man of science. For three years in succession, beginning with 1797, he was chosen to deliver the annual oration.
In his youth Dr. Barton had suffered the discomforts and hindrances of poverty and the persecutions of those who bore him ill will. But it was not many years before the income from his lectures and his books had lifted him above the influence of want.
Being prevented by his professional engagements from making explorations in search of plants and other objects of natural history, he employed others to collect for him, advancing his favorite sciences by this means. Frederick Pursh, in his Flora Americæ Septentrionalis (London, 1814), describes an excursion that he was enabled to take by the aid of Prof. Barton. Starting in the beginning of 1805, he went along the mountain chain of Virginia and the Carolinas, and returned through the coast lands, reaching Philadelphia late in the autumn. Similar assistance was extended to Thomas Nuttall, "whose zeal and services," to use the words of Dr. Barton, "have contributed essentially to extend our knowledge of the northwestern and western flora of North America, and to whom the work of Frederick Pursh is under infinite obligations." Pursh himself gives due credit for Nuttall's contributions. A genus of plants (resembling cactus), first described by them, was named Bartonia, in honor of "their mutual friend Dr. B, S. Barton." In a paper written by Dr. Barton, a few days before his death, he says of Nuttall:
"I became acquainted with this young Englishman in Philadelphia several years ago; and observing in him an ardent attachment to and some knowledge of botany, I omitted no opportunity of fostering his zeal, and of endeavoring to extend his knowledge. He had constant access to my house, and the benefit of my botanical books.
"In 1810 I proposed to Mr. Nuttall the undertaking of an expedition entirely at my own expense and under my immediate direction, to explore the botany, etc., of the northern and northwestern parts of the United States and the adjoining British territories." Dr. Barton further relates that Nuttall set out on this journey in April, 1810, but he deviated from the route which had been pointed out to him, having been prevailed upon to ascend the Missouri with other travelers, whose objects were principally traffic. Returning, he reached St. Louis in the autumn of 1811. "In the latter end of the year 1811, Mr. Nuttall returned to England by the way of New Orleans. Previously to his departure he transmitted to me a number of the dried specimens and seeds which he had collected." It was on this trip that Nuttall found two species of the genus that he named Bartonia, descriptions and specimens of which he furnished to his patron.
