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History of Early American Landscape Design

Difference between revisions of "Alexander Garden"

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:<p>"His garden is a perfect portraiture of himself, here you meet wt a row of rare plants almost covered over wt weeds, here with a Beautiful Shrub, even Luxuriant Amongst Briars, and in another corner an Elegant & Lofty tree lost in common [[thicket]] &mdash; on our way from town to his house he carried me to severall rocks & Dens where he shewed me some of his rare plants, which he had brought from the Mountains &c. In a word he disdains to have a garden less than Pensylvania [''sic''] & Every den is an [[Arbor|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 &mdash; On the other hand he had several I had not seen & some I never heard of."</p>
 
:<p>"His garden is a perfect portraiture of himself, here you meet wt a row of rare plants almost covered over wt weeds, here with a Beautiful Shrub, even Luxuriant Amongst Briars, and in another corner an Elegant & Lofty tree lost in common [[thicket]] &mdash; on our way from town to his house he carried me to severall rocks & Dens where he shewed me some of his rare plants, which he had brought from the Mountains &c. In a word he disdains to have a garden less than Pensylvania [''sic''] & Every den is an [[Arbor|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 &mdash; On the other hand he had several I had not seen & some I never heard of."</p>
  
 +
 +
Alexander Garden to Colden, Charles Town, February 18, 1755 <ref> Colden, 1923, 5: 4-5)
 +
: “I have had severall Letters from Europe & a pretty parcell of Seeds from Russia from Dr Mounsey cheif Physician to the Army & Physician to the Prince Royal of Russia they are mostly Persian seeds I have sent a few to Miss Colden which was all that I had timr to pack up as the Sloop is just now hauling of from the wharf By Cap* Conyers I sent some few Africain plants & [5] Some natives of Carolina as they were mostly curious shrubs I shall be vastly anxious to hear that they have come safe to you & in proper season; I can warrant the goodness of all those that went by Conyers I have sent you Some more of the true Indigo seed & some Millet seed which I'm persuaded will both grow very well w fc you I mentioned to Miss Golden that the Small Bags of Shells something like Hops that she has are the reall Matrices of the Buccinum ampullatum of D 1 " Lister. Some days ago I met w fc a very Large parcel on the Beach where I had an opportunity of Examining them, I need not tell you that any Collection of your Northern seeds will be most acceptable to me as likewise all your Insects, Flies, Dryed Birds &c Especially some heads & Bodies of the Cerva Volans of which I had one head when I had the honour of waiting on you at Coldengham they are a Species of the iMcanus of the order Coleoptera Alc& clytris duobus tectce. I shall in my next mention to Miss Colden the method of preserving Butterflies &cccc.
  
 
* [[Alexander Garden|Garden, Alexander]], May 23, 1755, to [[Cadwallader Colden]] (Colden: 1919: 4: 10)<ref>Cadwallader Colden, ''The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden'', Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1919 (New York: The New York Historical Society, 1921), </ref>
 
* [[Alexander Garden|Garden, Alexander]], May 23, 1755, to [[Cadwallader Colden]] (Colden: 1919: 4: 10)<ref>Cadwallader Colden, ''The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden'', Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1919 (New York: The New York Historical Society, 1921), </ref>
: "My present Business confined me much to Town. I have not had an hour to spend in the woods this 2 months which makes me turn rusty in Botany.”
+
: “It gives me great pleasure that you give me leave to send Miss Colden's Description of that new plant to any of my Correspondents as I had before sent it to D r Whytt at ….Its now passed the Season of Seeds but I'll endeavour to procure Such as Miss Colden may want this year, tho my present Business confines me much to Town. I have not had an hour to spend in the woods this 2 months which makes me turn rusty in Botany.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
* [[Peter Collinson|Collinson, Peter]], September 15, 1760, to [[John Bartram]] (Bartram, 1992: 493-94) <ref></ref>
 +
: "Horse Sugar seems to be the Ligustrium of Catesby    among the Specimens are many Charming plants    Could Garden send seeds of them—the fine Clematis with Blewish reflex’d Flowers grows Luxriously in my Garden as Does the Spice Tree which keeps flowering all the Summer & perfumes all the Garden  cannot be more Vigorous in its own Climate... though hath brought many specious plants to Light&mdash; Gordon longs for them but cannot see how he can get them unless Docr Garden can help Him&mdash; pray recommend Gordon to Him&mdash; He will not prove ungratefull if the Docr will inform Him of his Wants in the Vegitable Way&mdash; Send his List to Him." 
 +
 
 +
* Garden, Alexander, October 25, 1760 to [[John Bartram]] (Bartram, 1992: 498) <ref> </ref>
 +
: “I have received two very kind letters from you since you left this place.... Ever since I saw you I have lived in a  greater hurry than when I had the pleasure of your agreeable company. Often since our parting have I reflected with concern that I had then so little time to enjoy you.... Your plants in my Garden thrive surprisingly well & they are now ready for your Boxes&mdash; one or two are dead&mdash; As I met Lately with [James Lee [1715-1795] on Botany I bought two copies one of which I have sent you & beg you’ll accept of it.... Inclosed you have a letter from Mrs. [Deborah] [[Martha Logan|Logan]] which has been with me some time for want of an opportunity."<p></p>
 +
 
 +
 
 +
* [[Martha Logan|Logan, Martha]], February 20, 1761, letter to [[John Bartram]] (Bartram, 1992, 506)<ref> </ref>
 +
: “[list of bulbs] ...Horsenecks, the Last Named & a little Seed of Slips of the Tree you Call the Snowball is what I am particularly Desirous of & they are not to be had from England for I have sent for them In several of my Lists but Never got one. I find they Doe very well with us for Doctor Garden has a good many roots Now bluming."
 +
 
 +
* [[John Bartram|Bartram, John]], May 22, 1761, letter to [[Peter Collinson]](Bartram, 1992, 517) <ref></ref>
 +
:  “Dr. Garden is so hurried as he knows plants well & where thay grow."
 +
 
 +
* [[Alexander Garden|Garden, Alexander]], February 23, 1761, letter to [[John Bartram]] (Bartram, 1992: 507-08)<ref></ref>
 +
: “I received your kind letter with your present of apples & plants.... You made me very happy in the Newfoundland spruce, Hemlock, Fir & Kalmia, I wanted these very much & you gave me fine thriving plants. The others viz the Lavendar [sic], Sabina & Rhamnus with the Fraxinellas are all growing beautifully so that I expect to have great pleasure in them all Summer. <p></p>
 +
: "I hope you may have like pleasure in those that I now send you    I need not tell you to plant them out immediately & in a shady moist place&mdash; The Box is rather too full, but the reason is, my not choosing to remove the earth from the roots of the plants as they grew, so that earth taken up with them soon filled up the Box. Your four Umbrellas are all alive & very thriving as is the great magnolia.... [additional plants listed] <p></p>
 +
: "How eminently happy are these hours which the humble & philosophic mind spends in investigating & Contemplating the inconceivable beautifies & mechanism of the works of nature....<p></p>
 +
: "N.B. I should be much obliged to you for some Hyacinths, some Narcissus with the largest Nectariums—we call these Horsenecks. I have one or two Persian irises that blossom beautifully. If you could spare some more I should be glad of them or any other bulbous root&mdash; <p></p>
 +
: "I have put on board a letter from Mrs. Logan with some seeds in it."
 +
 
 +
: Garden, Alexander, June 17, 1761, letter to [[John Bartram]] (Bartram, 1992:  521)
 +
: “I admire your variety of pancratiums & rejoice in your happiness&mdash; The Loblolly Bay, Dard Pomegranete & yellow wood have perished & all but those I Sent you&mdash; I could not be Geureria when I sent the Box & my own had died in the winter, but I’ll try to get two or three plants this year&mdash; Pray remember to let me have some of your fine Bulbs especially Hyacinths, & the Daffodil with the large long pinched nectatium [sic] & whatever Else you please. Let me know your sons Duration & Address & I’ll send him some Pink root.<p></p>
 +
: "This will be delivered to you by a Lady [unidentified] whom I have the honour to be acquainted with, & who has a very pretty taste for flowers & the culture of Curious plants. She intends to pay you a visit while she stays at Philadelphia & I take the liberty to beg your Civilities to her, not doubting but it will give you joy to see a Lady coming so far to view & Admire your Curiosities."
 +
 
 +
* [[John Bartram|Bartram, John, November 8, 1761, letter to Collinson, (Bartram, 1992: 538)<ref></ref>
 +
: “I have just received two fine Cargoes of fresh plants from South Carolina from two different Correspondents but dr Garden hath sent me nothing this fall but thanks in A letter to my son for A large parcel of bulbous roots I sent him    he is so hurried in his practice that he can hardly go out of town but I am packing up A chest of Apples for him which I hope will make him speak by next spring." 
 +
 
 +
* [[Martha Logan|Logan, Martha, n.d. [summer 1761], letter to [[John Bartram]], (Bartram, 1992, 523) <ref></ref>
 +
: “[list of plants she would like] P.S. When you Send or Wright to me againe be pleased to Direct for me to the Caire of John Logan Marchant in Charles Town. For Dr. Garden has so much business he has not time to Think of me, Wherefore your Letters have Some times Layen a good While & I never Known of them.”
 +
 
 +
Alexander Garden to Bartram, n.d. [February 15, 1762], Bartram, 1991, 548
 +
“I have this moment finished a letter for your Sons [Isaac and Moses], for whom I have much esteem on your Acct. and likewise for their own merit; It will give me much pleasure to serve them in any thing that I can from this place & I hope our acquaintance will be of mutual advantage.
 +
By Capt Noarth I received your most obliging & very agreeable letter….Your observations are many valuable, curious & diverting    I have read them over & over with much satisfaction & would [549] willingly enter upon a discussion of each particular if my Continual hurry of business permitted me to have a leisure hour, but alas my Dr Friend ever since I had the pleasure of seeing you here I have never been three miles from town since that time so that now Botany is quire neglected by me, but I rejoice to hear of the keenness & Ardor with which you daily advance in the Science & cultivate your mind & that Study…. Happy—thrice Happy are you whose comfortable easy & retired situation gives you this noble opportunity of exercising those faculties with which God has blessed you….
 +
The time may come when I will follow with more care & quickness than my present situation will permit. ..
 +
I have sent you a small quantity of Rice which I hope you will please to accept of as some small acknowledgt [sic] of the many favours which I have received at your hand.
 +
 
 +
Lamboll to Bartram, Charles Town, November 11, 1763, Bartram, 1992, 614
 +
“Docr: Garden is in a very dangerous and Critical State, with an Abcess in his Lungs, and intends to leave this Province soon, for his health….”
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 +
Lamboll to Bartram, Charles Town, May 1, 1765, Bartram, 1992, 649
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“I suppose you have heard of Doctr. Garden’s Recovery”
 +
 
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Garden to Bartram, February 12, 1766, Bartram, 1992, 658
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“I am here, confined to the sandy streets of Charleston, where the ox, where the ass, and where men as stupid as either, fill up the vacant space, while you range the green fields of Florida, where the bountiful hand of Nature has spread every beautiful and fair plant and flower, that can give food to animals, or pleasure to the spectator.
 +
“Pray, out of the abundance of what you see, send me some curiosities, particularly seeds for my garden. But let these be confined wholly to what is new and curious. Some young plants, in a box, would be very acceptable.”
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 +
 
 +
 
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Garden to Bartram, n.d. [c. 1766], Bartram, 1992, 658
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Like previous letter, asking to hear what he’s up to
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 +
ALEXANDER GARDEN,—see “Patriot-Improvers”
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Garden and Ellis, working through the auspices of the Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufactures & Commerce (sometimes called the Royal Society 44of Arts)--founded by William Shipley in 1754 specifically to pursue practical knowledge in engineering and he mechanical arts, promote technological and agricultural innovation, and enlarge ngland's commercial empire--attempted to establish a provincial garden in South Carolina or horticultural experiments. (Garden's letters frequently criticized the narrow-minded hinking of planters who planted huge crops for the most profitable yield without considering long-term issues of production.)
 +
 
 +
Volmer, Stephanie, ‘Planting a New World: Letters and Languages of Transatlantic Botanical Exchange, 1733--1777’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, 2008), 41 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VHFUA5FT view on Zotero]>--
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[[John Bartram|Bartram, John]], March 14, 1756, to Dr. [[Alexander Garden]], <ref> Berkeley, Garden, 86 </ref>
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: “I am obliged to thee for thy kindness to my son William. He longs to be with thee; but it is more for the sake of Botany, than Physic or Surgery, neither of which he seems to have any delight in. I have several books of both but can’t persuade him to read a page in either. Botany and drawing are his delight.”
  
  

Revision as of 19:25, August 16, 2015

Alexander Garden (January 1730-April 15, 1791), a Scottish-born physician and naturalist, lived for many years in Charleston, South Carolina, where he pursued horticultural experiments in the garden of his town house and at his country estate, Otranto. Garden discovered several new genera of plants, and engaged in plant and seed exchanges with prominent botanists and plant dealers in Europe and America. The flowering shrub Gardenia was named in his honor.

History

While studying at Marischal College, Aberdeen, from 1743 to 1746, Garden served as an apprentice to Dr. James Gordon, professor of medicine, who introduced him to botanical studies and “tinctured my mind with a relish for them.” [1] He continued his study of botany while pursuing a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh, working under Charles Alston (1675-1760), professor of botany and medicine, as well as Keeper of the Garden at Holyrood and King’s Botanist.[2] Garden later recalled: “I then & even to this day remember every Genus nay Every Species that is either in the King’s Garden or in the Physic Garden. I could go to the very spot where it grows.”[3] In search of professional opportunities and a warmer climate, Garden set out in 1751 for Carolina, apparently stopping at Lisbon, where he purchased a four-volume Italian translation of Francesco Eulaio Savastano’s botanical treatise, Botanicorum seu institutionum rei herbariae (Naples, 1712), which he brought to America along with Alston’s catalogue of the Edinburgh Garden.[4] Within days of his arrival in Charles Town (modern-day Charleston), Garden began sending indigenous plants to colleagues across the Atlantic— a practice he pursued over the next two decades.[5]

Garden's contributions to scientific knowledge of American flora became more substantial as a result of his acquaintance with the Carolina planter and politician William Bull II, a fellow amateur botanist who lent Garden several foundational botanical texts, including Carl Linnaeus's Fundamenta Botanica (1736) and Classes plantarum (1738), as well as John Clayton’s Flora Virginica (1739), the first catalogue of plants indigenous to the American South.[6] Guided by Linnaeus’s books, Garden dissected 1,000 local plants and wrote Linnaean descriptions of several, sharing his findings with European contacts.[7] The British merchant and naturalist John Ellis (c. 1710-1776) offered to present Garden’s descriptions of new plants to the Royal Society in London, and to have drawings made by the botanic artist George Dionysus Ehret. Garden reciprocated with "a pretty curious collection of seeds” which Ellis sent to be germinated by Christopher Gray (1693/4–1764), a professional London nurseryman with extensive experience in acclimating American plants to English conditions.[8] Wishing to honor Ellis and his former professor, James Gordon, Garden repeatedly sought permission to confer the names Ellisiana and Gordonia on Carolina plants that he took to be new genera. Ellis returned the favor in 1762 by obtaining Linnaeus’s official consent to the name Gardenia for a genus of flowering shrub recently introduced to England. Ehret commemorated the occasion by producing a colored engraving of the flower.[9] Garden's European correspondents ultimately included several eminent naturalists, among them Linnaeus in Sweden and the Dutch botanist John Frederick Gronovius at Leyden, whom Garden promised to send “anything among the animals, vegetables or minerals which would be pleasing to you.”[10] Through these contacts, Garden received the latest botanical treatises within months of publication, as well as rare books, such as Linnaeus’s Hortus Cliffortianus— one of only two copies in America at that time.[11] As Garden’s correspondence grew, so did his reputation. Toward the end of his life, he was extolled by the English botanist James Edward Smith (1759-1828), founder of the Linnaean Society in London, as “Dr. Garden, to whom Linnaeus was so much obliged in his last edition of the Systema Naturae that I think no name occurs more frequently.” [12]

Garden established important botanical contacts in America as well as Europe. During the summer of 1754 he visited Coldengham, the remote Hudson Highland estate of the Scottish physician and amateur botanist Cadwallader Colden.[13] Skilled in Linnaeus's system of plant classification, Colden and his daughter Jane had documented several hundred plants native to their region of New York, and they exchanged plants and seeds with Garden for several years following his visit.[14] [view text] Garden took it upon himself to spread news of Jane Colden's botanical accomplishments to his network of European botanists, and in 1756 he persuaded the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh to publish a new plant she had discovered and offered to name Gardenia in his honor— a tribute disallowed by Linnaeus, who considered the plant a known genus.[15] [view text] While at Coldengham, Garden met the Philadelphia nurseryman John Bartram, who was collecting plants in the area. Garden visited Philadelphia before returning to Carolina and spent several days with Bartram, touring his Botanic Garden and Nursery and combing the surrounding countryside for unusual plants.[view text] In June 1755 he accompanied the expedition of South Carolina governor James Glen (1701-1777) into the Cherokee territories west of Charles Town, taking advantage of the trip to collect botanical and geological specimens.[16] Hoping to return “richly laden with the spoils of Nature and our Appalachian Mountains," Garden set out the following year on a still more grueling expedition to the Mississippi River, remarking to a friend, “Good God what will not the Sacred thirst of the Botanic Science urge one to undergo.”[17] Indeed, despite the overwhelming demands of his medical practice (which included introducing the first smallpox vaccine to Charles Town), Garden continued to devote his free moments to collecting seeds and plants and penning scientific descriptions of new finds.

Garden propagated the plants he obtained through botanical exchanges, as well as those gathered on his various expeditions, in the garden of his Broad Street house. Contemporary accounts allude to his talent for horticulture and the impressive array of plants he had assembled. His neighbor Martha Daniel Logan, who operated a commercial nursery in Charles Town, begged John Bartram in February 1761 to help her procure some coveted slips "of the Tree you Call the Snowball," which "Doe very well with us for Doctor Garden has a good many roots Now bluming.”[view text] Bartram would have known the lant, for he had been Garden's guest for newarly three weeks the previous March on his first visit to South Carolina.[18] On their single joint excursion, Garden pointed out indigenous plants unfamiliar to Bartram, who seemed “almost ravished of his senses and lost in astonishment.” [19] Bartram also admired an evergreen growing in his host’s garden, later asking Martha Logan to send him some of its seeds. [20] He also made room in his garden for specimens Bartram temporarily transplanted there, including Magnolia tripetala (colloquially known as umbrella tree), Magnolia grandiflora, Zephyranthes atamasca, and a four-leafed Bignonia. After nursing them for several months, Garden sent word to Bartram in October, “Your plants in my Garden thrive surprisingly well & they are now ready for your Boxes.”[21](view text) In return, Bartram sent Garden a large box of plants which included several evergreens (which he identified as Newfoundland Spruce, Hemlock Fir, and Juniper) as well as aromatic herbs (such as Lavender and Fraxinella). Hungry for more, Garden requested a parcel of bulbs (Hyacinth and Narcissus).[22]

In addition to pursuing his own botanical and agricultural experiments, Garden encouraged the efforts of his friends and neighbors. He advised Eliza Pinckney on the cultivation of silk worms and indigo, and persuaded his friends Christopher Gadsden and Henry Middleton to try their hand at cultivating grape vines that the Royal Society sent to Charles Town in 1760.[23] He was familiar with the plants cultivated in other local gardens, and took Bartram on a tour of several, including those of Thomas and Elizabeth Lamboll and Henry Laurens when Bartram passed through Philadelphia en route to Florida in July 1765..[24] For many years, Garden entertained the hope of establishing a “Provincial Garden” for the experimental cultivation of plants that did not grow in Britain. Despite the endorsement of the Royal Society, he failed to gain local support for the plan, even after reviving it, in 1773, as a more cost-efficient solution than the botanic garden then being proposed for western Florida. [25] By then, Garden had acquired Otranto, a thousand-acre country estate outside of Charles Town. There he laid out gardens on a grander scale and pursued his experimental cultivation of indigenous and exotic plants.

Garden's loyalty to Britain ultimately cost him Otranto. Like other Loyalists, he was banished from South Carolina after refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance in 1778. Otranto was confiscated in 1782 at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. Having returned to Britain, Garden settled in London in 1783 and, as North America's preeminent botanist, soon became an active and much-honored participant in the activities of the Royal Society. Garden spent the rest of his life in England, haunted by memories of the estate he had left behind in America. In 1789, two years before he died of tuberculosis, he penned a vivid recollection of the colors, smells, and sounds of Otranto in a poignant letter to his friend and countryman, George Ogilvie. [view text] The following year— at Garden's urging— Ogilvie published "Carolina; or, The Planter," an epic poem in the mode of Virgil that he had composed at his plantation near Charles Town in 1776. The poem described the "situation and occupation of a Carolina Planter," and the political rifts threatening to alter the planter's way of life. Garden's estate figures prominently in the poem as the quintessential southern plantation: a haven of civilization in the midst of an inhospitable wilderness.[26] Ogilvie devoted several pages to describing the contents of Garden's well-stocked library as well as his garden, filled with remarkable plants indigenous to South Carolina as well as exotic flora from around the globe.[view text]

--Robyn Asleson

Texts

"I have met wt very Little new in the Botanic way unless Your acquaintance Bartram, who is what he is & whose acquaintance alone makes amends for other disappointments in that way.... One Day he Dragged me out of town & Entertain'd me so agreably with some Elevated Botanicall thoughts, on oaks, Firns, Rocks & c that I forgot I was hungry till we Landed in his house about four Miles from Town....

"His garden is a perfect portraiture of himself, here you meet wt a row of rare plants almost covered over wt weeds, here with a Beautiful 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 shewed me some of his rare plants, which he had brought from the Mountains &c. In a word he disdains to have a garden less than Pensylvania [sic] & 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."


Alexander Garden to Colden, Charles Town, February 18, 1755 Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

“It gives me great pleasure that you give me leave to send Miss Colden's Description of that new plant to any of my Correspondents as I had before sent it to D r Whytt at ….Its now passed the Season of Seeds but I'll endeavour to procure Such as Miss Colden may want this year, tho my present Business confines me much to Town. I have not had an hour to spend in the woods this 2 months which makes me turn rusty in Botany.


  • Collinson, Peter, September 15, 1760, to John Bartram (Bartram, 1992: 493-94) Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
"Horse Sugar seems to be the Ligustrium of Catesby among the Specimens are many Charming plants Could Garden send seeds of them—the fine Clematis with Blewish reflex’d Flowers grows Luxriously in my Garden as Does the Spice Tree which keeps flowering all the Summer & perfumes all the Garden cannot be more Vigorous in its own Climate... though hath brought many specious plants to Light— Gordon longs for them but cannot see how he can get them unless Docr Garden can help Him— pray recommend Gordon to Him— He will not prove ungratefull if the Docr will inform Him of his Wants in the Vegitable Way— Send his List to Him."
  • Garden, Alexander, October 25, 1760 to John Bartram (Bartram, 1992: 498) Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
“I have received two very kind letters from you since you left this place.... Ever since I saw you I have lived in a greater hurry than when I had the pleasure of your agreeable company. Often since our parting have I reflected with concern that I had then so little time to enjoy you.... Your plants in my Garden thrive surprisingly well & they are now ready for your Boxes— one or two are dead— As I met Lately with [James Lee [1715-1795] on Botany I bought two copies one of which I have sent you & beg you’ll accept of it.... Inclosed you have a letter from Mrs. [Deborah] Logan which has been with me some time for want of an opportunity."


  • Logan, Martha, February 20, 1761, letter to John Bartram (Bartram, 1992, 506)Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
“[list of bulbs] ...Horsenecks, the Last Named & a little Seed of Slips of the Tree you Call the Snowball is what I am particularly Desirous of & they are not to be had from England for I have sent for them In several of my Lists but Never got one. I find they Doe very well with us for Doctor Garden has a good many roots Now bluming."
  • Bartram, John, May 22, 1761, letter to Peter Collinson(Bartram, 1992, 517) Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
“Dr. Garden is so hurried as he knows plants well & where thay grow."
  • Garden, Alexander, February 23, 1761, letter to John Bartram (Bartram, 1992: 507-08)Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
“I received your kind letter with your present of apples & plants.... You made me very happy in the Newfoundland spruce, Hemlock, Fir & Kalmia, I wanted these very much & you gave me fine thriving plants. The others viz the Lavendar [sic], Sabina & Rhamnus with the Fraxinellas are all growing beautifully so that I expect to have great pleasure in them all Summer.

"I hope you may have like pleasure in those that I now send you I need not tell you to plant them out immediately & in a shady moist place— The Box is rather too full, but the reason is, my not choosing to remove the earth from the roots of the plants as they grew, so that earth taken up with them soon filled up the Box. Your four Umbrellas are all alive & very thriving as is the great magnolia.... [additional plants listed]

"How eminently happy are these hours which the humble & philosophic mind spends in investigating & Contemplating the inconceivable beautifies & mechanism of the works of nature....

"N.B. I should be much obliged to you for some Hyacinths, some Narcissus with the largest Nectariums—we call these Horsenecks. I have one or two Persian irises that blossom beautifully. If you could spare some more I should be glad of them or any other bulbous root—

"I have put on board a letter from Mrs. Logan with some seeds in it."
Garden, Alexander, June 17, 1761, letter to John Bartram (Bartram, 1992: 521)
“I admire your variety of pancratiums & rejoice in your happiness— The Loblolly Bay, Dard Pomegranete & yellow wood have perished & all but those I Sent you— I could not be Geureria when I sent the Box & my own had died in the winter, but I’ll try to get two or three plants this year— Pray remember to let me have some of your fine Bulbs especially Hyacinths, & the Daffodil with the large long pinched nectatium [sic] & whatever Else you please. Let me know your sons Duration & Address & I’ll send him some Pink root.

"This will be delivered to you by a Lady [unidentified] whom I have the honour to be acquainted with, & who has a very pretty taste for flowers & the culture of Curious plants. She intends to pay you a visit while she stays at Philadelphia & I take the liberty to beg your Civilities to her, not doubting but it will give you joy to see a Lady coming so far to view & Admire your Curiosities."
  • [[John Bartram|Bartram, John, November 8, 1761, letter to Collinson, (Bartram, 1992: 538)Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
“I have just received two fine Cargoes of fresh plants from South Carolina from two different Correspondents but dr Garden hath sent me nothing this fall but thanks in A letter to my son for A large parcel of bulbous roots I sent him he is so hurried in his practice that he can hardly go out of town but I am packing up A chest of Apples for him which I hope will make him speak by next spring."
  • [[Martha Logan|Logan, Martha, n.d. [summer 1761], letter to John Bartram, (Bartram, 1992, 523) Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content
“[list of plants she would like] P.S. When you Send or Wright to me againe be pleased to Direct for me to the Caire of John Logan Marchant in Charles Town. For Dr. Garden has so much business he has not time to Think of me, Wherefore your Letters have Some times Layen a good While & I never Known of them.”

Alexander Garden to Bartram, n.d. [February 15, 1762], Bartram, 1991, 548 “I have this moment finished a letter for your Sons [Isaac and Moses], for whom I have much esteem on your Acct. and likewise for their own merit; It will give me much pleasure to serve them in any thing that I can from this place & I hope our acquaintance will be of mutual advantage. By Capt Noarth I received your most obliging & very agreeable letter….Your observations are many valuable, curious & diverting I have read them over & over with much satisfaction & would [549] willingly enter upon a discussion of each particular if my Continual hurry of business permitted me to have a leisure hour, but alas my Dr Friend ever since I had the pleasure of seeing you here I have never been three miles from town since that time so that now Botany is quire neglected by me, but I rejoice to hear of the keenness & Ardor with which you daily advance in the Science & cultivate your mind & that Study…. Happy—thrice Happy are you whose comfortable easy & retired situation gives you this noble opportunity of exercising those faculties with which God has blessed you…. The time may come when I will follow with more care & quickness than my present situation will permit. .. I have sent you a small quantity of Rice which I hope you will please to accept of as some small acknowledgt [sic] of the many favours which I have received at your hand.

Lamboll to Bartram, Charles Town, November 11, 1763, Bartram, 1992, 614 “Docr: Garden is in a very dangerous and Critical State, with an Abcess in his Lungs, and intends to leave this Province soon, for his health….”

Lamboll to Bartram, Charles Town, May 1, 1765, Bartram, 1992, 649 “I suppose you have heard of Doctr. Garden’s Recovery”

Garden to Bartram, February 12, 1766, Bartram, 1992, 658 “I am here, confined to the sandy streets of Charleston, where the ox, where the ass, and where men as stupid as either, fill up the vacant space, while you range the green fields of Florida, where the bountiful hand of Nature has spread every beautiful and fair plant and flower, that can give food to animals, or pleasure to the spectator. “Pray, out of the abundance of what you see, send me some curiosities, particularly seeds for my garden. But let these be confined wholly to what is new and curious. Some young plants, in a box, would be very acceptable.”


Garden to Bartram, n.d. [c. 1766], Bartram, 1992, 658 Like previous letter, asking to hear what he’s up to


ALEXANDER GARDEN,—see “Patriot-Improvers” Garden and Ellis, working through the auspices of the Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufactures & Commerce (sometimes called the Royal Society 44of Arts)--founded by William Shipley in 1754 specifically to pursue practical knowledge in engineering and he mechanical arts, promote technological and agricultural innovation, and enlarge ngland's commercial empire--attempted to establish a provincial garden in South Carolina or horticultural experiments. (Garden's letters frequently criticized the narrow-minded hinking of planters who planted huge crops for the most profitable yield without considering long-term issues of production.)

Volmer, Stephanie, ‘Planting a New World: Letters and Languages of Transatlantic Botanical Exchange, 1733--1777’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, 2008), 41 view on Zotero>--


Bartram, John, March 14, 1756, to Dr. Alexander Garden, [27]

“I am obliged to thee for thy kindness to my son William. He longs to be with thee; but it is more for the sake of Botany, than Physic or Surgery, neither of which he seems to have any delight in. I have several books of both but can’t persuade him to read a page in either. Botany and drawing are his delight.”


  • Ogilvie, George, 1776, describing Alexander Garden's villa, Otranto, in Carolina; or, The Planter: Written in 1776 (1986: 67-76)[28]
"And lo! my friend, where all the muse demands,
"On Goose-creeks banks thy own Otranto stands!
"Where pleas'd and wond'ring as we thrid the maze,
"We doubt what beauty first demands our praise
"The river bounded by the impervious shade,
"The smooth green meadow, or the enamel'd glade,
"Where all the pride of Europe's florist yields

"To the assembled wildings of our fields....

"Here Pales seems with Flora to have strove,

"To blend the beauties of the lawn and grove....

Bright as the blush of Venus when she loves,
"Sweet as the woodbine of her Paphean groves...
"From tree to tree the flow'ry tindrils rove
"Till one continu'd garland binds the grove
"Winding through shady walks, we slow descend,

"To skirt the mead, or trace the river's bend...

"There midst the grove, with unassuming guise
"But rural neatness, see the mansion rise!...


  • Garden, Alexander, July 24, 1789, to George Ogilvie ("The Letters of George Ogilvie and Alexander Garden," 1986: 132-34)[29]
"A few unconnected remarks on the situation and productions of Otranto [and] the Reasources of Carolina are inclosed. Such of them as you can weave into a description of that once beautiful and roman tick spot, may show what a Carolina situation ornamentted with only the natural productions of the Country can arrive at when so laid out.— The magical deception of the winding of Streight walks was not the least ornament of the garden for while walking in the garden you saw no straight walk & yet when turning and walking along the Bank of the river you saw none but Streight walks & not one of these winding walks thro the meanders of which you had visited all parts of the Garden while in it. And what is it now— possessed by a Goth! It sickens my soul to think of it.

"Diversified grounds— Hill & Dale— A fine winding River— The opposite banks covered with tall primaeval trees with many a flourishing shrub making the most picturesque background.....

"The house on the top of the hill commanding a fine prospect of the adjacent grounds and many different views of the meanderings of the River— guarded on the West from the afternoon's sun by two large Liriodendrons or Tulip trees full of foliage and beautiful Blossoms during May June and part of July. Remember the large Liriodendron between the fish ponds rising eighty feet without a branch then spreading out into a large head having a large opening in the middle thro which the full moon about an hour high was seen from the Piazza of the house — Never was Cynthia seen so much to advantage before having not the simple fig leaf that Mother Eve resorted to but a full grown beard of tulip tree leaves and flowers. Had Endymion seen her thus arrayed what would he have said?

"Near the house is a rural Library overshaddowed with an Umbrageous Catalpa & Lofty magnolia under Cover of which the first Company of the world reside ...[Milton, Tasso, Ariosto, Gay, Voltaire, Horace, Theocritus, Thompson] Lineaus & Bufon accompany you to the Fields — Sir Issac & Cassini to the Celestial dance.....

"The gently hanging garden where Art only gives easy access to the Various inimitable productions of Nature....

"...Aromatick and flowering shrubs give a lovely glow to the gardens of Otranto that your cold bleak gardens of Albion can never see or produce....

"Fair Peaches— the Kennedy Peach when full ripe exceeding in richness and flavour any other fruit or what even fancy can suggest&mash; a taste the cold clime of Albion with all her art can never Emulate."

Images


References

Alexander Garden’s residence on Broad Street in Charleston

Notes

  1. Alexander Garden to __, quoted in Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, Dr. Alexander Garden of Charles Town (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1969), 10, view on Zotero;, 10,
  2. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (Edinburgh: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1921), 12: vii, ix; Berkeley, 1969, 15-20
  3. Garden to Charles Alston, February 18, 1756, quoted in Berkeley,1969, 24,
  4. Berkeley, 1969, 24-25, 27; see also Charles Alston, Index Plantarum, Præcipue Officinalium, Quæ, in Horto Medico Edinburgensis (Edinburgh: W. Sands, A. Brymer, A. Murray, and J. Cochran, 1740) and Francesco Eulaio Savastano, I Quattro libri delle cose botaniche del P. Francesco Eulalio Savastano,... colla traduzione in verso sciolto italiano di Giampetro Bergantini,... e colle annotazioni di esso autore ed altre aggiuntevi (Venice: P. Bassaglia, 1749).
  5. Berkeley, 1969, 29, 35-39, 185-86,
  6. Berkeley, 1969, 33,
  7. Berkeley, 1969, 35, 66,
  8. Berkeley, 1969, 54. Joyce D. Chaplin, “A Skeptical Newtonian in America,” David R. Brigham, “The Patronage of Natural History,” and Therese O’Malley, “Mark Catesby and the Culture of Gardens” in Amy R. Meyers and Margaret Beck Pritchard, eds., Empire's Nature: Mark Catesby's New World Vision (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1998), 77, 129-30, 151,
  9. Edmund Berkeley, "The History of the Naming of the Loblolly Bay," Journal of the History of Biology, 3 (Spring 1970): 149-54; Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 74-78, 113, 158-62; see also 114-19, 128-29 for Garden’s subsequent attempts to have a plant named Ellisia in Ellis’s honor,
  10. Alexander Garden to John Frederick Gronovius, March 15, 1755, quoted in Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 52-53; for Garden’s plant and seed exchanges, see also 54-61, 69, 71-73, 76, 86, 91-92, 96, 98, 99, 104-05, 133-35, 213, 348-52, .
  11. Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 90-91, 112,
  12. Sir James Edward Smith, “Introductory Discourse on the Rise and Progress of Natural History,” April 8, 1788, quoted in Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 329
  13. Raven, 2002, 73, 223, view on Zotero; Meroney, 1991, 52, 56, [view on Zotero; Hoffmann and Van Horne, 2004, xx,view on Zotero; Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 33, 35, 53, 42-46, view on Zotero.
  14. Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 43-45,
  15. The plant is now most commonly known as Virginia marsh-St. John's-wort (Triadenum virginicum). See Alexander Garden [and Jane Colden], "The Description of a New Plant; by Alexander Garden, Physician at Charleston in South Carolina," in Essays and Observations, Physical and Literary (Edinburgh: G. Hamilton and J. Balfour, 1756), 2: 1–5, view on Zotero; see also Colden, 1923, 5: 10, view on Zotero. Daniel J. Philippon, "Gender, Genius, and Genre: Women, Science, and Nature Writing in Early America," in Such News of the Land: U.S. Women Nature Writers, ed. Thomas S. Edwards and Elizabeth A. De Wolfe (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New Hampshire, 2001), 24-25, view on Zotero; James Edward Smith, A Selection of the Correspondence of Linnaeus, and Other Naturalists: From the Original Manuscripts, 2 vols. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821), 1: 366-67, view on Zotero; Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 53, 74, view on Zotero. Berkeley, 1969, 51-52, 69, 96
  16. Berkeley, Garden, 62-63
  17. Garden to Henry Baker, March 14, 1756, quoted in Berkeley, Garden, 89
  18. Bartram, 1992, 498, view on Zotero; Berkeley and Berkeley, 1969, 151-54, view on Zotero.
  19. Berkeley, Alexander, 154
  20. Berkeley, 1969, 153,
  21. Berkeley, Garden, 152,
  22. Garden to Bartram, February 13, 1761, Darlington Memorials, 395-96,
  23. Feeser, 2013, 101, view on Zotero; Ben Marsh, "Silk Hopes in Colonial South Carolina," Journal of South History, 78 (2012): 807–54 passim, view on Zotero; Ravenel, 1896, 102, 130-31, view on Zotero; Berkeley, 1969, 34, 155-56; see also 101-03, 119-21,
  24. Berkeley, Garden, p. 199l; Francis Harper, ed., "John Bartram’s 'Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida'," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. 33, pt. 1 (1942-44): 13-15,
  25. Berkeley and Berkelely, 1969, 251-52,
  26. [view text] David S. Shields, "George Ogilvie’s 'Carolina; Or, The Planter' (1776)," The Southern Literary Journal, 18 (1986): 13, view on Zotero.
  27. Berkeley, Garden, 86
  28. George Ogilvie, "George Ogilvie’s Narrative Poem 'Carolina; Or, the Planter (1790)," Southern Literary Journal, 18 (1986), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QSHZQ4DS view on Zotero.
  29. "The Letters of George Ogilvie and Alexander Garden," The Southern Literary Journal, 18 (1986): 117–34, view on Zotero.

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