Humphry Marshall

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Humphry Marshall

1722-1801

Nurseryman whose Arbustum Americanum: The American Grove (1785) was the earliest book of descriptive botany published by a native-born American author. Marshall's nursery, where he cultivated native and exotic plants obtained from others, became the main source of American plants for the European market after the death of his cousin John Bartram. Marshall also collected animal specimens for European naturalists and published his observations on sunspots.