James Logan was probably the first person who directed the mind of John Bartram seriously to botany as the pursuit of a lifetime.
Logan was a lover of plants and flowers and enjoyed a wonderful garden at “Stenton,” and Bartram was a welcome guest.
Logan, in 1729, sent to England for a copy of “Parkinson’s Herbal,” saying he wanted to present it to John Bartram, who was a person worthier of a heavier purse than fortune had yet allowed him, and had “a genius perfectly well turned for botany.”
A subscription was started in 1742 to enable Bartram to travel in search of botanical specimens. It was proposed to raise enough for him to continue his travels for three years, he being described as a person who “has had a propensity to Botanicks from his infancy,” and “an accurate observer, of great industry and temperance, and of unquestionable veracity.”
The result of these travels was the publication of two very delightful books by this earliest of American botanists.
The specimens he collected were sent to Europe, where they attracted Kahn and many other naturalists to this country.
In 1751 he published his work, “Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Divers Productions, Animals, etc., made in his Travels from Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego, and the Lake Ontario.” In 1766 appeared “An Account of East Florida, by William Stork, with a Journal kept by John Bartram, of Philadelphia, upon a Journey from St. Augustine, Fla., up the River St. John’s.”
He also contributed numerous papers to the Philosophical Transactions from 1740 to 1763.
He was the first in this country to form a botanical garden.
On the outside of his house, over the front window of his study, was a stone with the inscription, carved by his own hand: