With his lifelong devotion to plants, he developed it as a systematic collection, as he devoted more time to exploration and the discovery of new North American species and examples. His development both reflected and fostered Bartram's vital scientific achievements and important intellectual exchanges with other botanists. Although it was not the first botanic collection in North America, by the middle of the eighteenth century, Bartram's Garden contained the most varied collection of North American plants in the world. John Bartram also operated a lucrative business centered on the transatlantic transfer of plants.