Where do the plants in our garden come from? How did plants get from the heights of the Himalayan mountains, or the Appalachian mountains, to our cultivated gardens? It would be hard to count the number of plants in our gardens that were first seen by the intrepid explorers of the last three centuries. John Bartram (1699-1777) of Philadelphia was possibly the first American botanist and plant hunter. Bartram was a farmer with little formal education, but he was always interested in medicine and medicinal plants. In addition to his regular farm crops, he began keeping a garden of plants that he found interesting. From … 0