, in the same manner as the plants in the open air.

"This house is roofed, as well as fronted with glass-work, and instead of taking out the plants in summer, as in the Greenhouse, the whole of the glass roof is taken off, and the plants are exposed to open air."
Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).

Thomas Jefferson, who was always experimenting and adding onto his property, was interested in a greenhouse as well. On August 2, 1807, from Albemarle County, Virginia, even Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) received a letter listing sizes of glass he would need for a "green house."
1799 Artist Lambert ? Bouche. Ann Ogle (Mrs. John Tayloe III) and daughters Rebecca and Henrietta.

The Minute Book of John Tayloe III (1770-1828) noted on August 2, 1812 at his country seat Mount Airy in Richmond County, Virginia, "Gardeners attending to the Greenhouse at Mt. Airy." Tayloe's city residence was Octogon House in Washington D. C.
Wye House (18th-century greenhouse with hot air duct system, still owned by descendants of Edward Lloyd) Copperville, Talbot County, Maryland. Photo by Janet Blyberg.

By the early 19th century in the new republic, gentlemen were building greenhouses, conservatories, orangeries, hot houses, pineries, and stove houses to grow tender plants for their food value and to impress their neighbors. Some even had their portraits painted holding their favorite plants.

 1801 Rembrant Peale (1778-1860) Rubens Peale with Geranium

Botany Books & Herbals owned in Early America - George Washington (1732 – 1799)

President George Washington (1732 – 1799) of Virginia owned:

The universal gardener and botanist or, a general dictionary of gardening and botany. Exhibiting in botanical arrangement, according to the Linnæan system, every tree, shrub, and herbaceous plant, ... By Thomas Mawe, ... And John Abercrombie, by John Abercrombie

Catalogue of plants, exotic and indigenous, in the Botanical Garden, Jamaica by Thomas Dancer

The Botanical magazine; or Flower-garden displayed: in which the most ornamental foreign plants, cultivated in the open ground, the green-house, and the store, are accurately represented in their natural colours

An account of the culture and use of the mangel wurzel, or root of scarcity by Abbé de Commerell

An inaugural botanico-medical dissertation, on the Phytolacca decandra of Linnaeus by Benjamin Shultz

Travels through that part of North America formerly called Louisiana by M. Bossu

18C American Botanic Gardens

In 1748, what is now Lafayette & Astor Place, was New York City’s first botanical garden, established by a Swiss physician, Jacob Sperry, who farmed flowers & hothouse plants. Jacob Sperry, born in Zurich in 1728, came to New York at the age of 20, & although educated a physician, decided to become a florist. He had means at his command, with which he purchased this then uncultivated tract of pasture land, & established himself as a horticulturist. He built a house near by, where he resided, rearing a family of 4 sons & 5 daughters. In 1804, Jacob Sperry sold the much improved property to John Jacob Astor for $45,000.

An 1801 map of the Astor Place when it was the land of Jacob Sperry, a Swiss florist, physician, and gentleman.
In the British American colonies, just as in Europe, many early botanical gardens focused on the medicinal uses of plants being collected.  In 1769, Dr Peter Middleton, professor of medicine at King's College, speaking at the opening of the Columbia Medical School in New York City stated, "By botany, we are  instructed in the natural history and distinguishing characters of plants. This, pursued as a science, or branch of medical study, presents to us a fund of knowledge, both valuable and ornamental  As this continent yields most of the medical plants now in use, and abounds also with a variety of others, whose qualities we are as  yet but little acquainted with... a teacher of botany will soon be appointed, and a botanical garden laid out, and properly furnished? This would open an extensive field for further discoveries in, and for large acquisitions to the materia medicia."  David Hosack, who would eventually establish the Elgin Botanic Garden, reported that in 1794, the New York Agricultural Society was endorsing that the botanical garden be connected with an endowed professorship in Botany.  In the next 20 years, botanical gardens would pop up at Harvard, Princeton, and at the universities of Pennsylvania & South Carolina.

 Botanic Garden at Elgin in the Vicinity of the City of New York. About 1806 William Satchwell Leney (American artist, b. England, 1769–1831) after Louis Simond (American artist, b. France, 1767–1831)

Memories & Mountain Laurel & Peter Kalm 1716-1779

Memorial Day always brings 3 things to my mind.  - The peonies that my mother & I gathered to place on the graves of loved ones, when I was a child. - The incredible bravery of my great grandfather & his 2 brothers who left the South to go to Illinois to enlist in the Civil War to fight against slavery. - And, way up here in the woods where we live, the mountain laurel always bloom on Memorial Day.  The amazing blooms peek out of the sides of the lane up to the house, and they define the area between the grass & the woods surrounding the rear of the house.  A soft, sweet, beautiful reminder of the meaning of the day.

The American mountain laurel was named Kalmia latifolia during the 1700s, when America was still just a collection of colonies.  The plant was first recorded in America in 1624, soon after the English began to settle along the Atlantic coast.  The genus Kalmia was named by Carolus Linneaus himself, for his student Pehr (Peter) Kalm, who sailed across the Atlantic to travel through the countryside collecting plant samples to send back to Sweden. In Kalm’s account of Mountain Laurel, he calls the plant the “spoon tree.”