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MEMOIR

AND

CORRESPONDENCE

OF

THE LATE

SIR JAMES EDWARD SMITH, M.D.

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON;
MEMBER OF THE ACADEMIES OF
STOCKHOLM, UPSAL, TURIN, LISBON, PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, ETC, ETC.

THE IMPERIAL ACAD. NATURZ CURIOSORUM,
AND

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AT PARIS;

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 5

AND

PRESIDENT OF THE LINN AN SOCIETY.

Ge

EDITED
By LADY SMITH.

“‘ How delightful and how consolatory it is, among the disappointments aud
anxieties of life, to observe Science, like Virtue, retaining its relish to the last!’
Sketch of a Tour on the Continent, vol. ii. p. 60.

IN TWO VOLUMES. ri
VOL. II. BO

LONDON: 475

PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMAN,
PATERNOSTER ROW. os

1832.

Rc pi ai gta DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE
NSERVATOIRE BOTANIQUE DRE GENE
VENDU EN 1922 bes

— I

64
A3
VAPs
oy

I\ FEAL RICHARD TAYLOR,
' =f PRINTER 70 THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON,
-__ RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

CONTENTS.

VOL. II.
—<—

CHAPTER VII.
: Page
Correspondence of Edmund Davall, Esq.,—Sir James Edward
Smith,—and the Marchioness of Rockingham ;—and two Let-

ters from Professor Afzelius.........eece0% es airoce hota eteteter sie 1

CHAPTER VIII.

Miscellaneous Letters to Sir James Edward Smith, from 1797
_ to 1807 :—Mr. Voght.—Mrs, Charlotte Smith.—Mr. Voght.
—Professor Williamms—Mr. Johnes.—Sir Joseph Banks.—
Bishop of Winchester.—Mr. Brodie.—Rev. Mr. Abbot.—Dr.
Buchanan.—Rev. Mr. Talbot—From the same.—Sir Tho-
mas Frankland.—From the same.—Dr. Hedwig.—Mrs. John
Taylor.—J. E, Smith to M. Ventenat.—M. Ventenat—From
the same.—J. E. Smith to Dr. Hedwig.—Sir William East.—
M. Mirbel.—Duke of Bedford.— Mr. Johnes.—Professor Mar-
tyn.—Mr. D. Turner.—Mr. J. Lee.—Colonel Hardwicke.

I MRMANYE ics cae wie ateis'ss te weee ss stlee walWoal oer mttate 71
CHAPTER IX.
Correspondence of Andrew Caldwell, Esq. ;—and a few other
Letters relative to Ireland ...... met ois rain theta Saree’: ee 123
CHAPTER X.

Miscellaneous Letters from 1810 to 1816 :—Sir Thomas Frank-
land.—Mr. Walker.—Mr. W. Smith.—Dr. Waterhouse.—
Mrs. Cobbold.—Sir J. E. Smith.—-Mr. J. Lee.—I. A. Pavon.
—Dr. Bigelow.—Sir Joseph Banks.—Dr. Tenore-—Mr. Rep-
ton.—Rev. Mr. Walpole.—Baron Humboldt.—Professor De-
Candolle.—Duke of Bedford ....°......ccceccecsecs Hay oy 3

iV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.

Correspondence of the Abbé Joseph Corréa de Serra ........ 198

CHAPTER XII.

Miscellaneous Letters to and from Sir J. E. Smith, from 1817 to
1827.—Sir Thomas Gage.—Hon. DeWitt Clinton —Rev. R.
Walpole.—Sir J. E. Smith.—Dr. Wallich.—Sir T. Gage —

Sir T. G. Cullum.—Sir T. Frankland.— Panzer.—Rev. J.

Yates.—D. Turner, Esq.—Mr. Sinclair.—Professor Hooker.

—Bergsma.—Mr, Lambert.—Mr. Talbot .....seeeeeee- 235
CHAPTER XIII.

Correspondence of Mr. Roscoe and Sir J. E. Smith.......... 301

CHAPTER XIV.
Of the religious, social, and scientific Character of Sir J. E. Smith. 377

APPENDIX, i600 6:10 ethene tere promrei Wie lasplavatetatenanal stale eede, Shore eiete pean L

Ah

0 fia

MAY 9 1967

pia aes

NEW YORK
BOTANICAL
GARDEN
MEMOIR
CORRESPONDENCE
OF

SIR JAMES EDWARD SMITH.

CHAPTER VII.

Correspondence of Edmund Davall, E'sq.,—Sir James Ednard
Smith,—and the Marchioness of Rockingham ;—and two Letters
Jrom Professor Afzelius.

THE late Mr. Davall, of Orbe, was one whose
fondness for natural science led him to cultivate
an acquaintance with the subject of these pages,
which soon settled into a warm personal affection
on either side, and remained unimpaired through
their lives.

An Englishman by birth, he was destined by cir-
cumstances to reside in Switzerland: but although
he lived in a beautiful country, surrounded by ob-
jects most pleasing to him, yet he seems to suffer
the pangs of an exile whenever he writes to his
friend. The yearnings of desire to be among those
who assimilate in pursuits, in intellectual and moral
taste, cannot be more forcibly expressed than in the
NOL. II. B

2

observation,—that even the grand scenes of nature,
most precious in the estimation of pure and enthu-
siastic minds,—even these grow flat, stale and unpro-
fitable, without the presence of a congenial friend
to share in the enjoyments which they impart.

A sensibility which became morbid, affected his
tender spirits; and he experienced towards England
the true maladie du pays which the inhabitants of
his adopted country feel when long absent from
their native soil.

Mr. Davall had projected, and indeed made some
progress in, a work on the plants of Switzerland,
which he never completed. Ill-health, and a too
anxious care for its being faultless, retarded, and
finally stopped the publication of his accurate and
ingenious labours.

A love of botany was the ruling passion of his
mind, and was indeed but an effect of the adoration
he paid to the beauty of creation in all its forms.
Actuated by a pure love of nature, he was free from
the restless passions of ambition or fame:—but the
passions of others too often troubled his repose ;
and when he discovered the degrading traits of sus-
picion and reserve, where he reposed confidence, his
ingenuous spirit was vexed and grieved more than
it ought to have been, and he was led to charge
himself with misanthropy, when all he felt was
wounded love.

A little sketch of his history, which he had writ-
ten to his friend sometime about the year 1795, will
at once exhibit the sensitive disposition of this ex-
cellent man.

3

** Orbe, Canton de Berne, en Suisse.

“TI never yet remained so long without writing to
you, my dearest and best friend: you will not be
surprised at this, when I shall have explained the
cause of my silence. My health has been very
unsettled, as it too generally is—You know how
ardent is my love of plants. Among the various
contrarieties I have been obliged to bear, the want
of sufficient room for my books and herbarium, &c.
drove me froma very small study which I formerly
occupied, and to which I was confined, because a
contiguous room, which would have suited me, was
appropriated to a much more important use,—the
admittance of some card parties, when another room
more usually frequented could not suffice. I was
therefore obliged, during the latter part of the reign
of these accursed cards, to take refuge in a less
limited room on the ground-floor.—Not to be too
prolix, and to come to the point, I discovered last
summer, that in this position, from a certain degree
of damp, though not very great, my herbarium has
been in a great measure spoilt; a great number of
specimens are become mouldy, and among these
some of the most precious. __

“You will pardon me, surely, if I unload in some
degree my heart, by opening myself somewhat
further to you, who give me such kind proofs of
your friendship.

“Tt was just at the epoch of the death of my father
that I began to have some vague notion of botany;
that I perceived it was possible to acquire some
knowledge of that enchanting study, by means of

B2

'

4

solitary application. I had from my cradle a latent
germen, which unfortunately,—not having had the
happiness of reckoning among my early acquaint-
ance any one properly given to natural history,—had
waited for direction till] that moment. Having al-
ways been fond of gardening, I had bought Miller's
Calendar, and it was there I first saw a sketch of the
Linnean system. I was suddenly inspired; and at
this critical period resolved to pursue a study which
I was certain would be productive of better happi-
ness than any plan that might lead to pecuniary ad-
vantage. ’

“With my father I lost my home in my native
country ; for my mother, after this separation, was
earnestly desirous of finishing her days in the land
which gave her birth. Thus I became from the na-
ture of my circumstances exiled as it were to this
country.

“Qn myreturn here from my last visit to England,
—which is surely the most memorable and the hap-
piest period of my whole life, as it procured me not
only your acquaintance but also your inestimable
friendship, which I prefer to every other blessing
that Providence could grant me,—my ardour became
greater than ever; and for that very reason the per-
petual card parties in the house I inhabit, the never-
ending histories of Spadille and Manille of my good
old aunts, became more irksome to me than before.
I discontinued totally their soczétés, which I found
quite intolerable ; and the more so, as almost with-
outa single exception the society of this little place
is composed of that too numerous herd, who are

5

constantly desirous of killing time they know not
how to employ! and who express their esteem for
persons of a studious disposition by—a shrug.

“Thus recluse, and little thinking how soon every
one of these good women would be obliged to lay
aside her cards (the last died literally with cards in
her hands), I too often felt the want of a present
friend.

‘Having mentioned these several matters, which!
could not resist communicating to you, I shall for-
get them for a while to turn to other subjects ; ; for
I have two letters from you !!_unanswered! and
moreover I must talk a little botany, to convince
you that no circumstances whatever can divert me
totally from that delightful source of happiness, to
which I shall have recourse till my last breath.

“‘T have something to tell you which will give you
pleasure, affording a new proof how much certain
good discoveries in botany are casual, and the effect
of some happy moment.

“I went one day in August to my mountain Suchet.
In going up the fir woods at the side, I learnt by the
waving of the trees and the uncommon murmur,
where I am accustomed to delightful “horror ac si-
lentium” , that a strong wind had arisen. When I got
to the ridge with the intention of gaining the sum-
mit, I found the gale so strong, full against me from
the N.E., that after tying my handkerchief over my
hat and under my chin, every effort to get on was
useless ; when a leg was lifted, I was almost blown
back ;—you know by experience what is the power
of wind in such positions: I therefore declined it,

6

The mountain to the N.W. is very abrupt; yet wish-
ing to get to a somewhat less boisterous situation,
I looked out for the first break in the rocks where
it might be at all practicable to get down; and this
I executed, not indeed without some difficulty ;
though I had still more to make myself followed
by a boy, who carried my large vasculum, “parce-
quil n'y avoit point de sentier, et guil navoit pas
envie de casser le cou.” Here I proceeded slowly,
sometimes getting down a steep narrow pass, se-
curing my progress by laying hold of branches of
Crategus Chamemespilus! sometimes finding a nar-
row green place over the rocks, hence sliding myself
down a crevice just sufficient to receive the body,
to get at another shelf, &c. In one of the crevices,
for the first time in the Jura I had the happiness of
seeing Cyathea montana, in small quantity and so
much advanced that I brought home but one spe-
cimen; as the only one I had left was very poor,
having given my best to Dickson on my arrival in
England, and one, not very good, to you. So now I
have it in my reach, and, please God, you shall be
properly supplied with characteristic specimens as
soon as I can. It seems so rare, that I keep it to
myself, and shall not mention it till we are supplied.
In the name of Heaven reflect seriously, my dear-
est friend, that this mountain is so well within my
reach! that I go quietly and easily to the summit, up
one side and down the other, and get home by 7 or
8 p.m. Think you have a home, a good stock of
books, &c. within its reach, and tell me whether this
cannot once tempt you?—You might work at least

7

at English Botany, and make many notes useful
even for you here as in Marlborough-street. More-
over, by sleeping out one night I would make you
mow Saxifraga Hirculus, gather Carex leporina,
Linn., &c. When I think how possible, how easy
the execution of all this might be, I am almost out
of my senses for joy on thinking, hoping the time
will come,—as much dejected with the fear of my
passing to another world, before you can contrive
to come here.

“Orchis abortiva and coriophora are within a mo-
derate walk of my house!! But I have also the Alps
daily before my eyes, and I know what might be
done there. I wait for you, and then! !!—I wit re-
turn. Had I but the certainty of seeing this part of
my plan realized, I should bear with patience the
‘circumstances which render impossible a visit to my
native land.”

It was to Mr. Davall that Sir James was indebted
for an introduction to the Marchioness of Rock-
ingham, who continued her friendly attentions and
correspondence till her death in 1804. At her re-
sidence at Hillingdon he enjoyed many delightful
visits, and heard many anecdotes of her illustrious
husband.

The memory of this great statesman was che-
rished by her with a fondness that delighted in
speaking of him to those she esteemed, and in con-
necting some reminiscence of him with every pur-
suit of her life.

The following letter from her, though a little

$
anticipated, as its date will show, shall be inserted
first. It was written only two years before her

death; but the share the noble Marquis has in it
will excuse its being out of place.

The Marchioness of Rockingham to J. E. Smith.

Hillingdon House, May 21, 1802.

What shall I say to my good friend Dr. Smith,
who is always showing me attentions which I am
very unworthy of? But it is only seemzng; for Iam
in reality always much pleased and gratified by the
remembrance of those I esteem, though my unto-
ward health will not often allow me to express it;
and I am so little conscious of any neglect of the
mind, that without hesitation I will beg that, when
you come again to London, you will steal a day fronr
your business to let me see you at this place; for it is
a long time since I had that satisfaction. I had mis-
laid your letter, and have been hunting in my draw-
ers all day; I have at last found it, and inexpressi-
bly ashamed I am to see the date; and not only so,
but to see that that very letter of November is com-
plaining of my silence. I can only repeat the same,
—that my conscience stands clear of ever forgetting
a friend, or intentionally neglecting one: but lam
free to acknowledge that I may give way too much
to those incapacities that so frequently come upon
me, even in the slender exertion of writing a letter.
Poor Mr. Spragg would have said, OA! a nervous
affection; but my correspondents (I think) have
greater reason to say, a nervous dsatlection.—But

9

what is to be said now! for thus far I had wrote,
before this day brought me another very pleasing
mild letter from Dr.Smith, who might justly reprove
me sharply :—but I will stiil trust my cause to him-
self, who knows how journatere my health has long
been. You had congratulated me upon the blessing
of peace; and I thought when I received your first
letter, how soon I would answer it in the same sen-
timent, and say a great deal, the loss of which you
have no cause to lament. I believe nobody’s mind
composes more epistles than mine, for it is always
full of thoughts that I wish to utter to my particu-
lar friends; but they generally have the good luck
to escape them. As you are coming to London,
might I hope that you will let me see you before
you leave it again?

I do not know in what manner you celebrate your
Linnean anniversary; nor did I know the day of
the month till your letter mentioned it. How much
it would gratify me, if a certain name could be with-
out impropriety mentioned at that meeting! He
might truly be called a rising botanist of great pro-
mise; for his mind had the happiness of taking a
most comprehensive view of a subject at one glance,
which seemed to require ages of investigation. He
was a most attached disciple of Linneus : his col-
lection of plants and books was valuable and ele-
gant, as far as it had gone; and the 24¢h of May was
his birthday. I do think that my friend Dr. Smith
and (perhaps) Sir Joseph Banks would find a mo-
ment at their feast to drink a small bumper to the

10

memory of this true brother in their science; as
great a friend and encourager of science, and him-
self as near perfection in every line of life and cha-
racter as human nature ever admitted of.

You will excuse this sally of zeal upon my ob-,
serving that the 24¢h of May happened to be your
anniversary, and will not treat it with any attention
that may be inconvenient. It was an impulse of the
heart that I could not restrain.

My dear Sir, I have many thanks to offer (too
long postponed) for your kind present of excellent
dried fruit and biscuits; the latter are, I perceive,
recovering their peculiar taste and good quality—
which I will now venture to say were quite gone.
Those cruel times of real or pretended scarcity
ruined every sort of eatables where flour was con-
cerned; neither do I think that bread or any other
flour compositions have yet been in, nor perhaps
ever will return to, the same perfection as before.

The sermon you were so good as to send me is
excellent ; it must (as it were) have compelled a
large collection ;—in its address to the congrega-
tion*, I think it puts me in mind of something in
Saurin. I venture to pay in your own coin, by
sending you a sermon preached before many digni-
taries of the Church at a visitation, by a great friend
of mine, whom you have seen at Hillingdon, upon

* A Sermon preached at the Octagon Chapel, Norwich, August
30, 1801, for the Benefit of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital,
by the Rev. Pendlebury Houghton,—from the text: ‘“ I was sick,
and ye visited me.” Matth. ch. xxv. ver, 36.

11

a subject I think I may call the parent of yours, as
piety and sound doctrine must of course produce
charity and benevolence.
I have insensibly wrote two sheets of paper in-
_stead of one, and neither of them is very legible;
for my poor eyes are far from recovered of that
uneasy complaint in the lids:—reading or writing
always occasions an unpleasant sensation to the
eyes and across the forehead.
Dear Sir,
Your very sincere and obliged humble Servant,
M. RockincHaM.

This letter and the preceding passage from one
of Mr. Davall’s later epistles will serve as introduc-
tions to the following correspondence, beginning
sixteen years earlier than that of the Marchioness’s
here inserted.

The Marchioness of Rockingham to J. E, Smith.

Hillingdon House, Dec. 10, 1788.

The Portlandia flowers that I had the pleasure of
sending to Dr. Smith yesterday were, I hope, mode-
rately worthy of a place in an herbarium; but the
first was so little so, that I was quite unwilling to
send it. The evening coach yesterday brought me
your packet, and I am quite at a loss how to express
-my thankfulness for the extreme obliging attention
you have paid to my botanical library, in comple-
ting the works of Linnzus by so scarce a volume,
which I should have despaired of obtaining; but I

12

ain ashamed that you should have taken the trouble
of imitating the binding of my books. One out of
the actual Linnean library, though ever so old and
musty, would have been sufficiently valuable ; and
it is greatly enhanced by your politeness in sparing
it me. If any thing should happen to the remaining
duplicate, I must beg that you will without scruple
recall it back to its place. I am much obliged to
you for the ingenious little tract you have favoured
me with, and for the melon seeds. I shall be very
happy to receive the little plant, whenever it is pro-
per to be sent; and if you have any green-house or
stove where any of mine would be acceptable, they
will be extremely at your service.

My coming to town is always very precarious ;
but if I should come within a week or ten days, I
shall be very glad to see your valuable collections,
though with the most ignorant eye they ever were
viewed with.

I beg you will give my sincere compliments to
Mr. Davall, and assure him I am much concerned
to find he has lost a valuable beloved parent; he
does not mention how soon he shall be obliged to
leave England. I shall be very glad if I have the
opportunity of offering him my good wishes before
his departure.

I am, Sir,
Your very obliged humble Servant,
M. RockineHam.

13

«Mr. Davall to J. E.. Smith.

4 Orbe, May 5, 1789:
My dear Sir, Canton de Berne en Suisse.

For a considerable time past I had formed the
project of sitting down to write to you. A journey
to Berne, another to Lausanne, the illness and death
of one of my aunts with its consequent employ-
ments, together with the care of my garden, had
occasioned me to defer writing till I was most
agreeably awakened by your kind letter.

If I may conclude from the inexpressible satisfac-
tion and delight I experience at the sight of a letter
from you,—from the portion of my thoughts which
you occupy, from the anxiety concerning your
health,—you are of all other beings the one who
interests me most; and were botany quite out of
the question, I think I could say as much from the
high esteem your conversation and character have
created in me.

While I think of it, let me tell you, that of late
we have had flights of Ampelis garrulus; and that
the other day a friend sent me the Orzolus Galbula,
shot among twelve or fifteen. I examined an insect
yesterday, which I make Hiister guadrimaculatus.
Is this rare >—I have a specimen, at this moment
in press for you, of Ltzbes alpinum, &c. &c.

One of the most lovely plants of this country is
coming into flower in my little garden, the Astra-
galus monspessulanus.

N.B. I have seen an old book in German, the
title “Feuillée, Description of the Medicinal Plants

14

of Chili and Peru, 1709: 2nd edit. Nurnberg,
1756, by George Leonard Huth.” At vol. ii. p. 89.
tab. 47. is a plant named Zhelco; anne Fuchsia coc-
cinea?

Sowerby is an admirable man, as he unites great
excellence in engraving to considerable botanical
intelligence.

The Collector of the Convent of the Great St.
Bernard dined with us not long since, when I pro-
mised to go and see him in July, chiefly (on my
honour) for you, my good friend, in hopes of your
Lichen cucullatus ? a small bit of which I think is
in my Reynier’s herbarium as wne vareété developpée
de nivalis. .

May Heaven preserve you for those who love and
respect you, and for the improvement of botany !

Your devoted Friend,
KE. Dava.t.

J. EL. Smith to Mr. Davall.

My dear Sir, London, July 2, 1789.

I have so much to thank you for, and so many
things to say to you, that I know not where to
begin.—First, above all accept my thanks for your
very friendly expressions, and be assured, as our
excellent friend Dr. Goodenough says, “ that there
is no love lost between us.” Now indeed I feel the
value of botany, when it procures me such friends!
Now for your Jetter of May 5th. Hester guadrima-
culatus is excessively rare indeed; I have it, but
pray take all you can.

15

The Zhilco of Feuillée is quoted in Kew. Cat. for
Fuchsia coccinea. Iam not quite sure that it is the
same species.

How you profane the cards of your good aunts
to write botany upon them! What vile cards they
are! No. 15 is true Schenus ferrugineus, admira-
ble! Send! send! send! “The horseleech (saith the
Scripture) hath three daughters, crying Give! give!
give!” I am your horseleech.

I am going to lose Francois, for a time at least;
his mother and brother are dead, and his friends
want him; he longs to see home, but promises to
return. I shall certainly take him again, for I part
from him with great regret. He sets out for Milan
next week.

I go to Matlock this summer. At Kew the beau-
tiful Fuchsia is multiplied without end, and Lee has
plenty of it; it will soon be very common.

I wish I could come with Mandrot to see you: I

live in hope, and am
Yours,
J. E. Smiru.

The Marchioness of Rockingham to J. E.. Smith.

Hillingdon, Sept. 19, 1789.

I was in hopes that Dr. Smith would have reached
Wentworth before the great bustle of preparation
began, that he might have had a quiet view of that
charming place, and the many things worthy of in-
spection there; instead of which, I perceived from
your letter that your arrival was in the midst of

16

getting every thing in order for the Royal Guest,
and that your politeness hurried you so quick away,
that you seemed not to have even thought of the
plants,—which was a pity, for your road to Wake-
field being under the terrace wall, at the end of
which are the conservatory and green-houses, you
might have stepped in there without being in the
way at all (though perhaps Henderson the gardener
might be in a bustle like all the rest). I regret it
the more, because I should so much have liked your
account of the plants, which were all duplicates of
the collection at Wimbledon (which I have here) ;
and the finest plants were always sent to Went-
worth: however, I hope whenever you pass that
road again you will call and see all.

Without disfiguring the 4ralia I could not send
a specimen fine enough for a drawing ; therefore I
have ‘had Sowerby here, and have also set him to
make a drawing of a size he never did before, which
is both extravagant and perhaps ridiculous; but
really the plant has flowered in such magnitude,
and is so very beautiful an object, that I could not
resist having it done the size of life. Isend you in
the box one of the eight flowers, which are all at this
moment in full perfection, two rising rather higher
at the top, and the other six round them in the form
of an umbrella. It is what hitherto has been called
the Pancratium amboinensis, but I never had one
flower before in this immense dimension (though
very fine); the fragrance of it is prodigious, exactly
like the Cactus grandiflora. The circumference of
the umbrella which the Pancratium makes is a yard

17

and three quarters; and the bulb twelve inches and
a half. The leaves are not yet full out*.

My Portlandia and Catesbea have been flowering
a second time. Mr. Dryander plucked off the first
flower upon the AZartenea, which I perceive is likely
to get a new name. I am sorry there is not an-
other to send to you now, but there will be plenty

by your return.
I am, &c.

M. RockINGHAM.

Mr. Davall to J. E. Smith.

Orhe, Oct. 27, 1789.

I must begin as you have done, my best and
dearest friend :—I have so much to thank you for,
and so many things to say to you, that I know not
where to begin. Your friendly and most interest-
ing letter of July the 2nd, which accompanied the
parcel, by Mandrot’s strange management did not
arrive here till Friday evening, 23rd of October. He
had brought me the fruits you were so kind as to
send for Wyttenbach, the diplomas, &c., but had
sent the more interesting packet the roundabout
road with his merchandise. I delivered Van Ber-
chem’s diploma to him as I passed, at his house,
on my way to the Great St. Bernard. This person
gave me a complete farce on the occasion, which
would occupy too much space in this sheet:
thanked me, as the occasion of his being received !
and, such is the ridiculous vanity of the people of

* Probably a variety of P. caribbeum.—J. E. S.
VOL. II. Cc

18

this Pays de Vaud, the father having apparently mis-
conceived the account I gave him of the Institution,
boasted at dinner, in presence of fourteen persons,
that there were only four honorary members, and
that his son had been chosen as one! They suffered
no little avanie when I corrected the mistake, ob-
serving at the same time, that distinguished know-
ledge and rank united were essentially requisite.

I can hardly follow any method in the multipli-
city of things I have to say to you. JI sincerely
thank Dr. Goodenough as well as yourself for the
assurance that there is no love lost between you
and me :—nothing can make me so perfectly happy
as that assurance, nor anything more afflict me
than if the contrary were the case. I am very well
aware that to be on good terms with you is envia-
ble, that I am highly interested in cultivating your
good-will, that from your peculiar advantages and
knowledge, the common run of men should court
you; but, in the name of God, I can assure you
that, were botany quite out of the question, I know
not a man on earth whose friendship I so much de-
sire, nor whose sentiments harmonize so perfectly
with mine, as yours. I love you from my heart,
and know you well enough to be certain of a return.

I have just received a cabinet on the plan of yours.

Bravo! I like to hear of your superb works with
coloured plates,—and to be dedicated to the Mar-
chioness of Rockingham: it were almost neces-
sary, entre nous, to persuade her 4ralia to bear
some new kind of flower. But to be serious,—
has she been in town? Pray when you see her

19

present my compliments. Nothing can be more
unpleasant than the difficulty of speedy and safe
communication between this place and England. I
have a tolerable drawing, I may say a good one, of
Micropus erectus, but cannot find a conveyance to
England. I should have more frequent opportu-
nities were I at Jamaica.

You give me such longings in telling me the
New Holland seeds rise at Lee’s, that I am melan-
choly when I feel the impossibility of beholding
them. The peasants here have a proverb, “ Ox
la chévre est attachée il faut qvelle broute:” so I
must droute my neighbourmg Pyrolas, and not
think of New Holland fruits,—Proteas, Rous-
seas! Thouinias! Yet let me not depart this life
without being able to show a Smthia in my little
herbarium. La Chenal writes to nobody.

I have been looking out for your Lichen cucul-
latus ? and I believe have got it; yet I sought long,
and began to despair before I found the fructifica-
tion. :

Francois ought to pass here on his return to
England. I shall be very glad to see him; but it
would affect me to see him without his master, and
that must, and as Corporal Trim or some one says,
by G— shall come. I see my phrase is obscure,
but it will not be so to you.

God bless you! | Write if you can, were it but a
few lines, to give me new existence. I must work
at my garden while the weather permits.

Yours,
E. Dava.t.
C2

20

J. FE. Smith to Mr. Davall.

My dear Friend, London, Nov. 17, 1789.

I was really very near writing to you to know
what was become of you, when your most welcome
letter arrived. Many thanks for your kind ex-
pressions of regard, which I hope to be ever worthy
of, inasmuch as similar feelings for you may de-
serve them. But howis it that you tell me not
one word of your marriage? Could you think I
should not be interested in an event so important
to your happiness? Who is the lady? May she
be worthy of you, and, if possible, no enemy to
Flora !

Since you went away I am become very intimate
with your friend Forster, whom indeed I had long
known as a botanist, and now esteem highly as a
most amiable and sensible man. Your introducing
me to Lady Rockingham has been peculiarly for-
tunate, and I rejoice to owe such an advantage to
you. She is a worthy woman; and her sentiments
accord with mine in many things. She treats me
with peculiar affahility and attention, and some-
times consults me medically as well as botanically.

She has given me her six volumes of Hortus MZa-
labaricus, a very useful and magnificent present.
I go to Hillingdon on Wednesday, to present young
Jacquin to her.

I now begin to answer your letter .—Thank you
for your care of the diplomas, and Van Berchemian
anecdotes thereunto belonging !—how expressive !
The Linnean Society goes on admirably. We have

21

fixed on some papers for printing: Dryander has
given us a most excellent one on Begonias. When
will you send us something out of the abundance
of your discoveries ? I could wish to see your name
in the first volume. |

We had a very comfortable day at Lady Rock-
ingham’s, and came back late on Thursday. She
is to give Jacquin a fine drawing of her drata,
(which is really an Hedera,). by Sowerby.

The blunder of making your Gentzana a variety
of campestris is Linneus’s,in Mant. 2. All Mur-
rays are manual blunders; there is no zdea in the
case. I will write to Francois your kind invitation :
his return is at present. uncertain. I always-flatter
myself with the hopes of seeing you and Switzer-
land again.

Dickson has brought many things from Scotland.
We have got seeds from the East Indies of Smzthza,
and when they grow you shall have some.

Bring out your work, that I may publish a Da-
valha. Adieu, my dear friend: do not forget

Your ever affectionate

J. E. Smiru.

Mr. Davall to J. EF. Smith.

Orbe, Nov. 24, 1789.

I hope, my good friend, that you have long ere
this received the first part of this letter, sent to the
post on the 27th of October. I have an 4renaria;
—shall send you several of my best specimens, as it
is within my reach on the nearest mountain, Suchet,

22

mentioned often by Haller, ex. gr. under Stachys
alpina, Festuca decumbens, &c.

I have Sonchus canadensis on the same mountain,
which I call my mountain: a Ribes which I think
petraum, Jacq. ;—but you shaJl become acquainted
personally with my good friend Suchet, where I
have also found Hypericum dubium, Leers, in pro-
fusion. I could send you a thousand specimens, and
will send.

I fear that among Banksias, Fuchsias, Proteas,
and such heavenly plants, the poor Pofentzlas will
hardly find a place; yet you will not neglect even
an dora, if you could attend to the Chenopodium
which I wrote to you about. This is certainly an
handsome Potentlla. I shall say nothing of the
Arenarias, otherwise than that such a plant of Hal-
ler is such a plant of Linn. Herb. All my discri-
minating notes are for my private information:
the rest is yours by every reason, and by our agree-
ment:—moreover, my dear friend, no one is equal
to the task but you. Have you received the 4re-
narias of Piedmont? &c. I long to know how you
go on in that charming genus.

God bless you for your charming and precious
specimen of Diapensia lapponica, gathered by Lin-
neus. A piece of the Cross is less precious to a bigot
Catholic: it shall soon be framed and glazed. Aristo-
lochia Pistolochia gave me great pleasure. Lichens
will be treasures ; and Grasses,—Oh ! how I long
to understand them well; —the 4grosiis tribe, &c.

My paper is full, and I have not done; but I
cannot say on paper all I would say; I must not

23

take up too much of your time, nor write too often,
although my heart will, I fear, oblige me to re-
commence ere long. What will you say, when I
tell you I am married !—but it is to a person of the
best merit. She has so often heard me speak to
her of you, she has remarked the extreme pleasure
your letters give me, the readiness with which I sit
down to write to you rather than to any other per-
son, that she longs to see you as my best friend.
She desires her compliments, and invites you here
as cordially as myself.

I wish to send you some few trifles. I wish to
offer you some Chamouny honey. Pray did you
receive the chamois horns? I do not ask for
thanks, for I shall always be indebted to you.

Believe me, with the most affectionate and grate-

ful remembrance,
Your devoted Friend,

E. Dava.tu.

From the same.

My dear Friend, Orbe, Jan. 25—29, 1790.

I hope you received the continuation of my letter
of the 27th of October, dated 24th of November.
On the 7th of December I had the happiness of
receiving your delightful letter of November 17—24.
It is quite impossible to express the effect of your
letters on me ;—yet there is a passage in your last
that thoroughly dejected me, where (as you well
might say) after expressing your friendship, and
thanking me for mine, you add “ dwt how is it that

24

you tell me not one word of your marriage?” This
but has been to me as an accusation to the most con-
science-wounded criminal. I shall all my life regret
that you learnt this event from any other than my-
self; yet I might have assured you that the person
was no enemy to Flora. I was so dissatisfied with
my position, in a house with two good old aunts (for
one died since my return here), who have no other
ideas than those of that herd of silly beings called
gens du monde, eternal players of quadrille, in a place
where I find no reasonable creature to converse
with, that I yielded to the idea of uniting myself
to a young lady whose conversation I had always
found more agreeable than any other here, and
whose way of thinking agrees so well with mine.
She is a year older than myself; only daughter of
one of the best families in this country. Her name
was De Cottens. Her eldest brother, who is about
twenty-three, and not of age here till twenty-five, is
C. Lieut. in the Swiss Guards at the Hague :—the
other, Ensign and Aide Major in a Swiss regiment
in the King of Sardinia’s service. Butas the world
goes, I would rather have a wife of her disposition
and way of thinking, with little fortune, than a
worldly-minded girl with a great one. My wifeis so
much attached to you from my speaking of you to
her as my. best friend, and the person of all others I
most esteem and love, that she insists on learning to
dry plants to send to you, and often says, .....
“ Pressesle devenir ; faites lui mes complimens en Tl as-
surant que nous ferons tout ce qui est possible pour
rendre ce séjour agréable ; nous en aurons si grand

25

soin que je suis sure quil se trouvera bien avec nous.”
I answer, that must and shall be some time or other;
and if he will not come, I shall never die contented.

You make me very happy in what you say of
Lady Rockingham. I had wished she might have
the good thought of placing so judiciously her du-
plicate Hort. Mal. Pray, present my compliments
when you see her. I have so many things to say
that I hardly know where to begin, and shall be
obliged to scrawl a second sheet.

If young Jacquin is still in England, pray give
him my compliments, and tell him I expect he will
not forget me in his journey through this part of
the world. What a wretched figure his father has
given of 4renaria linifora in his second volume of
Collectanea!

Ican send you a most charming specimen in
fine preservation of one of the rarisseme plants of
Switzerland, gathered by me this last season on
Great St. Bernard, Stsymbrium tanacetifolium; but I
ought not to have asked you whether you want it.
—Pray tell me frankly as you should, and I know
you will, whether I may copy in the course of my
work, your text concerning Sonchus alpinus and
Stellaria dichotoma. If you do not wish it, you will
give me a new proof of friendship in saying No.
—Although I must now look to close ceconomy, I
long most irresistibly to ornament my study with
the plates of Limodorum Tankervillia, and Strelt-
zia, in colours ; and if Lee would permit Sowerby
to copy Miss Lee’s drawing of Protea mellifera, and
you direct the choice of some fourth rare and spe-

26

ciosa planta of which Sowerby might make me a
good drawing, all four in exact colouring, I would
live six months on bread and water to pay for them.
What with you, and the English gardens, I have
some cruel moments of maladie du pays. Your
letters and these drawings will be a temporary cure.
I could not exist under the idea of not returning to
England, but I certainly cannot during my aunt’s
life.

Jacq. Fl. dustr. gives as a true distinction of
Senecio sarracenicus and nemorensis, 8 radii in sar-
racen. and 5 in nemorens. Now all the plants I
have seen in Switzerland answer to Jacquin’s ne-
morens. which, according to Haller, is non satis
certa civis ; but Haller’s authority in the citation of
Linnzus is to me of little force. Do you find Jac-
quin’s observation good in the specimens of Herb.
Linn.? I have made no note on the radii. Iam more
aud more embarrassed with HHeracium alpinum,
and have several to communicate to you :—some
scapo nudo H. alp. Allion. non Linn. Herb. ;—an-
other with a narrow leaf on the upper part of the
stalk, somewhat like Lightfoot’s figure; and I almost
suspect that the pei take the rufous colour in the
dried specimens from age, as I have seen gradations
inthe Herbariums. As to the colour, I hardly dare
say anything of this plant,and would wish to leave it
to you, and will communicate what I have of speci-
mens. Ido not mean to say that the plant of Al-
lioni and many others be the a/pinmum: I think it is
not ;—but the other is much less frequent, which I
have gathered on the heights of Great St. Bernard,

27

and which I have from the Grimsel. I am the more
disposed to think the pz/i may take the rufous colour
from age, as the pubescence of the calyces in Trifo-
lium incarnatum becomes quite rufous in dried spe-
cimens, and as I observed no such colour in the re-
cent plant which I saw in La Chenal’s garden. There
isa Tussilago in your Linn. Herb. marked paradoxa?
J. E.S. conf. 7. spuria Retz. Obs. Bot. Fase. I.
p.29.Tab. 2. Forgive me: you know my intentions.
The Chenopodia are terrible. Inow find that what
Haller refers to, rwbrum Linn. (which I have not yet
found here) is murale. This is not uncommon, and
I did not see rwbrum even in Haller’s habitation,
the pays d’aigle, which is the seat of Chenopodia.

HowlI long to see your new coloured work!
You tell me I am good, because I have been in
search of your Lichen cucullatus. Remember, my
good friend, that all the little I can do to render you
service, is to me the most agreeable duty, and the
greatest pleasure I can know. I am dissatisfied in
not having in my power the hundredth part of what
I could wish to do. It is curious that Wyttenbach
should have given you Stellaria cerastoides for Ce-
rasttum alpinum. He sent it to me by the name of
Arenaria multicaulis. He should stick to his mi-
nerals. I have not yet Cerastium alpinum, how-
ever strange it may appear.

Your inestimable present of Diapensia lapponica
is framed and glazed, with your label, as your hand-
writing is to me a treasure. I have had two cases
made for my Herbarium, as yours are with a top
in pyramid, and Wedgwood’s medallion of Lin-

28

neusin the middle. But alas! my divisions are
not full, although they contain many excellent
things. I almost become ambitious, and would
wish to have in my herbarium other than Swiss
plants, although they must and shall be my princi-
pal object. I could wish to have plants that nei-
ther Wyttenbach, Haller, or La Chenal can produce.
—What will you think of me? I have thrown off
some of my moderate and humble ideas, and may
say as you tell me, ‘‘ You may thank yourself.” If
Ino longer think myself a cipher, may it not be,
that having left every path that might have led to
an amelioration of fortune, I wish to have an ade-
quate collection? adequate recompence ? When I
think of some nen, among whom I may in con-
science, without an atom of flattery, reckon J. E.
Smith, I hide my head ;—when I think of some
others, I draw aside the veil.

Adieu, my dear friend. Remember your most
affectionate and devoted

KE. DavaLu.

J. E. Smith to Mr. Davall.

My good Friend, London, March 9, 1790.

Your two delightful long letters were most ac-
ceptable, and have not been answered yet for that
very reason, for | have not been able to sit down to
answer them as they deserve, so have deferred it.
Nevertheless, I must thank you for them now, and
answer them fully when I can. Iam now in the

29

midst of my zoological and botanical lectures, which
I am obliged to compose every day before I deliver
them. I have a private pupil besides, who comes
to my house, (Lady Hume,) and Iam printing my
second fasciculus of cones inedite ; writing the
letter-press for Zcones picte (of which, by the by,
Lady Rockingham means to beg your acceptance
of acopy from her). Besides this, I have two or
three other works in hand. Judge then whether I
am busy or not! I indeed owe you a grudge for
suspecting I should not rejoice with all my heart at
your marriage, and quite forget botany itself in so
interesting an occurrence. I admire the principles
upon which you have made your choice ; they are
certainly the only ones upon which a wise man can
be happy. HowI long to know the lady! and
how much I think myself obliged to her for her
kind message! Tell her, a plant of her drying
shall meet with its due reverence; I shall even be
rejoiced to hear she adopts as an amusement your
favourite pursuit ; for certainly a similarity of tastes,
especially the more elegant ones, endears a com-
panion vastly to us. But I shall no less esteem
your lady, if I hear that the cares of a family (on
which I congratulate you on having a prospect)
should take her off even from botany.

You inquire about my old faithful servant Fran-
cois. He is come back, but was robbed on his way.
The Archduke of Milan has, however, been very
kind to him, and even sent him apresent. I hope
one day to have him as a botanical servant, as he is
above being a mere footman. Perhaps the time

30

will come, he may travel with me,—but these are
visions. This summer will probably determine
many things respecting me. In short, I rely on
the blessing of Providence which has hitherto been
most indulgent to me; and as long as I wish for
what is only really best, I cannot be materially un-
happy. Excuse this grave unbotanical letter. Re-
member me most respectfully to your lady. I will
write you a longer letter when I can. I am re-
markably well this fine winter,—no snow at all!
Yours,

J. E. Smita.

Mr. Davall to J. E.. Smith.

My good Friend, Orbe, March 23, 1790.

I last night received your most friendly letter of
the 9th, which gave me equal pleasure and equal
pain. Yet even the pain, from the degree in which
I felt it, and now do feel it, was to me a delight, as
a fresh and most convincing proof of my warm and
sincere attachment to you, and of your proportion-
ate return. Oh now I do indeed conceive most
forcibly, how much you might be dissatisfied with
my temporary silence. You might well, as you say,
owe me a grudge; but I can swear by all that is
sacred and dear to me, that, as it is the first, it shall
be the last. I had adopted the idea that I was not
doomed to enjoy that greatest object of my ambi-
tion, a warm and bosom friend; and I dare add,
that at the same time I felt within me all that was

31

proper for maintaining such a desirable connexion,
and you were above every other the person whose
attachment I had most desired. My wife, who of-
fers you her most friendly compliments, desires you
with me, never to forget that you have now a home
at Orbe. We join in entreating you not to refuse
us a favour we have to ask of you; which is, in
case our child comes safe into the world, that you
will be so good as to consent to be its godfather.
Nothing can make us more happy; and you may
safely consent in a moral point of view, as we shall
ourselves take care of its principles.

Adieu, my best friend, and believe me for my life

Your devoted and affectionate
K. Davatt.

P.S. Smithia sensitiva is framed and glazed in
my study, and I never enter without bowing to
Diapensia Lapponica!! These two are together
in the sacred corner between the bookcase which
contains Linneus’s works, and my (little as yet)
Herbarium.

Heaven preserve your health; and, as the ghost
of Hamlet says, “ Farewell,—remember me.”

J. EL. Smith to Mr. Davall.

My dear Friend, London, April 25, 1790,

Bring out your book as soon as possible, and by
all means call it Z//ustrationes Halleriane, or some
such title. I received your box by Lord Sinclair:

32

thanks for L. cucullatus. I have only one point to
answer in your last of the 23rd of March.

I feel deeply the proof of your affection in wish-
ing me to be godfather to your child ; but you shall
judge whether I ought, or not. I must be quite
open with you in this as in all things. I could not
conscientiously promise it. I have taken much
pains to settle my faith; and, thank God, it is set-
tled so as to make me very happy. I am no en-
thusiast: I look up to one God, and delight in
referring all my hopes and wishes to him. I con-
sider the doctrine and example of Christ as the
greatest blessing God has given us, and that his
character is the most perfect and lovely we ever
knew, except that of God himself. This is my
religion, and I hope it is not unsound. I have
found great good from it; and if not all the good I
ought, I feel it is my own fault. But to the point
in question. I think godfathers and godmothers
an unnecessary form, and even worse, as a religious
form that means nothing cannot be innocent. If
by it is meant only that I am to be attached nearer
to the child than any one except its parents, that I
may presume more to advise and study its happi-
ness,—very well; but ¢ha¢ I shall do without any
form orceremony. I had rather the ceremony, as
far as respects me, were dispensed with. But if you
and Mrs. Davall still persist in your desire, and
think it will in any manner attach me closer to you,
I submit.

Pray give my best respects and wishes to her.
May she soon be a happy mother! and may you

33.

ever be happy in each other! My next favourite
hope is to come and see you one day.—I long to
see Switzerland again, and you I must see; I like
to indulge cheerful hope. Thank God I have en-
joyed much, and hope to enjoy more ;—if not, His
will be done, and I shall not be the worse for hav-
ing hoped. Adieu!
Yours ever,

J. E. Smiru.

Mr. Davall to J. EF. Smith.

My dear Friend, Orbe, May 31, 1790.

My time has been so taken up, what with the
care of my garden and excursions to collect some
of the plants I wished to send you, that I find my-
self close to Mandrot’s departure.—Now for your
last invaluable letter: but I must first say, that I
told you in my letter of the 27th April, that I should
have a good opportunity of sending specimens. It
was by a most worthy man, and a very good friend
of mine, who was on his departure for England,
Mr. Schutz, the Queen’s equerry; he dined with me
ona Thursday, was to set off in ten days, was taken
suddenly ill four days after I saw him, and died. I
regret him most sincerely.

Nothing can be more perfectly open, sincere and
friendly, than your answer to my request of being
godfather to my child, if it comes well into this
world. I assure you, my good friend, although
Ihave been educated in the Church of England, I
consider the office of godfathers and godmothers

VOL. Il. D

34

as unnecessary ; as you will judge, that if I had not
thought that parents ought to attend to the care of
their children’s principles, I should not have asked
a person—for my misfortune far too distant from
me, to fill this ceremony. I wished that my child
might have you for his friend, and I am certain that
it will be so. I may safely say that the reasoning
you make use of is in such perfect concord with
good sense, that if I were obliged to make a formal
declaration of my ideas, they would agree very well
with yours ; and I would readily infuse them into my
child. My devotion is mostly private, though I fre-
quent the church here, and I believe I may any one
that is Protestant, without any great impropriety.

I at no time feel myself so deeply penetrated with
veneration for the Divinity as in the contemplation
of his works, and hope that the tears of delight and
adoration which often escape me in my herboriza-
tions, and in examining the wonderful structure and
providence so striking in every object, are as ac-
ceptable to Him, and as fit to secure me His bless-
ing, as my prayers; and indeed I experience now,
with gratitude, more happiness than I could ever
have hoped.

May Heaven preserve you, my best friend, for
botany and me! You are and ever will be the first
object of my prayer. My wife and aunts desire their
compliments.

Your devoted and most affectionate,

E. DaAvALt,

35

J. FE. Smith to Mr. Davall.

My dear Friend, London, July 11, 1790.

Nothing could be more unlucky than my being
out of town when Mr. Mandrot called. Accept:
my most hearty thanks for your letter; you and I
can never differ much, I believe, even in opinion. I
should not have obtruded religious matters on you
had I not been obliged, but now am glad I did so.
We can never go far wrong with such principles as
yours. May the God whom we sincerely endeavour
to adore as we ought, bring your child safe into the
world, and preserve its mother !

July 14.—I have now got your inestimable packet,
my dear friend, and know not how to find words to
thank you for it. The views* delight me above all;
I cannot cease from looking at them. How kind
and attentive you are to what may give me plea-
sure! Your harvest on Mount Suchet was very
rich.

Now, my dear friend, let me exhort you not to
lose any time, but bring out your work directly.
You must not wait to make it anything like com-
plete. There is no end of that.

I will now confess to you a fault I have been
guilty of, as I ought not “to dissemble or cloke be-
fore you”. I distributed the seeds you sent among
Fairbairn, Dickson, Lee, Curtis, and Goodenough;
from some carelessness I gave none to Aiton. Will
you pardon me for this, and send anything you
please to make my peace with him ;—I shall mind

* of Switzerland ; published by Aberli.
D2

36

no expense, and will deliver them directly. Pray be
not angry, and write soon to your ever affectionate
friend,

J. E. Smiru.

J. E. Smith to his Mother.

Honoured Madam, August 30, 1790.

Yesterday Dr. Younge andI set off for Went-
worth House, where we were received with all kind-
ness and attention. Lord Fitzwilliam was to have
been at York races, but was not well enough to go;
so we dined alone, and afterwards went to the new
mausoleum erected for the Marquis of Rockingham,
which is very elegant and grand: saw the gardens,
&c. We were attended by the chaplain and steward,
two old servants of Lord and Lady Rockingham’s,
who thought they could not do enough for me as
her friend. Indeed it was pleasing to see how many
old servants and workmen gathered about me, ma-
king inquiries concerning her, and sending their
duty to their old mistress. Lord Fitzwilliam being
better in the afternoon, we drank tea with him; and
little Lord Milton, whe is not five years old, brought
me all the botanical books he could find, and told
me the Linnean names of some plants I had just
brought out of the garden; he was very loth to
leave me to go to-bed. We went to prayers in the
evening in the chapel.—Next day after breakfast
saw the house at our leisure.

Lord and Lady Harewood are at Scarborough,

so I shall not have an opportunity of going to see
them.
I am in great haste, as a messenger waits for my

letter. Adieu!
J. E. Smiru.

J. E. Smith to Mrs. Davall.

Madame, Londres, ce 28 Sept. 1790.

Quoique je ne scaurois que regretter Vaccident
qui m’a procuré l’honneur de recevoir une lettre si
flatteuse et si intéressante de votre part, permettez
mGi, puisque le mal s’est passé, de me féliciter d’avoir
mérité de quelque maniére que ce soit les sentiments
que vous avez pour moi. C’est avec joie que je vous
félicite aussi du rétablissement (parfait j’ose espérer
a present) de votre estimable et digne époux, dont
Yamitié m’est sichére. Je l’ai conjuré de ne pas ex-
poser sa santé ade nouveaux dangers, mais c'est a
vous de le faire obeir 4 nos souhaits. J’espere qu'il
s’occupera un peu de sa jeune fille par préférence ; je
craindrois presque si vous lui présentiez plusieurs
de cette espéece de jolies fleurs, que celles dont il s’est
occupé avec tant d@empressement jusquici ne soient
negligées. J’en serai un peu jaloux.

Adieu, Madame: continuez de faire le bonheur de
mon ami et de tous ceux qui vous connoissent, et
noubliez pas que vous avez des amis sincéres 1cl
qui vous souhaitent toute la felicité que vous méri-

tez si bien.
Je suis toujours, Madame,
Votre trés humble et trés obéissant Serviteur,

J. E. Smiru.

38

Mr. Davall to J. EB. Smith.

My very dear Friend, Orbe, Feb. 11, 1791.

How can I ever acknowledge your goodness, and
I may say your preferable attention and favour, to
me, in giving up so much of your precious time to
me and to the settling of my doubts; in truth, will
it not be to you to whom students will be obliged,
if my work contains any thing good? I am, God
knows, as grateful as any man possessed of a heart
uncorrupted and capable of the warmest attachment
can be ;—but this is nearly all I have to offer you.
May I never hope the blessing of Providence, if
ever you discover a friend more cordial and sincere!
I hardly think but of you, and, together with my
best female friend and my little girl, I exist but for
and through you.

The weather has been mild of late; the snow has
melted; we have had rain, and what they properly
call here “wn hiver pourrz”: at a time when | ought
to work assiduously at the execution of my delayed
plan, I have had /ongzngs and longings like those
of a pregnant woman, to ramble after Lichens. I
have been but once; hereafter I must ramble. Ha-
ving observed t’other day a charming Lichen on a
rock, which I could not well detach, as the weather
was dry, I returned yesterday under favour of a Lit-
tle rain, which procured me a good scolding from
my good old aunts, and some little reprimand from
my wife; but I was soon consolé, as I believe my
Lichen may be worth your attention. There is one

39

specimen remarkably fine; ¢hzs naturally is destined
for J. E.S.

Iam almost sure my plant is Psora testacea (Li-
chen testaceus) Hoffman, Plante Lichenose. Tell
me whether you have it, and whether it be not good,
that I may not have been brought to task for no-
thing. Obs. Ido not find this plant in Haller ;—if
so, it will be another addition to FY. Helv. It seems
to have affinity to your gypsaceus, but mine has fine
red ¢ubercula. N.B. One time or other, when
you are at Sir J. Banks’s without much to do, read
Saussure, Voyages dans les Alpes, vol. i. p. 465.
chap. xlv. Glacier de laValsorey, which is very good.
You will then see for a moment the spot where I ga-
thered Gentiana tenella.

I crossed the glacier, and looked into the Gou#lle
a Vassu.

To return to what I was talking of :—You see,
my dearest friend, that, from the non-execution of
my plan, I appear irresolute,—slow,—and I know
not what; my disordered healthis very much against
me, not less so the indispensable care of my garden,
and the absolute impossibility of resisting the de-
lightful verdure that surrounds me during the good
season, and which I have here under every form of
wood, marsh, pasture, corn-fields, mountains ;—and
how are they to be resisted? Let me hereafter do
all the little I can, by excursions and the aid of my
garden, to be of use to you. Let me be as it were
a part, an unworthy part, of yourself; and let every
step, every remark be subservient to your use. This
is my ambition and my warmest desire as long as

40

I exist in this world. If Iam called on to bid adieu
to my wife, to plants, and to you, let my books and
my plants be admitted to your use. Preserve them
in memory of a true and cordial friend, who dying
with this assurance will be happier even in Paradise.

English Botany pleases me much. The motto is
admirable, and the more so as original. Adieu, my
good friend! May Heaven preserve you, and con-

tinue your health!
Your very affectionate,

E. DavALL.

Mr. Davall to J. FE. Smith.

Orbe, April 30, 1791.

Having learnt, my very dear friend, that a voitu-
rier of my neighbourhood sets off on Monday, and
hoping him more honest than his brethren, I ea-
gerly embrace the opportunity of writing a few lines
in haste, which accompany a little barrel of Cha-
mouny honey, that I wish you to taste. The bees
who have made it feed chiefly on Pinus Lariz.

The Anemone sylvestris, which Curtis’s Magazine
says often becomes troublesome in gardens, is, alas!
one of the greatest desiderata in mine.—Pray let it
be Potamogeton obtusum. If you knew me sufhi-
ciently well, my good friend, you would have di-
rected it so without even consulting me, who wish
for nothing so much as to be guided in all matters
by you, and whose highest ambition is (however un-
worthy perhaps) to exist as your and the Linnean
Society’s delegate in this country. All my views

41

tend thither; hence, after my own private and de-
solate enjoyment, every excursion—each solitary
climbing of the mountains—the source of new
vigour, when sitting to recover my breath at the
foot of some black fir in dismal woods, where the
woodpecker is the only being who salutes me. Had
I never known you, I should have wanted the energy
which has brought my garden to what it already is,
and what more I hope. it will be.- To divert my
thoughts I have taken a turn in that part of my
garden which I arrogantly name the dps. Iberis
rotundifol. ¥.; Viola biflora ¥.; Laserpitium simplex
coming to F.; Ranunculus Thora in bud; Ranun-
culus rutefolius and parnassifol. with leaves in true
Alpine vigour, not garden luxuriance; Turritis ce-
rulea—all coming to flower ; LHeeracium alpinum,
H.L.; Merac. montanum, formerly Hypocheris pon-
tana; Phaca alpina, frigida and australis, in tolera-
ble condition ; Phellandrium Mutellina coming out
of the ground. What say youto this? Is it not
worthy of you? Yet nothing pleases me so much as
Thlaspi alpestre, (which is marked J. E. S. Mat-
lock,) and Astragalus leucopheus, Smith,—both in
flower, and both from you.

My little girl has two teethMay Heaven pre-
serve and give you every blessing!

E. Dava.u.

J. E. Smith to Mr. Davall.

London, July 1791.

I thank you for your honey, which is an emblem
and a proof of your friendship. I shall “eat it
in remembrance of you.” The honest voiturier
charged nothing.

No. 50. Polypodium montanum, Allioni. THank
you. I must have the two words printed, as they
are what you have decreed; if I trust to my pen, it
will unavoidably transgress.

29. This I found at Vaucluse in wet places. ’Tis
quite new, and so thinks Dickson. Suppose we
call it fastigzatus, if there be no such name already ;
it is so like Fucus fastigiatus in miniature.

42. chrysoleucus, J. E.S. Act. Linn. vol. i. 82.
t. 4. f. 5. imbricatus, foliolis lobatis obtusis: supra
pallide sulphureis ; subtus atro-viridibus, scutellis
aureis, from Mount Cenis. It certainly is not um-
bilicated, though your specimen looks a little so.
But we must advert to the habit and scutelle.

43. encaustus, J.E.S. ibid. 82. t. 4. f. 6. embri-
catus, foliolis inearibus dichotomis: supra albis ni-
tidis ; subtus nigris opacis, scutellis badius. Montan-
vert near Chamonix.

These, my dear friend, I look upon as two of
the most original and interesting of my discoveries,
being guzte unknown and undescribed. Add to
these No. 29. and LZ. cucullatus, and reflect how
much better you and J search for plants, than any-
body else: but let us not be too vain. Compari-
son with you may be in danger of making me so;

43

for, without a compliment, you are more accurate
than almost anybody I ever knew. But what shall
I say to your most precious black and gold Lichen
in the round box! It never blest my eyes before.
How like geographicus, and yet how distinct! It
must come among the zmbricatz. What think you
of chrysomelanos for a name? But I would not
dictate, as it is yours alone!

I have inquired about you from Madame Combe,
who is so good as to indulge me with talking about
you. She draws me a charming picture, which
must be true, of your happiness. Your little girl is
“jolie comme un ceur, mais petite ; et les tantes st
bonnes ! et si heureuses! et toute la famille st heu-
reuse!” Tant mieux, thought I; cards then and bo-
tany are come to a treaty of peace, of which I guess
the chere Gpouse is the connecting link ; and if so, it
is best of all. Mademoiselle Combe says you have
played at quadrille this last winter: even J play at
whist. I hope we shall be rewarded !

How I long to see the first sheet of your work !
Your gold and black Lichen Hudson and Dickson
are positive is geographicus. They say it is altered
by growing on earth, not stones. May be so; it is
very like it.

As I send so few playthings to papa, I must send
one for the jole petite ; so pray teach her my name
when she can speak, that she may learn to sound
the ¢h early. The two tinkling bells may serve to
promote exercise and trying to walk; and I send
two, that there may be one in store when the other
is broken, which I presume may soon happen.

44

Nymphaea Nelumbo has heen in flower at Bulstrode
lately (the first time in Europe). It is a new genus,
and is to be called Portlandia, as I must make the
old one a Catesbhea.

Adieu, my kind and excellent friend!

Believe me ever yours most trul
>]

J. E. Smiru.

Mr. Davall to J. EF. Smith.

Orbe, July 22, 1791.

Flaction delivered to me your parcel containing
your very charming Sprclegzum Botanicum ; and
just now your letter, and parcel of plants with true
Arenaria saxatilis! and Acrostichum Marante!
But, my best friend, all these precious and most ex-
cellent gifts have found me and the incomparable
(I may well say) partner of my cares in the most
cruel and heartfelt affliction. We had just then
been separated from our beloved child, to whom
we were dotingly attached. She had enjoyed bet-
ter health than the greater number of us experi-
ence at so tender an age; had successively (per-
haps too precipitately) cut six teeth, without any
convulsions. She was to all appearance so well, so °
strong, that we began to hope she might pass safely
over the critical period of teething. It is true, we
were frequently alarmed, perhaps from a sort of
superstitious terror, at what was surely unnatural
intelligence in a child who had not completed the

45

eleventh month. She was to all appearance per-
fectly well on the third of this month,—in good
spirits,—slept well for nine hours on that night.
Early on the morning of tne fourth she was seized
with a heaviness, looked pale, and could not keep
up her head. We called in our physician, and sent
an express eight miles off for another who is much
esteemed here in the treatment of young children.
They administered some remedies,—applied blis-
ters to her legs: she appeared somewhat better for
an hour, looked up to her mother and me when
we spoke to her. In the night she grew worse,
was seized with convulsions ; and about nine o’clock
the next morning the dear little angel expired. No
mother, I believe, has ever shown more assiduous
care from the moment of her child’s birth. So
constant has her attention been, day and night,
that her own health is much affected by the fatigue
attending the tender care of her beloved offspring.
Her affliction is so great, so deep,—and not ex-
pressed, asless serious grief, by tears,—that Iam now
anxious for her. I have already taken her, endea-
vouring to divert her thoughts, to spend a week at
a friend’s at some distance ; and in a few days we
undertake a journey wholly for the same purpose.
I shall take her to Basle, where she has never been,
and we shall stay a few days with La Chenal.

You will readily pardon me, my dearest and very
best friend, if I have entered too minutely on a sub-
ject which has dejected me beyond all expression.
My fondness for my child was excessive,—by many
it would be called unmanly; but I have always been

46

too susceptible of attachments. So I feared I had
been towards you, my worthy friend, during my
last visit to my native land. After having seen you
repeatedly,—after having perceived, which I pre-
sently did, that you were the man who by charac-
ter, conformity of mind, and every other reason,
was formed as the resting-place of my best friend-
ship,—had I not experienced on my return here
such marks of reciprocal good-will, as are greater
far than I had any reason or hope to expect, I
should now be, as it were, annihilated: I should
be the most surly misanthrope on earth.

I had known many disappointments, and was
too much disposed to feel them. Botany, which
now and ever is the chief “ balm of my hurt mind,”
would have been abandoned: I had been an use-
less burthen on the earth. Now, through you, I
may be not an useless member of society. Is it fit,
and dare I recall to your memory here, that “ Full
many a flower is born to blush unseen; and waste
its sweetness on the desert air” ?

In the circumstances which now oppress me, I
have often thought it would be a satisfaction to me
if you had seen my child. If she had smiled on
you, as she did daily on us ;—if she had stretched
forth her little arm to you, you would then at least
be better able to conceive our affliction, which, in
my calmer moments, I readily allow to be perfect
egotism, as she is surely more happy than she could
have been with us. My wife and myself were ex-
tremely pleased (though with a mixture of cruel
emotion) at all the kind attentions you have shown

47
to our beloved child. We shall keep the play-
things, when they come,with the greatest care, and
shall frequently visit them with sentiments of the
kindest nature for you, and resignation to the will
of Providence.
My wife joins me in kindest regards.
Yours ever most affectionately,

E. DaAvALL.

J. E. Smith to Mr. Davall.

London, Sept. 3, 1791.

I should not have deferred a moment, my very
dear friend, answering your last letter, had I been
in town when it came, and had I been sure of my
answer meeting you at home, which this probably
will. I cannot express how much I feel for your
great and sudden affliction. As much as one who
is not a father can enter into your affliction, I do;
for you will do me the justice to think I am not
deficient in the feelings of a friend. It was surely
a very strange and sudden illness that deprived you
of your dear little girl; and from your account it
was independent of teething, and rather some very
violent fever, for which there could be no help from
the beginning. Iam anxious to hear how Mrs.
Davall bears her distress. It must go hard with
her. But youare happy in each other, and have
nothing to reproach yourselves with. ‘ The Lord
gave, and’tis he that hath taken away;” and he will,

48

I trust, send you manv blessings to supply the place
of that you have lost. I cannot help sending youa
few lines from memory, part of an epitaph on four
children, who died of the plague about 150 years
ago. They are engraved on a monument in a field
somewhere in England. The style is not perfect,
but the sentiments very affecting :—

“Good and Great God, to thee we do resign
Our four sweet sons, for they were chiefly thine ;
And, Lord, we were not worthy of the name
To be the sons of faithful Abraham,
If we had not been willing for thy sake
To yield our all,—as he his son Isa-ac!”

I regret much that I may have innocently added to
your affliction by the toys I sent, and yet I think
they will (after a time) not have that effect.

Cannot you visit England once more? I have
many reasons to wish you could. My connections
are now much increased, and I could procure you
more amusement than when you were here before.
We would visit the good Marchioness of Rocking-
ham, with whom I am now quite intimate ; and I
assure you she is a most excellent character. How
often do I wish for you when I am there!

I have also made an acquaintance I like very
much in Sir Abraham and Lady Hume, a charming
family indeed. I have just been ten days at their
house in Hertfordshire. I spent two days at Bul-
strode lately, and was very kindly treated. All these
places, and others, we will one day visit together ;
but we must not confine ourselves to grandees. I
have one family with whom I must make you ac-

49

quainted, though alas! embarrassed, and in some re-
spects unhappy, but of most amiable, accomplished,
elegant and feeling minds.—Come then, and let us
be happy together in pleasures which Heaven itself
must contemplate with complacence, and whose very
disappointments are more delightful than what nine
tenths of the world so fondly pursue.—I have almost
filled my sheet without a word of botany !

Adieu! God bless and comfort you both, says
your ever affectionate

J. EK. Smiru.

The Marchioness of Rockingham to J. E. Smith.

Hillingdon House, March 10, 1792.

I was extremely glad to receive Dr. Smith’s let-
ter, but I must lament the not seeing him and Mr.
Afzelius at Hillingdon, before the latter departs for
Sierra Leone.

There is something in the countenance and
manner of that little man that shows a goodness
which interests very much one’s good wishes ; and
I sincerely hope he will find both advantage and
satisfaction in his botanical researches in this new
settlement. I have heard Governor Wentworth
mention it, and shall ask him on Sunday the parti-
culars of the botanizing arrangements there. May
I beg the favour of you to pay my debts to Mr. Af-
zelius for those works of Thunberg’s. Might I also
ask you to present ten guineas to Mr. Afzelius to
purchase some trifle of botanical use, as a remem-
brance of Hillingdon.

VOL. II. E

50

How can I have been so long before I have con-
gratulated upon all the honours and glories that are
surrounding Dr. Smith! My letter ought to have
begun with a proper homage upon the occasion:
perhaps even this note may have to follow him into
my royal neighbourhood; but if not, I hope in Marl-
borough-street he may condescend to eat a couple
of pines which accompany my note.

Thope the travellers have not yet left you. I think
you are very good to give up your Francois, but I
think he should be a little sorry to leave you.

Your sincere, &c.
M. RockincHaM.

Mr. Davall to J. E. Smith.

Orbe, Oct. 12, 1792.

For several days past, my very dear friend, I have
been intending to write to you for my comfort and
my mind’s ease. I have waited in hopes of telling
you I have received the delightful books I owe to
your friendship ;—they at last arrived the evening
of the day before yesterday, having been obliged to
take a great detour in Germany to avoid the armies,
keke:

Receive my best thanks for your continuation of
the lovely and most interesting Spzcilegium, which
during the whole of yesterday was “balm to my hurt
mind”, as also your inimitable, and xe plus ultra,
Icones picte.

I must at present, to my great regret, lay aside
botany during the rest of this letter, and I shall cer-

51

tainly derive strength from discharging my mind
with the person of all others I most love, and in
whom I have the greatest confidence. If I expe-
rience great uneasiness and some degree of melan-
choly from what I am going to relate, I no doubt
must attribute it in a great measure to the sad state
of my health ever since my last serious illness.

I have often returned my warmest thanks to Pro-
vidence for the state in which I am placed,—able to
pursue the study which, with your friendship and
the attachment of my wife, are the three great and
only objects which make me value my existence. I
hoped ever to enjoy these blessings in peace and
security; yet God only knows whether I shall be
in that state when you receive this. You probably
know that our restless neighbours are in possession
of the greater part of Savoy. The Genevans, seeing
them at their gates and fearing the same lot, have
called on their allies the Swiss for succour; near
2000 Swiss, or rather 2140, (1500 of Berne and 640
of Zuric,) have entered Geneva. The French resident
remonstrated against this admission, and has left
Geneva, leaving a letter, in which he says “the ad-
mission of the Swiss cannot be considered by the
French but as a coalition with the other powers
against Liberty!” The end of this letter is a direct
declaration of war. There are a great number of
French close to Geneva, with artillery for a siege,
&e. &c.; and it is expected they will shortly begin
firing on that place. The Swiss march in every di-
rection towards the frontiers of our French neigh-
bours, and are admirably well disposed to receive

E 2

52

them. If really they do attack this country, there
will certainly be bloody work, unless the French
show their heels, as they sometimes do, at a first
onset. Iam close to the frontiers (at about seven
miles). Now to speak openly, all my uneasiness at
this moment arises from my having a wife to whom
I am much attached: were it not for this, and see-
ing my books, my herbarium, my hearth, and every
thing at stake, I should not hesitate one moment to
make one among the number, shoulder a musket if
necessary,and be cut to pieces (if Heaven would have
it so), with the hope of cutting down a wretch or two
in the fields, where I am accustomed to lock for
plants and think of you; rather than see my books
and plants burnt, and be quietly carved to pieces in
my study. As things are, come what come may, I
shall not stir from hence. These French in fact, as
noxious insects, are only to be feared from their
immense numbers. Nothing can be more delight-
ful than the disposition of the common people here.
We have had (not being on the high road) only two
bataillons who have passed here, among them many
men who have left their home without having done
sowing, yet no appearance of discontent. Those of
the German part, 1. e. true Swiss, have a grave and
manly appearance, are perfectly well armed, their
artillery of the best sort, and all in the most excel-
lent order. From what I can conjecture we have,
or shall have shortly, between 30,000 and 40,000
men stirring. I had yesterday a young man with me
who has escaped from the massacre of the Swiss
Guards at Paris, in a manner almost miraculous.

53

He is quite eager to come to blows; and it is chiefly
that sad affair which animates every individual.—
God bless you. Write as soon as you can.

E. Dava.t.

J. FE. Smith to Mr. Davall.

My very dear Friend, London, Nov. 9, 1792.

I write upon gilt paper for joy! If I had a har-
lequin sheet, such as Sterne puts in his Tristram
Shandy, I would send it you to express my great
joy at your escape. I hope you will have no further
alarms: I trust that the cut-throat party in France
will be got under, and that they will settle into that
manly rational liberty at which they professed to
aim. I should not despair of them, if they had but
some principle of religion and less debauchery; on
the contrary, their characters in these respects make
me fear that nothing good can come out of them:
but let us leave politics and politicians for our more
virtuous study. I am come to town for two days
from Windsor. I return this day. I am delighted
with my pupils: we all sit together at a round table.
I lecture from my notes, which the Queen takes
home from Frogmore to Windsor to make extracts
from ; and my audience occasionally ask questions
and make remarks very much to the purpose, and
a conversation of half an hour or more follows the
lecture. Nothing can be more polite and pleasing.
I shall be thus engaged till next month. I have good
news of Afzelius and Francois. Yours, in haste,

J. E. SmMiru.

54

Mr, Afzelius to J. E. Smith.

Dear Sir, Freetown, Sierra Leone, July 2, 1792.

Iam happy to acquaint you with our safe arrival
to this place the 6th of May last, and with our per-
fect state of health since that time, except that Bo-
‘ rone has been a little ill with a fever, from which
he is now entirely recovered. But I am sorry to
say that the inconveniences we here meet with, see-
ing the colony in confusion and divided into parties,
and not having a separate house or room where we
can dry our plants, preserve our things from the
inclemency of the rainy season, and write down
our observations, have hitherto prevented us from
collecting any plants. This is certainly a cruel si-
tuation, particularly when we are surrounded by so
many curious and unknown productions; but we
must wait for a more prosperous time. Meanwhile
I am vexed that we cannot have the pleasure of
sending you, with the Sierra Leone packet, Captain
Phipps, who now returns to London, anything but
some bulbs and seeds, which I have only numbered;
and I beg you will keep these numbers till another
time, when I can be able to give them their proper
names. I leave it entirely to yourself to distribute
them as you please: I only wish that no description
or figure of them may be published before I can
come back myself. Amongst the bulbs are even
those of the beautiful Hemanthus multiflorus and
the charming 4maryllis ornata. Borone behaves
exceedingly well, and I am very happy to have got

55

so amiable a young man as my companion in my
travels.

I wish you could be good enough to send me
Geertner de Seminibus, Schreber’s edition of Genera
Plantarum, and Gmelin’s edition of the System, only
the Vegetable Kingdom. Though I like the terri-
tory of Sierra Leone very much, the climate being
fine, the spot where the town is built healthy, the
soil good, the woods abounding in game, the water
with fine fish, and the whole country with the most
wonderful plants, of which I have already seen about
the half part of them figured in Sir Joseph Banks's
book; nevertheless I should already have been tired
with this place, from the inconveniences I have suf-
fered, had not Mr. Clarkson shown both me and
Borone so much favour and so many civilities, and
promised us to have very soon a house for ourselves.
This worthy gentleman is now almost the only man
who supports the colony, and endeavours to put all
things in order again: but it will be a long time
before he will gain his laudable intentions; and I
think it impossible without a speedy assistance from
home. I have begun a long letter on our wretched
situation and its causes, but I have not now time to
finish it. You shall have it with the next vessel ;
and then I hope I shall have the pleasure of writing
to you with greater satisfaction.

Present my respects to Lady Rockingham. I hope
I need not apologize for my bad English, but am
assured that you, as a friend, will always excuse my
errors.

I am always, Sir, your sincere Friend,
Ap. AFZELIUS.

56

Mr. Davall to J. E.. Smith.

My very dear Friend, Orbe, Jan. 11, 1793.

I have had the very great pleasure of receiving
your two last kind letters, which have done me more
good than any article of the materia medica; I was,
if possible, more impatient than I commonly am to
have some news of you. I have been prevented
writing to you by an unexpected and very sudden
event. In rising from table one day after dinner,
the eldest of my aunts, aged 84 years and 3 months,
in all appearance in better health than myself (the
son of a sister 20 years younger than her), fell after
having half crossed the room, exactly as if struck
by lightning, and from that moment never uttered
one word. Her last conversation was as gay as you
can imagine; and the evening before she had played
at quadrille as usual. By-the-by, such is their eter-
nal habit of cards, that we have had an example
this autumn of one man dying, his cards in his hands.
Great God! what a death! Let me rather break
my neck down some precipice (if such be thy will)
endeavouring to obtain some new proof of thy great-
ness, or in the desire of rendering service to a be-
loved friend!

The death of my good old aunt, (for a good wo-
man she was,) and the sad moments that necessarily
follow such events; the miserable state of my wife’s
health, now near her confinement, and who had been
affected very seriously in seeing her fall; some dis-
order in mv own health, &c.—heave carried me on
till now.

o7

Iam very happy, my dearest friend, to find by
your letter you are so gay, as thence I judge well of
your health. I who, as you know, live merely as a
hermit, have lately found myself at table with Lady
Spenser, the Duchess of Devonshire, and Lady Dun-
cannon, giving them the names of some plants they
had collected: they winter at Pisa. I mention this
merely to give you notice, that you may not be sur-
prised. I told them I had a friend in England infi-
nitely better able to assist them than myself. By-
the-by, they found me wonderfully clever, because
they had seen nothing but some blundering obso-
lete amateurs, and were surprised just as | am when
I go to England, when I constantly say to myself on
arriving, ‘“‘ How well these people speak English !”
were a sailor or a fishwoman the first persons I
meet.

I shall not touch on politics, as I understand no-
thing at all of those matters. I should be very happy
in seeing the establishment of a virtuous liberty, and
a state of things free from the abominable effects of
intrigue and corruption. But men will never be
perfect ; and I know not whether it were not better
to remain in a state accompanied with some incon-
veniences, if not quite intolerable, as they were in
France, than run the risk of being still worse in
endeavouring to be better. As for the French, I
know not whether they are, as a nation, capable of
doing such great things: they always run into ex-
tremes, and overshoot reason. Perhaps I am nar-
row-minded; but I love them not, nor can I ever
think them capable of solidity: I know there are

58

exceptions. They will all be heroes, and give rea-
son, liberty and atheism to the world. With respect
to the execution of their wonderful perfections, I
shall only assure you that many of the peasants in
Savoy wish them, as I do, in another planet. They
dare not, under pain of death, bring us over any sort
of provisions as formerly; and the liberty they have
acquired, is that of being obliged to give their hogs,
corn and chestnuts to these French brethren for
paper instead of money of better value, which they
receive here, paying as much for taxes as before,
under new names, and sending men to be shot at
who would have cultivated the country. Miserable
as they were, many are still more so now.
Totus tuus,
KE. Dava.t.

The Marchioness of Rockingham to J. E. Smith.

Hillingdon House, March 3, 1793.

I am ashamed that I have not much sooner
thanked Dr. Smith for the seeds from Sumatra and
-Sierra Leone. These seeds have been some time
sown, and yet Dr. Smith is but now reaping my ac-
knowledgements: so strange is human nature, that
often, even against inclination, it neglects and delays
the most pleasing occupation of expressing grati-
tude for favours and attentions that the mind 1s all
the while sensible of. I little thought, five years
ago, that I could have felt so much concern for the
death of Mr. Aiton; but I had not seen him then,
and only looked upon him as the Kew gardener:

59

but the single quarter of an hour that he was with
me here occasioned an instantaneous conversion. I
was quite charmed with the plainness of his man-
ners, without a grain of that pomposity one might
have expected; but on the contrary, quite pleasant
and communicative in his profession: in short, he
took my fancy so much that I cannot help feeling
infinite regret that so great and good a man in his
line should now be no more.

My Strelitzia is advancing into flower, and an
odd Amarylls, that nobody knows any thing about,
I hope is doing the same; and much I shall wish
for a visit from Dr. Smith when they are ready to
recelve company.

I am, with much sincerity,
Your obedient Servant,
M. RockincHam.

Mr. Davall to J. EF. Smith.

Orbe, Aug. 16, 1793.
My dearest and best Friend,

All I can do for you, all I can send you, and ten
times more, did my health, faculties and circum-
stances permit, I can never, never consider other-
wise than as my indispensable duty;—a duty I owe
you, as in my mind holding the reins of botany, as
a small return for the great friendship you showed
me in England, even at a time when I was no other-
wise known to you than as a man fond of plants,
and who had undertaken a long and expensive jour-
ney in search of the Linnea.

60

I have often been surprised that with all you do,
and all you have to do, you can so regularly, so
amply elucidate every object I send. My work (if
my health will at last permit me to get through it)
will derive every merit it may have from your ge-
nerous information. I have moreover the ambition
to possess in time a rich herbarium, and one more
correct than any who have plants from the gardens
of Gittingen, Tubingen, Kursberchtolfgaxen, &c.
&e. By-the-by, what a terrible number of ozdes
have fallen on the fine Austral plants !

Iam quite delighted with English Botany. What
is above all precious to me, are the maritime plants;
they are quite new to me.

Among all the excellent things in English Bota-
ny, nothing intrigues me more than Galum pusil-
lum. The Swiss Gala are by no means clear.

The Orchidee delight me, especially Ophrys Loe-
selii and Malaxis paludosa! as strangers to me.

EK. Dava.t.

J. L. Smith to Mr. Davall.

My dear Friend, London, Sept. 24, 1793.
Where in the name of wonder is Hortus Kurs-
berchtolfgaxensis * ?
Afzelius and Francois are safe returned, thank

* “T Jaughed heartily,” says Mr. Davall in reply, “at your
astonishment concerning Kursberchtolfgaxen. It is a mere ima-
ginary specimen of German soft names. If you know some little
French poems of M. de Florian, you will find this pretty word in
his Poule de Caux.”

61

God! and have brought many fine things, though
not many specimens, because the Sierra Leone cli-
mate is very damp and znseci?ferous. Their fruit and
capsules are the most wonderful. I recollect the
Swiss Melampyrum cristatum struck me at Geneva
as uncommonly beautiful. Can ours be different?
There I found it in a grove. Ours isa corn plant?!

You say Galum pusillum intrigues you: if you
talk thus, Mrs. Davall will become jealous.

Adieu! God bless you.
J. E. Smiru.

Mr. Afzelius to J. E. Smith.

Freetown, Sierra Leone,

My dear Friend, Nov. 19, 1794.

Iam sorry to be a messenger of bad news; but
an event that has taken place so openly cannot be
concealed; it must be known sooner or later; and as
Ihave myself unfortunately been a party concerned
in the common calamity, I hasten to inform you
of this melancholy affair.

The 28th of September last the French arrived
here with a force far superior to what we had to
oppose them, and they made themselves therefore
soon masters of the place. They landed and plun-
dered all the houses and the store. They carried
on board their own vessels what they wanted them-
selves, and the rest they either broke to pieces, or
plunged into the sea, or consecrated to the flames.
They killed all the live stock in the colony. They
burnt the public buildings and all the houses be-

62

longing to white people, as well as the shipping,
except two vessels, which they took with them; and
one of these was the long-expected Harpy, our last
resource, which unfortunately happened to arrive
some days before the enemy departed.

After they had done us all the mischief they
wished, after having burnt Bance Island and the
vessels in that port, and after having taken about ten
prizes in the Sierra Leone river, they sailed away
the 13th of October last to the leeward, and left us
in the most wretched situation, without provision
to live on, without any rag to put on our backs,
and without comfortable habitations. But we were
happy that they did not murder us every one, and
that they left the huts of the settlers untouched.
(There were only two persons killed, and three or
four wounded, which happened the first day during
the attack.) We suffered very much the first week ;
but after our friends in the neighbourhood had sent
us some supply, and our settlers,—who have farms
in the country, or rather in the woods, where the
French did not dare to penetrate,—had brought us
theirs, we have been pretty well off for provision,
and there is at present not the least danger of stary-
ing. But we are in want of so many other neces-
saries and conveniences of life, that we are in real
distress, till any vessel arrives from Europe and
brings us some relief. I, for my part, am particularly
unhappy, as being deprived of my activity, and not
knowing what to do; for I have lost all my tools
and implements for writing and making collections:
I should otherwise soon make up some of my losses,

63

as descriptions, dry plants, insects, shells, animals
both stuffed and in spirits, &c. &c., the whole of
which amounted to larger collections than I ever
had at once in this country before; but the loss of
some of my manuscripts, and particularly my jour-
nal, which I had kept from my arrival here to the
present time, is irreparable; and if I should value
all my losses, I could not make them less than 15007.
or 1600/.; though manuscripts, particularly when
they are intended for publication, are invaluable,
and may be worth double the sum you first thought
of. Iam in very little hopes that the Directors will
repay me anything; and if they do, it will be a pal-
try sum I know. I must therefore rely upon my
own exertions and the assistance of my friends, till
I may be able to acknowledge their kindness. The
present time is the worst, and before any vessel can
arrive, which I hope will supply me again with all
necessary articles ; in the mean time I must be pa-
tient, and do as well as I can.

When you see the Marchioness of Rockingham,
I wish you would tell her something of my distress,
if you think proper. After having told you that I
am now reduced quite to a beggar, I do not need to
apologize for my scrawl and bad paper: I am glad
to have any thing to write with and upon.

I am yours, affectionately,
Ap. AFZELIUs.

P.S. Just this moment, when I was going to seal
up the letter, arrives a chartered ship, the Achilles
of Liverpool, Captain Hogg, after seven weeks’ pas-

64

sage, and brings the agreeable intelligence that both
the Ocean and the Amy were safe arrived; and thus
I hope you got long ago what was intended for you.
The Achilles brings only salt and crockery ware ;
instead of which I wish her cargo had been provi-
sion, cloth, linen, furniture, &c. &c.

J. E. Smith to Mr. Davall.

Norwich, March 16, 1795.

It is so long since I heard from you or wrote
to you, my excellent friend, that I can refrain no
longer.

I have nothing botanical to communicate, nor
indeed anything pleasant, except (as I hope) expres-
sions of my unceasing regard may be acceptable. I
have lately had the misfortune to lose my most in-
dulgent and excellent father. There never was a
more honest, sensible, or judicious man, nor a more
excellent parent *.

I have another melancholy piece of news, which
has made a very deep impression on my mind,

* The annexed lines are expressive of Sir James’s feelings of
respect and attachment upon the loss here recorded.

Dear tender Father! if thy honour’d shade

Still hovers o’er thy children, bless our tears!

May every pang, by which our hearts now own thee,
Impress thy virtues and thy precepts there!

Be thou our guardian angel, while we strive,
Though not with equal steps, to follow thee ;

And may thy spirit welcome us to peace.

In St. Peter’s Church, Norwich, where his parents and others
p

65

though now my thoughts are taken up otherwise.
Poor Francois is no more! He had a good jour-
ney with Dr. Sibthorp as far as Athens, and they
were much satisfied with each other *.

I shall dedicate a genus to him, as a martyr to
botany, and try to do justice to his merits in the
New Holland Botany very soon. I know you will
lament his unfortunate fate; it is consolatory to
hear how much everybody esteemed him. It isa
severe loss to me, for he was truly good and amia-
ble, as well as intelligent. I think he had more
acuteness in finding out specific differences of —
than anybody I ever knew.

Poor Afzelius has lost all his MSS. and collec-
tions by the descent of the French savages at Sierra
Leone; but happily he is alive and well. His friends

of his family are deposited, appears the following inscription to
their memory, from the same hand :-—

Tears for the dead unprofitably flow,
Their virtues yet a richer tribute claim ;
Let emulation sanctify our woe,
And raise a living trophy to their name.

Hither may still each kindred mind retire,

If boisterous passions urge, or vice allure,
Muse o’er these sacred relics, and aspire

To keep their bosoms pure, as these were pure.

That when to these their mouldering dust may come,
O’er their cold urn may fall the filial tear,

Still fond remembrance dwell upon their tomb,
And virtue find a fair example here.

* Sir James’s epitaph on the death of Francesco Borone ap-
peared in the volume of Tracts.
VOL. II. F

66

have sent him out some immediate supplies of ne-
cessaries. Pray write to me, and believe me ever
Yours,
J. E. Smiru.

Mr. Davall to J. E. Smith.

Orbe, April 13, 1795.

The sight of your hand-writing yesterday evening
gave me such pleasure as I could never express, and
at the same moment the black seal occasioned great
anxiety.

Believe me, my dearest and most excellent friend,
I grieve with you sincerely on the cruel separation
you have experienced, and the more so by reason of
the interesting qualities of the good father you have
lost. From the course of nature we cannot avoid
these trials, and in my opinion one of our best com-
forts is the happy reflection he was a good and up-
right man. I love you more than ever, as you have
done justice to my cordial affection to you by the
detail of your sad communication.

Mrs. Davall and I hardly pass a day without talk-
ing of you. She was scarcely less affected than my-
self at your account of the loss of poor Francois.

It had been a favourite hope of mine to know
him at last decidedly attached to and fixed with you,
well conceiving how important his aid would be. I
should not thus renew your regret, but Francois,
—his gentleness, his intelligent eye, his pleasing
air,—you—all that is yours—every moment I have
spent with you,—is as present to me, and will be

67

wliile I live, as if there were no intermediate occur-
rence whatever. I am delighted with your dedi-
cating a genus to that excellent and unfortunate
young man.

I am extremely impatient to have some fresh
news of you: your health, all that regards you, is
to me more interesting than anything else. Not
one day passes without thoughts of you,—remem-
brance, regret !—such as diminishes my share of
happiness. This very morning, taking a turn in
my little garden, quite in ecstasy at the sight of four
or five delightful stems of Sazifraga mutata in full
lustre, I exclaimed quite loud, “ Why is he not
here ?>—at least the greater part of the seed shall go
to him; he will admire plants, offspring of these;
though not with me, he will not see them without
thoughts of his most cordially devoted friend.”

I really languish to see the continuation of En-
glish Botany.

May Heaven’s best care attend you !

E. Dava.t.

In a letter dated 1795, noticed at the beginning
of this correspondence, Mr. Davall says, “I too
often found the want of a present friend. It was
decreed,” he continues, “that in this very place
there was a person of the best merit, whom I had
long known, and whose sentiments in most respects
agreed with my own. We were married. Provi-
dence placed her by my side, and to herI owe all
the domestic happiness I have enjoyed; and al-
though I did not escape censure, I had learnt long

F2

68

since that the criticism of certain persons is praise.
I am sure you are my friend. I know you have a
heart open to sympathy. It is to you alone I can
mention these circumstances, and alleviate no incon-
siderable degree of pain to my mind. I havea fine
little boy, who on the 25th of March will be two
years old: he has a sister, now near the age of six
months, who promises health and strength. You
cannot conceive what anxiety I feel when I reflect
that these interesting objects of my attachment are
strangers on the earth, strangers in the country of
their birth, and in the native land of their father ;—
how, with all the pleasure I experience from the
gradual progress of my boy, 1 regret that his first
ideas are not expressed in English. Hitherto it is
in vain that I speak to him almost every day of his
father’s best friend. He will answer me with un-
common feeling, Je ’aime bien ton bon ami, papa,
ow est iL? Je voudrois bien le voir Mr. Smif. It is
always Sf’; and perhaps I shall never hear him
say Smith.

“ When I look forward I am lost in sadness ; the
desolation of the times in which we live is fit also
to inspire melancholy. It should seem (I wish I
may be in error) that England is running headlong
to her ruin. Almost all I have is in the English
funds, and I am not quite easy on that head. This
country, as every other, is so affected by these dis-
astrous wars, that the price of every necessary of
life is doubled, and moreover we. have almost to
fear a famine.

“ Our bread is much inferior to what it is in less

69

miserable times, and it has become necessary to
husband the corn, to forbid all bakers to admit to
their ovens every kind of delicacy made of flour.

“The armies on the Rhine? and the cold procure
us frequent visits from wolves,—charming com-
pany! we have more than usual. Last night (Ja-
nuary 24) one was seen in the garden of a country-
man at Montcheraud, a village very near us; and
plenty of their tracks about the Grotto of Mont-
cheraud, of which you have a view. There are
societies of five or six together.”

The next letter has the date of 1798, expressing
too plainly the progress of disease in his enfeebled
frame.

Mr. Davall to J. E.. Smith.

Feb. 13, 1798.

For a long time,—a very long time past, I have
not written to you, because there was no proportion
between the fullness of my heart, all that I wished
to say, and the strength I have had for the execu-
tion. I have been obliged to comfort myself with
thinking almost without intermission of you; but,
also, for some time past, my dearest and only hope
has been that of meeting my friend in another and
a better world.

This letter, which did not arrive in England till
after Mr. Davall’s death, was left unfinished. He

70

died on the 26th of September, 1798, at the early
age of thirty-five.

“To him the tenderest sympathies were given! ”

He resembled the chosen friend of his heart in
the warmth and devotion of his affections, but had
less power to resist the ills of life. Many passages
in the foregoing letters have disclosed the truth of
what is here remarked. It is to show his worth,
his tenderness, his rare attachment, his devotion to
science, his love of nature allied so closely with the
love of God, that so little reserve has been made of
feelings which, in the writer’s opinion, confer upon
him the highest honour. Should they by any be
considered too acute or reprehensible, let it be re-
membered, “ those tender longings which absorbed
his soul, preyed on his spirits, undermined his
health,” were the sorrows of a banished man. Let
those who can command both pleasure and society
at will, contemplate with deep compassion the ge-
nerous, disinterested Davall.

71

CHAPTER VIII.

Miscellaneous Letters to Sir James Edward Smith, from 1797 to
1807 :—Mr. Voght.—Mrs. Charlotte Smith.—Mr. Voght.—
Professor Williams.—Mr. Johnes.—Sir Joseph Banks.—Bi-
shop of Winchester—Mr. Brodie.—Rev. Mr. Abbot.—Dr.
Buchanan.—Rev. Mr. Talbot.—From the same.—Sir Thomas
Frankland. — From the same.— Dr. Hedwig.— Mrs. John
Taylor.—J. E. Smith to M. Ventenat.—M. Ventenat.—From
the same.—J. E.. Smith to Dr. Hednig.— Sir William East.—M.
Mirbel.—Duke of Bedford.—Mr. Johnes.—Professor Martyn.
—Mr. D. Turner.—Mr. J. Lee.—Colonel Hardnicke.—Dr.
Maton.

From Mr. Voght *.

My dear Sir, Flotbeck, May 23, 1797.

OrreNn indeed I took up my pen to recall my-
self to the mind of my most respected master in
botany, and my philanthropic friend, whom I most
sincerely love and revere. Somehow or other I
as often have been prevented by employments less
pleasing, but of a more pressing nature. But today
I will not be prevented; I locked the door of a little
thatched hut on the bank of a rivulet that meanders
through my meadows; and amidst the full chorus of

* Casper Voght, Esq., author of a pamphlet entitled, “ Ac-
count of the Management of the Poor in Hamburgh, since the
year 1788; ina Letter to some Friends of the Poor in Great
Britain :” printed at Edinburgh in 1795.

72

our nightingales, accompanied by the murmur of a
little rill, I intend te consecrate a few moments to
one of the best men I ever knew.—Thanks then, my
dear friend, for your most magnificent present: they
are indeed fine and rare plants, unknown on the
continent, and which will do great credit to my her-
barium. Botany is still a study I am very fond of,
but, like a man who loves an absent mistress, my
several, perhaps too numerous, avocations prevent
me from paying so much attention to her as I wish
to do, and shall do hereafter. In saying so,I only
speak of the scientific part of the systematical study
of botany; for I am very busy as to the ceconomi-
cal part. I try to find out plants for the use of
men and of cattle, and so improve by culture those
that are already in use. You will do me a great
favour, if among your pursuits you happen to think
of some plants, the use of which ought to be tried
ceconomically. I promise to attend to it, and, if
you can give me some seed, to send you an exact
account of the result. The physiology of plants
continues likewise to attract our notice; and I am
pointing out with M. Schmeisser aplan of experi-
ments about some causes of the fertility of peculiar
ground for peculiar plants, along with the influence
of light, and of water, whose decomposition by an
unknown cause is certainly an immediate food of
plants; and of the different kinds of gases upon
vegetation.

I arranged for my particular use a herbarium
pictum in the way of Lord Bute’s, which I find very
convenient.

73

I am, thank God, well enough, which I ascribe
particularly to my country life, exercise, and rising
early inthe morning. I renounced supper long ago.
Thrice in the week I go to town to attend to the di-
rection of the Institute for the poor, whose number
since my publication still continues to diminish. We
have not above 2500 poor now in Hamburgh, and
of ‘them, all those that choose to be industrious
are comfortably situated. Our method has made
proselytes amongst our neighbours: at Bern and
at Copenhagen they are busy in founding an insti-
tution upon the same plan. Iam called upon in
the latter place to take an active part, which, to a
certain degree, my connections with the Danish
Court does not permit me to decline.

I give some time to chemistry, but the most of
my leisure is engrossed by farming. I have now
500 acres of excellent land, three miles from town
on the river side, in my hands, which by-and-by
will be in the state of the richest culture. I teach
my neighbours the use of marling, of oxen, and of
better implements of agriculture. If they learn
from me to do as much work, and infinitely better
done, with one half of the powers employed till
now; if they learn to keep half the teams they
have now, and save one half of the seed they annu-
ally throw into the ground,—then the same ground
will nourish thrice the number now living upon it,
and they enjoy comforts of which they have not yet
an idea.

So, my dear friend, in drawing into the circle of
my family all that surrounds me, I have not yet

74

perceived any regret of having none of my own;
and it seems even to me that I would lose a great
number of my old relations, were I to contract a
more intimate one, that would more narrowly cir-
cumscribe my attention and mycares. Yet I know
very happy marriages. I am intimate in some such
fortunate families: I partake of their happiness,
and believe it truly the most comfortable situation
in life. I think you will find the life in Norwich
more suitable to your taste than the continual hurry
and bustle in a town like London, where for com-
municating and increasing knowledge you ought
to spend a part of the year, and live the remainder
to yourself and your friends.

Dr. Giesck is gone over to another world, where
I hope he will not be punished for his plagiarisms
and hasty productions in this.

The Germans are all mad now about Cryptogamy.
It is vulgar now to pursue any other line in botany,
and I really expect they will be great in these trifles.

M. Schmeisser and M. Wattenbach wish to be
kindly remembered. As for me, I’ll never cease
to love you as long as J live.

Vale et fave,
Ever and sincerely,
VoeGut.

From Mrs. Charlotte Smith.
Sirs 4d March 15, 1798.

The friendly politeness with which you honoured
me when I took the liberty of addressing you al-

75

most twelve months since, has made on my mind
too flattering an impression to allow me to forget,
that in the letter you then favoured me with, you
mentioned that in the months of April and May
you were usually in London. As I am now settled
there, permit me to hope that I may be so fortunate
as to be favoured with your personal acquaintance
when you this year make your annual visit. Though
after a long and successless struggle Iam compelled
to leave the country, my passion for plants rather
increases as the power of gratification diminishes ;
and though I must henceforth, or at least till peace,
or something equally conclusive, dismisses me to
the continent, (whither I will go if I have strength
whenever it is practicable,) botanize on annuals in
garden pots out at a window, it will be a consider-
able consolation to have an opportunity of being
known to the principal of that delightful and sooth-
ing study; and who is, as well in science as in be-
nevolence and cultivation of mind, an acquaintance
so greatly to be desired.

Ihave not forgotten (being still compelled to
write, that my family may live) your hint of intro-
ducing botany into a novel. The present rage for
gigantic and impossible horrors, which I cannot but
consider as a symptom of morbid and vitiated taste,
makes me almost doubt whether the simple plea-
sures afforded by natural objects will not appear
vapid to the admirers of spectre novels and cavern
adventures. However, I have ventured a little of it,
and have at least a hope that it will not displease
those whose approbation I most covet.

76

A domestic occurrence, very much unexpected
and very unpleasant, has made my heart ache and
my hand tremble ; but they are used to it, and both
should by this time know better. It would bea
prettiness, though very true, to say that while either
are in existence it is a pleasure to say how much

I am, dear Sir,
Your obliged Servant,

CHARLOTTE SMITH.

From Mr. Voght.

My dear Sir, Flotbeck, Aug. 11, 1798.

It is acharming description you make of Hafod
and its owner. I know of nothing that strikes me
more, and awakens more pleasant feelings in my
mind, than thinking of natural beauties enjoyed by
active benevolence. Such a good man as your friend
ought not to want good wine; and he shall not if I
can help it. As to the yellow turnip, I know what
you mean; it is the teller turnip, cultivated in the
driest sands of the Mark Brandenburgh. It will not
succeed unless you have such sands. As for the
turnip itself, you may along with the hock geta
barrel of them.

I have a great respect for a man who has planted
697,000 trees in one year. On the continent plant-
ing on a large scale is perfectly unknown, nor are
there any nurseries for that purpose.

Among many future improvements of agriculture
in general to whichI was so fortunate as to lay the

77

foundation there is a nursery of 1,500,000 plants
begun this spring, which will I hope in a few years
give the means to plant four fifths of Holstein,
which after my example will perhaps some years
hence have diffused the spirit of planting.

Yes, my dear Sir, I have received your valuable
volume of Tracts relating to natural history, and also
the pamphlet you sent me by Mr. Clark; but I will
be obliged to you for a syllabus of your Botanical
Lectures. However distant my present pursuits are
from the track of this lovely science, I hope sooner
or later to wander them over again, and would be
sorry not to be guided by you. The exercise of
practical agriculture and the promotion of this use-
ful knowledge, together with our Poor Institute,
take up all my leisure. I shall certainly revisit En-
gland as soon as Europe shall be restored to peace.
You know, my dear Sir, that you stand foremost
amongst the friends whom I shall feel myself happy
to meet again.

Ever yours,
Vocut.

From Professor Wiltiams.

Dear Sir, Oxford, Aug. 1, 1798.

I passed a short time this morning in the Botanic
Garden with Mrs. Kett*. At this season of the year
a botanist is of rare occurrence in Oxford. It is
singular on any occasion to meet a lady who is
really conversant with plants. I am obliged to you

* Of Seething Hall, Norfolk.

78

for affording me an instance, and introducing me
to an acquaintance so valuable. A very hasty visit,
and under a vertical sun, could give little satisfaction
to your friends; yet Mrs. Kett has kindly promised
to supply me with any of my deszderata in her pos-
session. I beg you would assure her I shall have
much satisfaction in sending to her, as I shall indeed
to any of your friends, whatever specimens we can
afford from the collection here. Your name could
not but occur to us, and very frequently in our walk;
for many reasons, both of private satisfaction and
of botanical importance, I wish you could have been
of the party. I am surrounded by many nameless
friends,—by many at least of very doubtful charac-
ters. You are destroying, I am assured by the
information of Mrs. Kett, a new and favourite Ver-
bascum: I shall be glad when you can examine this
genus, with which I have been lately not a little
perplexed ;—yet in fixing the Gramina and Mints
you are better and more laboriously employed.
I am yours faithfully,
G. WILLIAMs.

From Mr. Johnes.

My dear Sir, Hafod, Sept. 2, 1798.

I was very sorry Mr. Gurney * made so short a
stay, for I was never better pleased with any one
on so short an acquaintance. I liked one of his
daughters very much, but it was all in sucha hurry
I could scarcely speak to all of them.

* The late John Gurney, Esq. of Earlham, Norfolk.

79

They travelled in proper style, determined to be
pleased with everything; the only mode that could
have made their number any way comfortable.

Have you read Lord Orford’s Letters? If not, you
will Iam sure have a great treat. I have but begun
on them, and am more pleased than with any cor-
respondence I ever read; it shows an excellent head
and heart. They are very witty, and have excellent
good nonsense, which is one of the most difficult
things to write. :

Mrs. Johnes is not well, but says she shall soon
recover when her daughter does.

It is a great comfort to me, that as those from
whom I had a right to expect kindness fall off, I
find others who make ample amends; and the more
flattering to self-love, because one hopes it may be
owing to personal qualities. Among all, my good
friend, I can never forget your great kindness and
affection, “dum memor ipse met dum spiritus hos regit
artus.”

All our kind compliments attend you.

Truly yours,
Tuomas JOHNES.

From Sir Joseph Banks.

My dear Doctor, Soho Square, Jan. 6, 1799.

I shall feel myself much flattered if you finally
determine to dedicate your Mora Anglica (Britan-
nica)to me. It is a book much wanted, and one that
cannot but receive advantage from the hand of the
possessor of the Linnean collections; from your

80

hand it will also receive many other advantages of
various kinds,—enough to make it far surpass all
its antecessors.

Pray how dow was the thermometer with you?
and on what day was it the lowest? I began to
think that the great severity of the frost has been
in your parts and in Lincolnshire. On the 27th,
my servant Roberts, whom you know, was valuing
wood in a copse near Tattershall, where he heard
noises several times repeated, like the loud smack
of a whip, which proved to be the riving of the
branches of trees by the intensity of the frost. I
do not remember that this phenomenon, though
common in the North of Europe, has been observed
since the hard frost, as it is called, of 1739-40, when
Miller mentions it. I believe that a combination of
circumstances are necessary to this phenomenon,
but intense cold below the 0° of Fahrenheit is cer-
tainly one of them.

My time has been of late so taken up by the
Committee of Coinage that I have done little in
botany. Iregret it the less, as Dryander is em-
ployed in printing the Catalogue.

Dickson tells me that last market at Covent
Garden was well supplied, and at reasonable prices,
—a sign that the frost has done little mischief to
our market-men. White brocoli is said to be the
only plant that has suffered materially.

Pray offer to your wife and mother the best good
wishes of the season, and for many happy returns;
and believe me very faithfully yours,

JosePu Banks.

81

From the Bishop of Winchester.

Sir, Farnham, Oct. 29, 1799.

Mr. Poulter has sent me your letter to him, and
I inclose one to you from him. Iam so persuaded
that the fructification of the Cycas (revoluta as we
suppose) is new in England, and probably in Europe,
that I desired Mr. Poulter to write to you upon the
subject, and also requested Mr. Brander to do the
same.

I dare not aim at a description in proper terms,
being rather an amateur than professor in botany,
but I will relate what I know and have observed.

When I came to Farnham about the beginning
of September, my gardener told me the Cycas had
borne a singular appearance during the summer. As
I did not see it earlier, I cannot speak of the flower ;
but on examining it I found a fine large strobilus
formed upon the head of the plant, within the circle
of the external leaves. The leaves of the strobelus
itself were of a greenish gray colour, thick, pulpy,
and beautifully laciniated: the strodzéus hollow like
a bird’s nest, and filled with a quantity of drupe
(then green), about the size of a half-grown apricot,
or large green almond; leaves growing mixed among
the fruit. The only changes which the plant has
since undergone, are, that at each point of the laci-
niated leaves there is a strong spine come forth, pro-
bably to guard the fruit; and the fruit itself, now
probably ripe or nearly so, as the kernel is com-
pletely formed, is become of a very fine reddish

VOL. II. G

82

orange colour, and covered with a fine gray down,
and is very picturesque and handsome. I have cut
open one of these drupes, the half of which Mr.
Poulter has sent to you, but it is now so much faded
as to give a very imperfect idea of the fruit upon
the plant.

I shall have great pleasure in sending you two or
three specimens of the fruit ; but I should be much
happier if I could have the pleasure of seeing you
here, where I have beds for you and any one you
may desire to bring to describe or paint the plant.

The painting alluded to by Mr. Poulter is now
taking by one of my daughters ; hereafter I shall
hope to show it you. She is painting the fructifi-
cation, that is, fruit and leaves of the sérobzlus, of
the natural size, which is all that appears to be now
necessary, for the external leaves are permanently
the same; and this indeed is all that I conceive to
be possible, for the circumference of the whole
plant is much too large for any paper.

If you should not be able to give me your com-
pany, be so good as to let me know what you think
can be best done for the information of the Linnean
Society or yourself; for it seems worthy their notice,
as the whole which Linnzus says on the genus
Cycas is, “ De hujus charactere nihil etiamnum ab
auctoribus traditum reperi.” If you wish to send
down any painter who will paint it at a reasonable
price, (I say from five to ten or twelve guineas, or
thereabouts, as I know not what painters of that
branch usually charge,) I shall willingly be at the
expense of it, and give a copy to the Society : but I

83

am in hopes the painting of my daughter promises
to be very accurate.

I am, with great respect, Sir,
Your faithful Servant,
B. WINCHESTER.

From Mr. Brodie.
Dear Sir, March 31, 1801.

Believe me, I shall always feel much pleasure in
exerting myself to gratify your wishes, or those of
any friend in whom you take an interest. My poor
girl had the same desire,—that of rearing all sorts
of birds from the egg; and succeeded with a great
many, but was always baffled in the Ptarmigan, from
the distance ; for notwithstanding every precaution
in packing, and their being carried by a man hired
on purpose, swung in his hand, they were always
addled. I would recommend their being sent by
sea, for many reasons,—a principal one, that there
is no mail-coach at present beyond Aberdeen.

As to the Black Game, they are become so scarce
in Scotland that I am at a loss even how to advise
you in procuring them. I remember in the year
1770, when I resided about ten miles immediately
to the westward of Morpeth in Northumberland,
they were in immense flocks on an estate in the
neighbourhood, belonging to (I think) Greenwich
- Hospital, having been part of the Derwent Water
estate. Perhaps this hint may be of service. The

G 2

84

cock is a most beautiful bird, and becomes easily
familiar. With the highest respect and esteem,
I remain, dear Sir, most faithfully yours,
JAMES Bropie.

From the Rev. Charles Abbot.

Dear Sir, Bedford, Feb. 15, 1802.

The receipt of the last number of English Botany
gave mea melancholy pleasure in retracing the hap-
piness I enjoyed in a botanical acquaintance with
the late Lady John Russell *; and whilst I thank
you for your punctual observance of my request, in
giving her ladyship’s name to the Rosa tomentosa,
permit me to say that no one, in my own personal
knowledge, ever so well merited a posthumous at-
tention of this sort. Her virtues do not sleep with
her in the grave, for they are registered in the hearts
of all who knew her, and her unexampled worth:
Her noblest mausoleum is erected in the hearts of
a grateful poor, who have lost their best friend. -
Lord John is not now in Bedfordshire, or this let-
ter would not go unfranked ; but I have long wished
for your opinion on the subject of Pyrus Ara, which
I expected to see figured in English Botany before
now. The last fructification I sent you was most un-
doubtedly right, or the plant in my /Vora is wrong :
be it what it will, it certainly grows wild here.

I remain, dear Sir, yours very faithfully,

CHARLES ABBOT.

* First wife of the present Duke of Bedford, and mother of
the Marquis of Tavistock and of Lord John Russell.

85

From Dr. Francis Buchanan.

My dear Smith, Bassaria, March 3, 1802.

I was favoured a few days ago with yours of the
17th of May, 1801. During a great part of the
years 1800 and 1801, I was employed by the Go-
vernor-general in investigating the state of agricul-
ture, commerce, and arts, in the dominions of the
late Tippoo sultaun. I had just returned to Calcutta
with a considerable collection, and had commenced
to arrange my papers, when I received an order to
proceed to Patna, and join the resident going to
the court of Nepal. I am now busy in digesting
the journal of my proceedings during the trip to
Mysoor.

Nepal is a country extending south from the snowy
mountains called Himaleh by Major Rennell,
but Emodu Ghiry in the Sanscrit, and no doubt
the modus of the ancients. Its southern boun-
dary is the territory belonging to the English, so
that its breadth from north to south is not great;
but on the west it includes what Rennell calls Al-
morah, and on the east what he calls Morung.
About sixty years ago this great extent of country
was subject to a number of petty chiefs, who all
soon after were subdued by Pritty Narain, rajah
of Gorka. Dissensions have lately broken out in
this ill-united kingdom and turbulent unprincipled
people; and the principal persons of the reigning
family have been obliged to take shelter in the Com-
-pany’s dominions. Although cruelly afraid of Eu-

86

ropean interference, all parties among them, dis-
trustful of each other and terrified at the thoughts
of the return of the exiles, have wished for an
English resident to preserve the peace. Captain
Knox has been appointed for this office, and I go
as his surgeon. I have a painter with me, and all
requisites for making a collection. We have just
entered the dominions of Nepal, but are still in the
country below the mountains. We however expect
in a few days to ascend the lower range that ele-
vates Catmandu the capital, high above Hindustan.
From its appearance, this ridge will be about four
or five thousand feet high, and I expect to meet
with little else but plants resembling those of Eu-
rope. Even here I find many common European
plants, such as the dnagallis arvensis, Ervum har-
sutum, Sonchus palustris, Fumaria officinalis, Sa-
ponaria ; and the common produce of the country
is wheat, barley, mustard, and flax. The Cannabis
sativus grows here wild.

We have had a fine view of the snowy Emodus,
and got several good altitudes of it, from which, if
its latitude is not greatly erroneous, it must be con-
siderably above five miles in perpendicular height
above the level of Bahar.

Two very badly stuffed skins have been presented
to Captain Knox from these mountains: from the
horns and teeth there is no doubt of their being
two species of wild sheep. The one is about the
size of the 4rgali, and may be that animal, but it
has hair exactly like the musk deer: this hair,
although soft, is analogous to the prickles of the

87

hedgehog, as it is hollow and inserted by an acute
root. I should be glad to know if this be the case
with the Ovis or Capra dmmon. 'The other may
perhaps be the Capra caucasia. The length of
my stay in Nepal is very uncertain. Whenever I
am able, I intend returning to England, and shall
have amusement enough for my old age in putting
my papers into some order. At present I write my
descriptions at full length, but I intend afterwards
to make out a Flora dndica with short characters
of the species, as much as possible resembling those
Jussieu gives of genera as I am able.

In MysoorI found another species of the Vatica,
and plenty of the Materia, which is one of the most
ornamental trees I have ever seen. The Dua Bunga
may be a Sonneratia, but this must be determined
by the fruit. The unripe fruit did not seem in-
clined to become pulpy, but rather to be capsular:
at any rate it is quite different from the Sonneratia
acida, with which I am as well acquainted as with
oats.

The plants I proposed calling Hopea are found
in the woods of Chittagong and Tippera. Two of
them produce an oil of turpentine, or at least one
analogous to it, and which is called wood-oil by the
English of Bengal. The two last species are valu-
able timber trees.

Roxburgh has since called another genus after
Hope: its fruit is the same almost exactly with
that I have now mentioned, but the stamina are
definite. He found one species in a garden at
Calcutta with ten filaments, alternately simple and

88

bifid; the anthers are therefore fifteen. I found
another in Malabar, where it is called iron-wood :
it has ten simple filaments and ten anthers.

The Lugenias are worse than the Willows or
Roses of Europe, especially those that resemble the
Myrtus Cumini, which Roxburgh makes an Luge-
nia. Iam sick at the sight of one of them. I am
still sicker of the Conyzas, of which in this very
camp I have been obliged to describe eight, all as
difficult to define as any Lugenza in the world.

It is fortunate that Sibthorp’s materials fell into
your hands. I promise myself great pleasure in look-
ing over my old friends the Lichens and Mosses,
with the assistance of your fora Britannica. They
are the only resource for a botanist in the bleak
hills among which I intend to pass my old days.

Yours very truly,

FRANCIS BUCHANAN.

I have left a number of drawings and descriptions
of fishes with my good friend Mr. Fleming, Presi-
dent of our Medical Board, a very great encourager
and promoter of natural history. You will find him
a frank, pleasant, and learned man, with a greater
knowledge of man and manners than usual.

From the Rev. Thomas Talbot.

My dear Sir, Paris, 23 Pluviose, l’an 10 (1802).

Soon after my arrival, I delivered your letters to
Mr. Thouin and Mr. Millin; the former is ex-

89

tremely well, and was very happy at hearing from
you. My time has been so much occupied, and the
Jardin des Plantes at such a distance, that I have
not yet had time to make him a second visit.

Mr. Millin has been so polite as to invite me to
the evening meetings at his house every septidie of
the décade, which I find extremely interesting and
pleasant. The evening I spent there we had per-
haps thirty people,—several foreigners, but no En-
glishman but myself. We have the good fortune
to be extremely well situated in the Place du Ca-
rousel, or what was formerly St. Wicaise, one side
of which has been pulled down, with all the old
houses that encumbered the Carousel; and the
square is now completed, and a most magnificent
thing it is. We are directly opposite the Thuille-
ries, and St. Mark’s Horses are placed just before
our windows. We have seen, orrather looked at,
most of the curiosities of Paris. It would be im-
possible to attempt giving you any thing like a
description of what is to be seen among the sta-
tues and pictures of the Louvre. To you it is only
necessary to mention, that among two hundred of
the choicest models of statuary, are to be reckoned
the Apollo Belvedere, the Torso, the Antinoiis of
the Capitol, the Laocoon, the Venus, the Juno, the
Bacchus of the Capitol, the Gladiator moriens, the
delicious Venus sortant du Bain, the Cupid and
Psyche, and many little if at all inferior.

Among the pictures which the Louvre Gallery
(1500 feet long) will not contain, are the Transfi-
guration, and other of the greatest works of Ra-

90

phael; Communion of St. Jerome, Martyrdom of
St. Agnes, &c. by Domenichino; Vierge du Rosaire
by the same ; St. Jerome by Correggio,—the first
and last esteemed the masterpiece of those two
painters: la Meére de Piti¢, the chef dauvre of
Guido, that of Titian, of Tintoret, of Rubens, the
Descent from the Cross (for which the inhabitants
of Antwerp offered 40,000/.), Vandyk’s Dead Christ,
la Femme Hydropique of Gerard Douw, Poussin’s
Deluge ; &c. The collection is particularly rich in
Guidos. There are perhaps forty Guidos, and cer-
tainly not so few as a hundred pictures of Rubens ;
every church in the Low Countries being pillaged.
Any attempt to express what one feels on entering
this extraordinary place would be absurd; I felt
all the time quite bewildered with wonder and de-
light. We have received great civility from Mr.
Jackson, and have lately been introduced to some
Russian ladies,—the Princess Galitzin and her sis-
ters, who are most delightfully pleasant people.

You shall hear all our motions; and with our
united regards to yourself and Mrs. Smith,

Believe me, ever yours,
Tuomas TaLsor.

From the same.

My dear Sir, Paris, 19 Ventose, 1802.
It is really almost setting about an impossible
task to give you an account of-what is now to be
seen in Paris which did not exist when you were

Oo

acquainted with it; though at the same time it must
be confessed that in many points it has experienced
a change much for the worse. The churches,
stript of their pictures, their fine altars, and rich
marbles,—which have, since the last Revolution has
restored tranquillity to France, been replaced in a
manner calculated only to make the loss of the
originals more conspicuous. The church of the
Invalides has suffered nothing, and is now converted
into a temple of Mars, and filled with the trophies
of the present war. The body and tomb of Tu-
renne have been brought there. St. Genevieve,
now the Pantheon, intended as a burial-place for
illustrious characters, is getting very forward under
the original design, and will, when completed, be
a magnificent national monument. Voltaire and
Rousseau are already removed there.

The Museum of Ancient Monuments is wonder-
fully curious and interesting: they are placed in
the late convent of the Petits Augustins, which is
somewhat too small for their reception; it is at
present unfinished. All the monuments from St.
Denis, and indeed throughout France, have been
brought to enrich the collection: those of Riche-
lieu, of Mazarine, of Abelard and Heloise from the
Paraclete, Anne de Montmorency, Diane de Poi-
tiers, &c., most of which are arranged in large halls
appropriated to each century, beginning with the
eleventh. The catalogue is rather too large to send
you.

The library, which the Government proposes to
transport to the Louvre (at present inhabited by

92

artists, who areto be removed, —the professors to the
Eglise de Quatre Nations, and the students to the
Sorbonne), is beyond measure rich in manuscripts,
(the gleanings of Italy,) in the complete collection
of engravings, and the printed books composed of
an assemblage of all the best libraries belonging to
the Sorbonne and other public institutions, inde-
pendent of the original collection. The medallions,
as well as other objects of antiquity, and above all,
the gems of the Cabinet de l’Antiquité, are match-
less; the latter, for their immense number and ex-
traordinary beauty and perfection, are far superior
to any conception I could have formed. We have
lately seen the Gobelins, which is exceedingly im-
proved of late years: when you sce the tapestry
placed by the side of the pictures, it is almost im-
possible to tell the one from the other.

We very happily had taken a pretty wide range
in seeing the curiosities of Paris, before we found
ourselves immersed in engagements as we are at
present ; so that we have had an opportunity of
enjoying these different modes of amusement both
in perfection; and great as has been the pleasure
we have received from the one, yet I hardly know
whether it is not equally as much enjoyment that
we derive from the other. After a time, however
we may be surrounded by interesting objects, yet it
must be from agreeable and rational society that we
are to look for the pleasure of so long a visit as
this of ours; and we have been happy enough to
findit. The state of society here is of course ma-
terially changed since the Revolution. The people

93

who keep the best houses, and receive in the most
showy style, are for the most part the bankers, and
those whose fortunes have risen since that period.
Those of the old régime who remain here, are for
the most part so reduced in fortune as to be un-
able to receive anybody in their houses; but we
see the greater part of them among those with
whom we visit, and have begun to get a footing
among some of those who still see company. But
the persons whom we chiefly spend our time
amongst, and who actually seem to be the only set
in Paris that understand real hospitality and plea-
sant living, are the Russians, with whom I believe I
mentioned to you that we had formed an acquaint-
ance, and are now perfectly naturalized. Every
one of their houses is open every night; and at
some or other of them we are certain, if they are
going to no ball or regular party, to meet with
those who have something besides stars, ribbons,
and titles to recommend them; namely, good edu-
cation, good breeding, and good sense. We con-
trive to fill up every evening with engagements to
parties, after going to some of the spectacles,
which we do most evenings, with a most charming
woman, the Princess Galitzin, whose beauty, whose
manners, and whose character I feel myself un-
equal to describe. We have been at a great many
very fine and elegant balls, particularly one at the
Comtesse de Gerebtzoft’s, who with the Princess
were the first of our acquaintance, and have been
infinitely kind in pushing us forward. Three nights
ago we were at an exceedingly elegant entertain-

94

ment at the Princess Hohenzollern’s, and last night
at her sister's the Princess of Courland, who is a
most beautiful and pleasing woman. Her parties,
which are the finest and the most select, as well as
the most easy and pleasant things going forward
here, occur every octodie of the décade: we have
a general invitation to them, and to her house at
all times ; and every morning when the weather is
good we assemble there to breakfast, and ride on
horseback to the Bois de Boulogne.

Prince Hohenzollern and -Mr. Dernidoff furnish
horses; and Fanny* is in such request as a horse-
woman that she generally has the choice of the
stables. Tonight Fanny means to keep back for
a ball; and tomorrrow at Mrs. Lemaistre’s, an En-
glish lady to whom Lord Henry Petty has intro-
duced us. I intend going to the bal masqué at the
opera, which commences about one in the morning,
and finishes about six or seven; indeed the Pari-
sian hours are very terrible. We never break up
at Madame de Courland’s before five, and at most
other parties three or four.

The carnival has afforded us great amusement :
it was the first regularly observed here since the
Revolution, and, as you may suppose, not wanting
in galety.

I was presented to the First Consul by our Mi-
nister at the audience on Saturday. His manners
are extremely mild and interesting: he talked a
great deal to us, and paid many compliments to the
English nation.

* Mr. Talbot’s sister, now Countess of Morley.

95

Ihave been this morning with a Pole, who knows
a great deal of pictures, to see an immense salon,
opened yesterday at the Louvre, filled with the
choicest morceaux of the whole collection, of which
the small appendix to the catalogue gives you an
account.

We see a good deal of an extremely pleasant
Italian family, whose name is Gallo. The Marquis
de Gallo is ambassador here from Naples, and his
wife a very accomplished woman. We have been
introduced to Lady Mount Cashel, who called on
us yesterday and invited us to a ball, the Ist Ger-
minal. We dined yesterday with the Rohans at
the Bagatelle, and passed the soirée with the Ho-
henzollerns, and have abundance of balls in view for
next week; one of which is to be given by Derni-
doff, the richest man in the Russian empire, and
who prides himself a little on his magnificence,
such as wearing a diamond of 19 carats for a shirt-
pin, &c., and is intended merely to astonish the
people here. His house and his wife’s which ad-
joins it, and both of which are very immense and
fine, are to be laid open forthe night. Adieu! You
will think our heads run only on dissipation.

T. TaLzor.

From Sir Thomas Frankland.

My dear Sir, Chichester, April 25, 1802.

As you probably know the sad event of my en-
deavours last autumn, I shall only say that Iam in

96

good health, supported by hope of re-union with
those whom I most loved, in a happier state !

Our plans are to pass the summer at Brighton:
no place is so agreeable to me as my own home,
where I have been seventeen years collecting sources
of pleasure, though it does not seem to be the will
of God that I should enjoy it. Soon after my arri-
val here I was informed that two of the Duke of
Richmond’s horses had been poisoned by some
plant in their pasture. I remembered the Q@nanthe
crocata* by the side of a rivulet in 1782, and pro-
nounced it to be the evil in question, and was then
told that the pasture is by the side of this very
stream.

I have received the last seven numbers of English
Botany. I observe a good figure of Conferva rosea
(a good name): I found it at Worthing in 1782,
and showed it to Hudson, who thought it his pur-

purascens.
THOMAS FRANKLAND.

From the same.

Dear Sir, Chichester, June 20, 1802.
As Parliament will be dissolved in a few days, I
take the opportunity of writing a few lines by my
brother's fat, whom however I purpose to bring in
again, together with his present colleague.
I received your kind letter, and here conclude my

* Hemlock,—Water Dropwort. See English Botany, fig.
2313; not the Common Hemlock, Conium maculatum.

97

account of the Gnanthe crocata, which I have now
convicted of poisoning two mares in foal belonging
to the Duke of Richmond last November. I have
viewed the field in company with the gardener and
groom, who found one mare dead and the other
dying. The stream (Lavant), which bounds one side
of the field for a considerable length, was quite dry,
~ and I was shown one plant of which the mares had —
evidently dug up the roots with their hoofs. Their
stomachs were full of a white substance like saw-
dust, agreeing exactly with what we observed on
examining the roots this year, which were inter-
mixed with those of last season in decay. The bank
of the stream was abundantly full of the plant, and
more decisive evidence of murder could not be pro-
nounced against it. A few days ago I observed a
horse in a ditch cropping the tops of the plant,
which I suppose are comparatively innocent. The
brood mares possibly might have depraved appe-
tites, which induced them to dig up the roots.
Yours,
THOMAS FRANKLAND.

Viro gravissimo et experientissimo Nature scruta-
tori oculatissimo, D. Smith, Presidi Societatis
Linnzane Londinensis celeberrimo, fautori ae
patrono summo, pietatem, observantiam, obse-
quium spondet Hedwig.

Lipsiz, Aug. 2, 1802.
Quum amicissimus Dawson Turner me per literas
certiorem reddiderit, te, vir gravissime, suscepturum
VOL. IT. H

98

esse non tantum pietatem meam, sed et animi vota
indulgente tua et propria humanitate, suscepi hane
tibi conscribere epistolam, et que fovet pectus
sensa tibi omni probitate proponendi. Fervet enim
adhuc atque exsultat ante omnia animus meus in
tantam tuam benevolentiam, qua olim patrem meum
desideratissimum Societati tue Linneane gravis-
simz socium esse jussisti; honorificentissime sane
et preclare Societatis, quam amant et suspiciunt
quicunque in botanices studiis res suas honestissi-
mas vere agunt. Quid igitur? dum honorem quem
patri optimo parasti, respicio, non possum non,
quam gratias non tam tibi agere, quam referre.

Neque enim Johannis Hedwigii faciem unquam
vidisti, scripta tantum nosti! Jam ut et vultum
ipsius intueri valeas, annulum tibi cum effigie pa-
tris (quem ipse per paucos dies in digitis meis habui
annulum) mitto, humanissimis additis- precibus, ut
hunc annulum digito tuo applicare velis, et ut
patris immortalis faciem agnoscas probi illius et
integerrimi viri, et animi mei grata sensa clariora
suscipias. |

Quzcunque enim patri meo optimo acta sunt,
quam ipse humanitatem ab aliis suscepit, in me col-
locata quasi sentio, et ad finem vite usque grata
mente et sensu habebo. Sed hee hactenus. Sufficit
si a te, que hoc annulo exprimere volui, animo hi-
lari et benevolo suscipiantur.

Quod jam ad ea pertinet, que Dawson Turner,
vir estumatissimus, tecum mei gratia loquutus est,
pertinent ad Filices. Tenes, enim, me in tractandis,
depingendis, et microscopice et analytice describen-

99

dis his stirpibus versari. Dispositionem tuam se-
quuturo multe adhuc desunt filices, que non nisi
benevolentia aliorum, imprimis tua, suscepi pos-
sunt. Si ergo quedam ad labores meos que vel
communicari et tum remitti possint, habes, vel a te
humanitate singulari in me conferri, grato animo et
domi et palam pronunciante suscepturus sum. Nam
quis diffidere posset quod penes te sint mult et
nove filices ex variis terris et regionibus allate, qui
possides plurimorum regionum amicos, qui tenes
Linnei immortalis herbarium et que sunt reliqua.
Si ergo humanitate tua singulari meis studiis suc-
currere velis, persuasum te habeas, non ingrato de-
disse.

Mrs. John Taylor to J. E. Smith.

My dear Friend, Norwich, May 6, 1803.

I should not do justice to my own feelings if I
omitted to send youa few words,—not to express my
sense of your kindness, for that is impossible, -nor
yet to tell you I am better, for this you will learn
without my wasting any paper upon the subject,—
but to keep up in some way the communication
which is suspended by your absence. I have often
told you that the consciousness of yourself and dear
Mrs. Smith being within my reach, the recollection
that I can at any time see you and converse with you,
forms one of the charms of my existence; and time
and habit (which are said to lessen our sense of the
blessings we enjoy) are continually increasing this
feeling in my mind. Indeed, what can time and
habit do, but add to the stores of recollection re-

H 2

100

peated proofs of friendship, or make these proofs
more necessary and dear to us? When you are
away, I think it right, because those who deserve
your society in other places should have a portion
of it, and because you are certainly varying your
enjoyments, and enlarging the sphere both of your
usefulness and of your gratification ; besides, when
you are able to do this, I am easy about your health.
In order to answer the calls made upon you for ex-
ertion (in London particularly) your best health is
necessary. How gladly would I encounter much
more bodily inconvenience than I have lately en-
dured, to have my mind free from anxiety concern-
ing my husband and you! Indeed I have scarcely
thought what I felt was an evil, so many interesting
and pleasing sensations accompanied it,—even those
speculations upon the uncertain tenure of our mor-
tal existence, which a weak state of health naturally
leads to, were wholly unattended on my own account
with agitation or alarm; but for those I love, I am
full of terror and dismay. Well! let me indulge the
pleasing idea that you will meet happily in London,
congratulate each other upon looking well and feel-
ing well; and that, after the time of our separation is
past, we shall all join and rejoice together, and renew
our delightful intercourse. I had another kind visit
from Mr. Trafford lately, when we talked of you
particularly, of our little circle in general, of our
Conversations, and the hope of their renewal.
How many fine things could I say to Mrs. How-
orth and to Mr. and Mrs. Lane, if I were to indulge
my own feelings! and all right, true, and sincere. I
shall always think of them with the respect and af-

101

fection their heads and hearts deserve, and as some
of my most intimate friends, though we only became
acquainted last summer.

Notwithstanding my having just filled two sheets
to the Aikin family, and that I have reached the top
of my third page to you, I know not how to cease
talking to you; remember the restriction which has
been laid upon my tongue, and consider that even
the pen is a welcome substitute. Lucy Aikin 1s
suffering under the same prohibition, and we have
some joking upon the subject,—yet Iam very serious
about her. Her letters contain the sound sense and
just criticism of a healthy mind, whatever may be
the state of her body. Our attention has been much
drawn to Cowper lately,—hers by the perusal of the
new edition of his Iliad, and mine by his Life and
Letters. Whether his interesting and unhappy ma-
lady was purely physical, or whether gloomy reading
and conversation contributed to it,—if [had been his
biographer, I should have freely expressed my feel-
ings respecting Calvinism: you and I cannot bear
such representations of the Father of thie whole hu-
man race*. That I may engross no more of your

* This alludes to the doctrine of election and reprobation: yet
the kindness and christian charity of Sir James’s heart cannot be
more clearly discerned than in his mode of reflecting on certain
doctrines which he considered injurious to the impartial justice
of God, and as tending directly to immorality.—In speaking of
these he often observed, that the goodness of human nature, which
they who hold these opinions so much depreciate, overcomes a
bad system of religion; and that the alembic of an honest heart and
sensitive conscience transmutes a poisonous doctrine into whole-
some food.

102

valuable time, I will beg His blessing upon you
wherever you go. Our children, who have so much
reason to love you, desire their grateful remem-
brances :—you will frequently be the subject of our
conversation, still more frequently of the medita-
tions of your faithful friend,

SUSANNAH TAYLOR.

J. E. Smith ad Mons. Ventenat, de 0 Institut Na-
tional, Bibliothecaire du Pantheon a Paris.
Monsieur, Londres, Juin 20, 1803.

Je viens de recevoir votre lettre obligeante du 30

Germinal, accompagnée des deux superbes livres de

botanique, dont Madame Bonaparte m’a fait hon-

neur denrichir ma bibliotheque. Ayez la bonté,

Monsieur, doffrir 4 cette illustre dame mes plus

humbles remerciments, et de l’assurer que ces livres

et leurs suites feront lornement de ma collection,
par leur propre merite, et comme un temoignage de
son estime. Je ne manquerai pas, aussitdt que les
circonstances le permetteront, de faire passer a Ma-
dame Bonaparte quelques temoignages de ma re-
connaissance, surtout des plantes séches, qui par

Jeur rareté ou leur beauté pourront linterresser, ou

méme des graines pour son jardin. J’attendrai avec

impatience les Numeros suivants du magnifique

Jardin de Malmaison et de Plantes Liliacées, aussi

bien que votre ouvrage sur le jardin de mon bon

ami Cels, que je n’ai pas pu encore me procurer,
mais que j'ai longtemps desiré d'avoir. J’embrasse
avec joie cette occasion de profiter de votre corre-

103

spondence, et je serai tres flatté de vous étre utile a
quelque chose. Peut-étre vous avez vous-méme un
herbier, et que j’y pourrois ajouter quelques plantes
nouvelles. Permettez moi d’observer que votre
Melaleuca gnidiefolia me paroit ma M. thymifolia.
Pour ce qui regarde l’opposition des feuilles de quel-
ques Metrosideros, je puis vous assurer que cest
notre ami Cavyanilles qui a tort.

J’ai donné ordre de faire mention honorable de
vos publications dans nos journaux, quoique je me
fais scrupule de n’y rien écrire moi-méme, afin d’evi-
ter les disputes literaires. Croyez moi, Monsicur,
avec les sentiments de la plus parfaite consideration,

Votre trés humble et trés obéissant Serviteur,

J. EK. Smiru.

From Mons. Ventenat.

Monsieur, Paris, Octobre 10, 1803.

J’ai fait connoitre ’ Madame Bonaparte combien
vous aviez été sensible a la marque destime quelle
vous a donnée, et qui vous etoit due a plusieurs
titres que votre modestie ne me permet pas d’expo-
ser. Elle se fera un plaisir de vous envoyer la suite
des deux collections; et elle a reeommandé devant
moi a son intendant, sil ne trouvait pas moyen de
vous les faire parvenir en le moment, d’en garder le
dépot jusqu’a la premiere occasion favorable. Elle
recevra, Monsieur, avec la plus grande reconnois-
sance les graines que vous voudrez lui envoyer.

Pour ce qui concerne les plantes séches, je vous

104

avouerai franchement qu elles miétoient destinées ;
et puisque vous avez la bonté de m’en offrir, il est
inutile que vous en fassiez deux pacquets: je rece-
vrois deux fois les mémes exemplaires, et je prive-
rois des effets de votre générosité quelque botaniste
qui en sentiroit le prix aussi bien que moi. Je vous
remercie, Monsieur, de ce cadeau que vous voulez
bien me faire; vous enrichirez ma collection, et vous
me mettrez 4 méme d’éviter des erreurs, ayant sous
les yeux des objets de comparaison. Si l'envoi pré-
cieux que vous aviez fait 4 M. de Jussieu fit arrivé
avant la publication de ma premiere livraison, je
naurois pas donné le nom de AZ. gnidiefolia a la
plante que vous aviez déja nommée thymifolia: Cest
un de vos compatriotes, Mr. Kennedy, qui n’induisit
en erreur, en m’assurant que cette espéce étoit par-
faitement nouvelle: voila une preuve de plus pour
moi, que lautorité des cultivateurs n’est pas toujours
d'un grand poids en botanique.

Je serai trés flatté, Monsieur, de vous faire hom-
mage du-J/ardin de Cels: i] men reste encore quel-
ques exemplaires de choix et sur papier vélin. Vous
me ferez plaisir de me procurer une occasion fayo-
rable pour vous en faire parvenir un; j’y joindrai
les livraisons qui auront paru d'un nouvel ouvrage
qui fait suite au Jardin de Cels, et qui est du méme
format: quoique les deux ouvrages ne soient pas
coloriés, je crois quils pourront étre plus utiles a la
science que celui de la A/almaison, ot je me trouve
forcé de faire entrer des plantes déja publiées. Ose-
rois-je, Monsieur, vous exprimer le desir que j’au-
rois de posséder quelques uns de vos ouvrages, que

105

je nai jamais pu me procurer chéz nos libraires de
Paris; savoir, vos Lcones picte, votre Spicilegium,
et Tracts relating to Natural Ehstory.

Soyez assuré, Monsieur, que j’apprécie tous les
avantages que je puis retirer de ’honneur de votre
correspondence. Si j’étois assez heureux pour pou-
voir vous étre ici de quelque utilité, j’en saisirois les
occasions avec bien de l’empressement.

Agréez, je vous price, Monsieur, les sentiments de
la plus haute estime et de la plus parfaite considé-
ration.

VENTENAT.

From the same.

Paris, 28 Nivose, An xii,
Monsieur, 19 Janvier, 1804.

J'ai regu avec dautant plus de plaisir la lettre que
vous m’avez fait ’honneur de m’écrire, que je crai-
gnois dans les circonstances ot nous nous trouvons
de ne point en recevoir:—je vous remercie de
m’avoir indiqué un moyen de correspondence aussi
simple que commode: j’en profite, Monsieur, pour
vous faire passer le Jardin de Cels, et les 4 livraisons
qui ont paru du Chow de Plantes.

J'ai communiqué votre lettre 4 Madame Bona-
parte : elle m’a prié de vous témoigner combien elle
étoit flattée de lintérét que vous preniez a son jar-
din. J’aurois désiré quelle m’etit fait remettre les
fascicules de la Malmaison qui ont été publiés, et
que vous n’avez pas encore recus, pour les réunir
amon enyol; mais il paroit que le nouvel intendant

106

de la Malmaison revendique comme un droit de sa
place, ’avantage de vous les addresser ainsi qu’aux
autres botanistes que j’avois désignes 4 Madame
Bonaparte; je me suis contenté de donner votre
addresse, et d’indiquer le moyen de vous faire par-
venir la suite.

Je récevrai, Monsieur, avec de la reconnoisance,
les objects que vous avez la bonté de me destiner.
Les graines surtout me seront d'une grande utilité.
Les circonstances ont empéché Madame Bonaparte
de se pourvoir chez Messrs. Lee et Kennedy ; et
les envois de graines et de plantes qu’on lui faisoit,
ont été capturés par vos compatriotes.

Je prends la liberté de vous consulter sur un
Echium que jai fait dessiner, et dont je vous ad-
dresse une feuille avec un epillet. Cet :chzuwm est
originaire des Canaries; je crois bien que cest la
giganteum* VAiton, mais les sirige@ ne sont pas
tres sensibles sur les bractées, et sur les calices ; de
plus, les nervures des feuilles sont rougéatres.

Monsieur de Jussieu prétend que c'est une es-
péce nouvelle. Veuillez bien, Monsieur, me faire
‘connoitre votre avis, qui sera pour moi une déci-
sion arrétée. Je désirerois aussi savoir sil’ E'chium
candicans de Jacquin est le méme que celui d’
Aiton}. Messieurs Thouin, Jussieu, Cels, et Des-
fontaines, mont prié de vous témoigner combien
ils étoient sensibles 4 votre souvenir.

Si jétois assez heureux pour pouvoir vous étre
ici de quelque utilité, employez, Monsieur, avec

* Ina marginal note in the original letter-—‘ right”:—J. E. 8.

+ “ Different ”:---J. E. 8.

107

assurance celui qui seroit tres flatté de pouvoir vous
donner des preuves de sa profonde estime.

VENTENAT.

P.S. LInstitut nomme dans ce moment ses
Correspondants ; et sous peu il aura loccasion de
rendre justice au mérite de Monsieur Smith.

J. E. Smith to Dr. Hedwig.

Viro clarissimo, doctissimo, illustrissimi patris filio
dignissimo, D. Romano Adolpho Hedwigio
s. p. d. Jacobus Edwardus Smith.

Literz tue gratissime, vir summopere estimande,
quamvis Augusto mense anni 1802 date, haud ante
Maium anni preteriti ad manus meas pervenerunt.
Responsionem detuli ac procrastinavi, occasionem
exoptans qua fasciculus plantarum, ex desideratis
tuis, ad te mitti potuerit; sed adhuc frustra. Com-
mercium solummodo epistolarum tempora bellicosa
ac portentosa nobis non vetant. Inter arma silent
artes, at diutius non sileat amicitia.

Annulum aureum, et imaginem auro longe cari-
orem, digito jam iteratis vicibus imposui, numquam
meritorum parentis tui immortalis, neque benevo-
lentiz tue, immemor.

Preeclari viri laboribus et doctrina plus plusque
indies fructus ac dilectus sum, cum in FV. Britannice
vol. tertio mox prodituro muscos nostrates ad nor-
mam ejus disponebam. Societati Linneane magno
sane ornamento fuit; sed oculos in filium ejus jam

108

vertimus, nomen tuum, vir clarissime, inter Socios
nostros exterraneos, quam proxime ut eorum nu-
merus legitime augeri possit, facile inscripturi. In-
terea tu valeas, vir optime, mihique semper faveas.
Amicissimus D. Dawsonus Turnerus te ex corde
salutat. Libellum doctum et elegantem de Muscis
Hiberniz jam typis mandavit.

Dabam Nordovici, die 22 Februarii, 1804.—Li-
teris tuis inscribas, “J. E.Smith, M.D., President of
the Linnean Society, Norwich.”

Sir William East, Bart. to J. E. Smith.

My dear Sir, Hall Place, July 25, 1804.
Accept my most sincere thanks for your very
kind remembrance of me, not only by the favour of
your very flattering letter, but for the present which
accompanied it, and which I shall always set a high
value on, as a gift from a person whom I so much
esteem ; and permit me to say, that as there are few
days, perhaps hours, of a man’s life, that are passed
with gratification to our feelings, so shall I look
upon the short time, which you and Mrs. Smith
favoured this place with your company, amongst
the number of our pleasantest moments. But, my
good Sir, you must not, by the rules of plain deal-
ing, allow us barely to taste of the agreeable—you
are bound in conscience, after having once indulged
us, to repeat the favour. May we not then be al-
lowed to expect, when you find yourself inclined to
revisit this part of the kingdom, to recollect those
whom you will make so truly happy, by passing as

109

much time with them as you can afford from your
pursuits in a science the most noble, and the most
worthy of an enlightened mind. I should have been
truly fortunate, if in the younger part of my life I
had fallen into your line of study; for I perceive
those who have done so, by their unwearied attach-
ment, meet with charms which I am absolutely for-
bidden to enjoy ;—and now, alas ! it is too late: the
imagination is no longer vivid enough at sixty-seven
to become enthusiastic; and without some degree of
enthusiasm everything in nature becomes dull and
torpid. Is not this true, my dear Sir, whatever the
philosopher may urge to the contrary? I now ex-
pect, my good friend, you will exclaim—Enthusiasm!
—what but this passion could reconcile you to a
red coat at your time of life? And this charge will
at first sight appear but too well grounded, more
especially so when I declare that the military cha-
racter is the most foreign of all my inclinations ;—
but dread of falling an unarmed victim into the
hands, probably subjected to the persecution of anin-
veterate enemy,—with this further incentive, a desire
natural to an Englishman, to offer, at such a period
as the present, all that was in his power to offer, to
his king and his native country,—this led me id the
adoption of my scheme for the immediate defence
of our own neighbourhood. Had I been a younger
man, I would have offered at this crisis my services
in a more extensive way. Should our threatening
enemy succeed in landing a powerful force, dreadful
will be the consequence, let the conflict end which
way it will: but those unemployed, unengaged in

110

the contest, will be treated with unexampled severity ;
and should the enemy prevail, I could not bear the
thought of seeing those I loved treated with in-
humanity. My witnessing such shocking scenes
could avail them nothing. How muck better then
is it, if necessary, in trying to defend them and
yourself to the last, to end your life in the most
glorious way in defending all that is dear to you ?>—
What will Mrs. Smith say to my long declamation ?
I think, however, and I beg you will tell her so,
that an old captain, a soldier at sixty-seven, deserves
at least, by way of encouragement, the approbation
of the ladies; and you may assure her there is but
one amongst them whose good opinion I should set
a higher value upon than hers.

Having now intruded upon your patience, it is
time that I should release you, by assuring you how
sincerely Lady East and her sister join in every kind
wish with your faithful friend,

W. East.

From Mons. Mirbel.

Monsieur,

Sa Majesté ’Impératrice m’ordonne de vous ad-
dresser la suite de la More de Malmaison et des Lih-
acées. Je saisis cette occasion pour vous offrir mon
traité d’ Anatomie et de Physiologie Végétales. Je
vous prie, Monsieur, dagréer cet ouvrage comme
une marque de ma profonde estime pour vous, et
du prix que j’attache 4 votre jugement. Je serois

111

pénétré de reconnoissance si vous daignez m’honorer
de vos conseils.
Je suis, avec une haute consideration,
Monsieur,
Votre trés humble et trés obeissant Serviteur,

B. MirBeE.L.
De Malmaison, a 13 Prairial, an 12, 1804.

From the Duke of Bedford.

Sir, Woburn Abbey, Noy. 11, 1804.

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 7th instant, inclosing one for Dr. Abbot on
the subject of the Sake Russelliana. I have de-
rived much gratification from the distinct and satis-
factory manner in which you draw the line between
his Willow and the 8. fragzs of Linnzus ; not
merely from the pleasure I feel from everything
that tends to elucidate the science of botany, but
because I have a peculiar interest in this Willow,
from the circumstance of its having been cultivated
here by one * whose most anxious and warmest
pursuit was a knowledge and improvement in every
branch of agriculture, and the consequent benefit
to the community at large. It remains for me only
to return you my best thanks for this obliging com-
munication of your opinion, and to assure you that
I am, Sir,

Your very faithful
BEDFORD.

I have lately discovered accidentally, that my
* His Grace’s brother, Francis Duke of Bedford.

1i2
grandfather introduced the same Willow into his
county forty or fifty years ago, and distributed
plants of it among his tenants ; which perhaps may
give it some additional claim to the specific name
you have been pleased to bestow upon it.

From Mr. Johnes.

My dear Friend, Hafod, Dec. 6, 1804.

I have read Mrs. Barbauld’s Introduction to
Richardson’s Letters. It is most excellent; but
there is a Mrs. Klopstock who goes to your mar-
row, for she pierces through the heart. It isa
charming collection.

I am very proud you continue to like Froissart,
and thank you very kindly for your expressions of
him and me; for I shall tag myself to the old gentle-
man’s skirts, in hopes he will make me mount to
fame with him. I shall go on with Monstrelet, who
has never had an English coat on; and probably
Joinville, by way of zmtermezzo, and to give time to
collations of Monstrelet. Let me know how you
like this plan, for Iam not quite determined as to
Joinville’s Memoirs*. You are among the few who

* Mr. Gray, in a letter to the Rev. N. Nicholls, speaks thus
of these old historians :—‘I rejoice you have met with Froissart :
he is the Herodotus of a barbarous age. Had he but had the luck
of writing in as good a language, he might have been immortal!
His locomotive disposition, (for then there was no other way
of learning things,) his simple curiosity, his religious credulity,
were much like those of the old Grecian. When you have tant
chevauché as to get to the end of him, there is Monstrelet waits to

113

really know me. I will tell you all about Froissart
when we meet. Talk to me of a cart-horse if you
dare! Grub-street is a farce to me. I am hard at
work ; and you will say hard at work, when I keep
two compositors and one pressman fully employed.

I forestalled the puns, or I should have been
borne down by them. I have done with you, when
you condescend to explain them, for a commentary
on a pun is the devil.

Ihave a bridge—beautiful,—through the kind-
ness of Mr. Shepherd, whom you know. Poggio—.
an excellent fellow, with more abilities than one
treble his size. I want to show you the new walk.
It is superbe, and as yet a nondescript.

THoMAS JOHNES.

From Professor Martyn.

Pertenhall, near Kimbolton, Jan. 11, 1806.
Dear Sir,

I thank you for your letter, though I should have
been much better pleased, had you scourged rather
than complimented me.

I was grieved to hear that you had been in a state
of suffering, and that so much of your precious
time had been lost to the public.

I shall take the liberty of continuing the dedica-
tion* to you; for though you have migrated east,

take you up, and will set you down at Philip de Comines ; but
previous to all these you should have read Villehardouin and
Joinville.”
* The Language of Botany ; being a dictionary of the terms,
VOL. II. I

114

and I north-west; yet I still retain the favourable
impression that your agreeable manners in general,
and particular civility to me, made upon me long
since, and beg still to be considered as your friend.
I am persuaded that we shall never quarrel, how-
ever we may differ in opinion. I consider you as
the Establishment, and only desire toleration so long
as I am a quiet subject.

Respecting plante acifole and ordo acifoliarum,
I cannot help you. Drifted might well express
secundus, but I dare not hazard it, any more than
you. I thank you for your hint on propago, which
I had notattendedto. I have long thought general
umbel better than wnwversal. Iam happy you ap-
prove my distinction between /abzate and personate.
Your sanction was wanting to satisfy me entirely.
Downy best expresses tomentosus: I only hesi-
tated on account of pappus being down; but I
adopt seed-down for that, which I have taken from
you. Ihave no objection to anthera, if you will
use antheras, and not anthere, in the plural. I use
corolla and corollas. So nectarium sounds better to
me than nectary; but then it should be nectariums,
and not nectaria, in the plural. My only difficulty
about the final a is, that ignoramuses will use s¢a-
mina in the singular, and s¢¢pu/a in the plural. But
why do I torment you with these trifles? I hasten
to the best part of my letter,—my sincere good
wishes for your health and comfort; for I am, dear
Sir, with much regard,

Yours most faithfully,
Tuomas Martyn.

115

From Dawson Turner, Esq.*

Yarmouth, Feb. 5, 1806.

Knowing, my dear Sir, how frequently you heard
of us by Dr. Rigby, 1 was willing to put off the
painful task of writing to you, as long as I could.
A painful one indeed it is, and yet a most sweet one ;
for without experiencing equal affliction, you can-
not conceive the sensations of pleasure which the
affectionate kindness of my friends has occasioned ;
and to you I may say, what I should be sorry to
say to any other, lest I should be regarded as af-
fected or foolish, that the reading of your letter
drew from my eyes the most delightful tears they
ever shed.

You knew our poor babe, and you always treated
him with a kindness which his mother and I shall
never forget so long as we live; for those who were
kind to him have now the strongest claim upon
our gratitude. You know, therefore, what a loss
we have sustained in being deprived of him, even
without considering those dreadful circumstances
attending his death, upon which I cannot at this
time reflect, without shuddering with horror. And
yet in the midst of this calamity, the mercy of Di-
vine Providence was so striking in the preservation
of my wife and of my remaining children, that, if
it do but please the Almighty that their lives should
be spared, and her health and spirits restored, I feel

* This beautiful letter was written upon the loss of his eldest —
son, a most engaging child, who was, unhappily, burnt to death.

¥ 2

116

that I can in time regard even this visitation in the
true light which I believe that duty to my Maker
requires.

I endeavour again to turn my thoughts to bo-
tany; and though my mind has not yet regained its
spring, I find in it great amusement and comfort
when I walk out alone. I cannot attempt to say,
my dear friend, how much your expressions of af-
fection and friendship have moved me: it gives me
the liveliest pleasure to feel that I have a heart ca-
pable of valuing them, and I trust in God that you
will always find me most anxious to strive to merit
them. If you see anything amiss in my conduct,
my disposition, or my temper, I entreat you, by your
friendship for me, never to let it pass without no-
tice, and I assure you that you shall find me grate-
ful. Conscience indeed speaks, but we learn in
time to disregard her like Amurath’s ring. The
words of a friend are much more sure of being at-
tended to; and when that friend has such a heart,
and leads such a life as you do, it is hardly possi-
ble that they should fail of effect ; at least I would
fain hope so, for the credit of my nature. That I
may, as long as we both live, enjoy and deserve your
friendship, is, I assure you, one of the most earnest
wishes of .

Your truly affectionate and obliged friend,

Dawson TuRNER.

PDA

From Mr. James Lee.

Nursery, Hammersmith, March 11, 1806.
Dear Sir,

We cannot procure any Fuchsia seed, and Dode-
catheon does not ripen in England, and it is now
impossible to send anything to Naples. We should
have wrote to you about this before, but at this
season are so overpowered with business that you
must excuse me. You may depend on it that no
one will be able to make an impression on our
minds unfavourable to you: we have such high
esteem for your abilities, such gratitude in store for
what you have done for science, for the public, and
for us, that we shall always be willing to defend
you on all occasions, and at all points.

We are sorry to have to communicate to you the
death of our dear friend Masson, who died at Mont-
real in January last. We lament his fate most sin-
cerely. He was hardly dealt by, in being exposed
to the bitter cold of Canada in the decline of life,
after twenty-five years services in a hot climate,—
and all fora pittance. He has done much for bo-
tany and science, and deserves to have some lasting
memorial given of his extreme modesty, good tem-
per, generosity, and usefulness. We hope, when
opportunity serves, you will be his champion*.

I am, dear Sir, &c,
JAMES LEE.

* “Francis Masson,” Sir James informs us in his biographical
memoir of this excellent naturalist,—‘ a name which ranks very

118

Lieutenant-Colonel Hardwicke to J. EF. Smith.

My dear Sir, Calcutta, Nov. 4, 1807.

I was a few days since highly gratified by the
receipt of your friendly letter of the 12th of last
April. It is a pleasure I had hardly promised
myself; and I will assure youif my writing now and
then will induce you to spare me sometimes a lei-
sure hour, to keep up the correspondence thus be-
gun, I shall on my part often give you a letter,

high among those who, by encountering personal difficulties and
hardships with the most indefatigable and disinterested zeal, have
promoted botanical knowledge,—was born at Aberdeen in Au-
gust 1741.

“The writer of this,” he continues, “ well recollects the plea-
sure which the novel sight of an African Geranium in Yorkshire
and Norfolk gave him about forty years ago. Now, every gar-
ret and cottage window is filled with numerous species of that
beautiful tribe, and every green-house glows with the innumerable
bulbous plants and splendid Heaths of the Cape. For all these
we are principally indebted to Mr. Masson; besides a multi-
tude of rarities, more difficult of preservation or propagation,
confined to the more curious collections.

“‘ During his stay at the Cape, he entered into correspondence
with the great Linneus. Having discovered a bulbous plant of
a new genus, he was not only laudably ambitious of botanical
commemoration in its name, but he was particularly anxious to
receive this honour from no less a hand than that of his illus-
trious and venerable correspondent. This indeed was the ‘ uni-
cum premium,’ the only reward to which he aspired for all his
labours. He obtained the honour to which he aspired. The
specimen of Massonia in the herbarium of Linnzus, named by
his own trembling hand, near the close of his life, proves that
the name had his sanction.” —Rees’s Cyclopedia.

119

however little important matter I may have to com-
municate. Iam quite out of the way just now of
adding to my collection of drawings, unless I were
to take my subjects from the botanical garden ;_ but
as that would be a species of robbery or encroach-
ment upon Dr. Roxburgh’s province, I must wait
with patience till my professional duties call me to
the upper provinces of Hindostan, when I shall hope
once more to range in the same field I have hi-
therto found so interesting and productive.

Since my arrival at Calcutta, my attention has
been more directed to the collecting of insects than
anything else, and in which I have heen very suc-
cessful ; for I am just now in possession of a very
splendid assortment, from which I hope some day
or other to add useful varieties to your cabinet.

I am sorry, my dear Sir, to find you have been less
successful in the circulation of that beautiful work
Exotic Botany, than its merits deserve; and I feel
it an addition to the disappointment, that every
number I received from your bounty was swal-
lowed up by the merciless ocean. It makes me
melancholy almost, when I reflect on the valuable
books and papers I lost on that unlucky event, the
loss of the Lady Burgess; and the drawings of in-
sects which you and Mr. Marsham admired so much,
unfortunately were with me.

I am very glad Dr. Buchanan preferred leaving
his collection of dried plants and drawings with
you. He set out on his statistical mission about a
month gone, and the early part of his route is
through a country little explored, and rich in vege-

120

table productions. His views have met the aid and
encouragement of Government, and he travels with
more useful advantages than an individual would
be likely to obtain without such powerful assist-
ance.

Mr. Fleming and myself have often indulged in
conversation about you. He has a great desire to
be better known to you; but how soon he may
have that opportunity I cannot say. He is here in
the full enjoyment of health and all the ease and
luxury aman can wish for ; consequently he is very
indifferent about leaving the country.

Dr. Roxburgh arrived here a few weeks since,
and is as busy as ever. I have this moment a note
from him, wherein he says, “I am surrounded and
in confusion with the various parts of a new palm
from the Moluccas, which is now in flower.” In
my next I may be able to tell you something about
this said palm, as I mean to go down to the garden
in a day or two.

I find the plant which produces that valuable drug
in the Materia Medica, Columba Foot, is at length
ascertained. It proves, I believe, to be a species of
Menispermum, just what I some years ago pre-
dicted, when I sent Dr. Roxburgh specimens of a
root bearing close resemblance with Columba Root,
and used by the natives of Hindostan in the same
cases you use that plant. This was also a AZeni-
spermum.

Pray, my dear Sir, make my best respects to
Mrs. Smith. How often do I reflect with feelings
of pleasure on the few happy days I passed in the

121

society of your family and friends! And may I add,
without being suspected of studied compliment, I
shall never lose the remembrance of those friendly
attentions you favoured me with, and the engaging
manners which made your fireside so desirable. Be
assured you will soon have another visit from me
after I return to Old England. Let me know what
I can procure you in India, in the vegetable king-
dom. In September last I dispatched a parcel of
seeds for the Marquis of Blandford; and the half
of this packet I intended for your friend Colonel
Johnes.

Let me repeat, I shall always be highly gratified

with your correspondence, and that I am, dear Sir,
Your obliged and faithful
T. HarpwickeE.

From W. G. Maton, M.D.

My dear Sir, Spring Gardens, Dec. 19, 1807.

The specimen sheet of our new Pharmacopeia
is just gone to the press, and I hope to be able to
send you a copy for your perusal very soon. I
have named the new Melaleuca, Cajeputi ; and had
I all the requisite specimens of that tree before me,
I believe I should have been tempted to draw up a
description of it, under the above name, to be laid
before the Linnean Society; but as it would be
done so much better by yourself, I trust that you
will some day give it, by way of supplement to your
observations on the genus, in our third volume. I

122

had not the pleasure of hearing your paper on the
Vitellus of Seeds, which I regretted much. It has
been talked of a good deal among our botanical
brethren ; but few of them are competent to judge
of its merits, and those who are disposed to be cri-
tics-in-chief on all occasions, have not ventured to
arraign any part of your positions.

Your late publication is lying on my table, and I
greedily devour its excellent contents, though, from
the professional interruptions I experience, it is
only by fits. I do not misinterpret, I think, an
allusion in the preface on the subject of Paradise *.
When may we hope to see the Lapland Tour in its
English dress? I am quite impatient to peruse it,
as indeed everything that is sent into the world by
you.

Yours most truly,

W. G. Marton.

* This alludes to a passage in the Introduction to Botany, in
which the author observes, that ‘* None but the most foolish or
depraved could derive anything from the pursuit of this science
but what is beautiful, or pollute its lovely scenery with unamiable
or unhallowed images. Those who do so, either from corrupt
taste or malicious design, can be compared only to the fiend en-
tering into the garden of Eden.”

123

CHAPTER IX.

Correspondence of Andrew Caldwell, Esq. ;—and a few other
Letters relative to Ireland.

THE correspondent whose letters here appear was
an Irish gentleman who represented Downpatrick in
parliament in 1788; and when the compiler of these
memoirs had first the pleasure of being made ac-
quainted with him, in the year 1799, was verging
towards sixty. Of the mildest aspect and highly
polished manners, a tinge of melancholy cast a shade
over his dignified deportment, which at once en-
gaged the affections on his side, and broke every
barrier of formality and reserve. He lived much
among persons of high birth, and his conversation
was replenished with anecdote and entertainment,
enlivened with the peculiarly pleasing manner and
dialect of the superior ranks in the sister isle.

He had a noble generosity of spirit, and his com-
passionate heart revolted at oppression in every
form; but especially did he deplore and execrate the
merciless traffic in negro slaves. He read with re-
markable grace, and recited poetry with more than
common tenderness; he was altogether a being of
a higher order. “ How is it,” asks Burns, “ that in
the short stormy winter day of our existence, when
you now and then in the chapter of accidents meet

124

an individual whose acquaintance is a real acqui-
sition, there are all the probabilities against you
that you shall never meet that valued character
more?”

This amiable man regrets his separation from the
friends he so greatly honoured with his regard, in
terms not unlike those in which Mr. Davall ex-
presses himself. ““ Often,” says Mr. Caldwell, “do
I lament being deprived of more frequent enjoy-
ment of your presence and conversation ; but such
is the condition of life, that variety of advantages
cannot be had at once; we must learn to be content
with them separate and occasionally.”

The first letter in this correspondence, from
A. B. Lambert, Esq., is inserted among Mr. Cald-
well’s, in consequence of its relating, like a few
others in this selection, to Ireland only.

Mr. Lambert to Sir J. E. Smith.

Dear Sir, Castle Bourke, near Tuam, May 1790.

I hope you received the letter I wrote just before
my leaving England. Ever since my arrival here
I have been taken up with business, so that I have
not been able to pay that attention to the natural
history of this country I could wish. I have been
this last month in the county of Mayo, at West-
port, the seat of Lord Altamont, surrounded by the
Hibernian Alps,—the most mountainous country I
ever saw ; near it is the famous mountain of Croagh
Patrick, reckoned one of the highest in Ireland,

125

which seems to promise a fine field for a natu-
ralist. It took me up two hours walking from the
foot to the top of it. I found the Andromeda Da-
becia * growing in great abundance on the sides of
the mountains; the Empetrum nigrum, and some
other plants which were new to me, and not being
in flower I could not determine them; and within
a few yards of the top, the Saxfraga umbrosa, the
London Pride, not in Hudson. If any one should
wish for any plants of the dndromeda Dabecia, I
could send him plenty. I hope this summer to

* Figured in the first volume of English Botany, p. 35, under
the name of Erica Dabeoci, Irish Heath. This genus is now re-
moved to Menziesia by Jussieu and Swartz. See English Botany,
vol. xxxv. p. 2469.

The following letter to Sir J. E. Smith, from R. Duppa, Esq.
of Lincoln’s Inn, dated July 1827, may here furnish a note re-
specting this genus.

Dear Sir,—Somewhere or other I think I have met with an
assertion that there was but one Heath indigenous to Ireland, and
that is now removed to the genus Dabecia!. My question is,
whether, of the four species of English Heath, any one is found
wild in Ireland? and also, if our English Heaths are not found in
Ireland, whether the bogs of Ireland are composed of the roots of
the Dabeecia, the Salix herbacea, or what ?

The Erica vagans is peculiar to Cornwall.—Query, are the
Erica vulgaris, cernua and Tetralix found in Cornwall as well as
the vagans? and is the Dabeecia, which is peculiar to Ireland,
never found in any other country that we are acquainted with?

R. Durpa.

1 Mr. Duppa probably meant Menziesia ; there is no genus
Dabecia. The plant was called Andromeda Dabeecia in Linn.
Syst. Veg. It is named Dabeoci after St. Dabeoc, whence the
Linnean trivial name has been corruptly taken,

126

be able to give you a good account of the plants of
Mayo; and nothing would give me greater pleasure
than to see a brother member of the Linnzan So-
ciety at Castle Bourke where I reside, which is situ-
ated on Lake Carra, joining Lake Mask and Lake
Corrib; being surrounded with immense high
mountains and bogs, which seem to promise much
gratification to a botanist, and have been, I believe,
but little examined. Dr. Brown, the author of the
Natural History of Jamaica, I heard chiefly resided
in lodgings at Ballinrobe. I paid him a visit one
morning, and found him in bed quite a cripple with
old age and the gout. He showed me a copy of a
Flora Hibernica, which seemed not much more than
a catalogue, and very imperfect. Some old plants
he has mentioned as new species, and showed me a
specimen of the Juncus sylvaticus for one. The
copy that was in London is coming over here for
correction, which I rather think he will have some
difficulty in doing. He talked to me a great deal
about the Jamaica plants, and the number he had
formerly sent to Linnzeus, who he told me corre-
sponded with him above twenty years ago.

I saw at Lord Altamont’s the true Irish wolf-
dog; he has seven of them, and the only ones now
in Ireland. His brother has given me a very good
painting of one of the largest, done the natural
size.

In a letter from Dr. Pulteney, he writes me word
you mention some sheets of a botanic work which
straggled to London last year, nobody knew to
what they belonged. I believe I can inform you;

127

they came from hence, being part of an intended
Flora Dubliniensis, published by Dr. Wade, a phy-
sician here, and a very good botanist. He has been
the means of establishing a botanic garden here.
Having very lately applied to parliament for that
purpose, they have granted three hundred pounds
for the first year to begin it; and I believe Dr.
Wade will have the direction of it. He was with
me yesterday, and wishes very much to become a
correspondent with the Linnzean Society, and like-
wise to establish one in this country on the same
plan as ours, and he will be much obliged to you
to send him the rules, &c. Iam very glad to hear
from Dr. Pulteney that the Linnean Society will
soon publish a volume of deta. Any botanical
news will be very acceptable to me, as Iam now in
a kingdom that is not very famous for science, and
I do not find it very easy to get information.

I am, dear Sir, yours, &c.

A. B. LAMBERT.

P.S. The following account is in a book lately
published in Ireland, which perhaps you may not
have seen: “‘On the see lands of the Bishop of
Dromore were found in 1783 a pair of elk horns,
which measured from tip to tip fourteen feet four
inches, as also almost the entire skeleton, in the
most perfect preservation, of the enormous animal
that wore them. From the length of the bones of
his fore-legs he is judged to have been almost
twenty hands high.

128

I inclose you a drawing of an insect called the
Borer, which has occasioned more destruction
among the sugar-canes in the West Indies than the
Hessian Fly has in America.

From Andrew Caldwell, Esq.

Sir, Dublin, Sept. 23, 1793.

Your polite attention, when I took the liberty of
writing to you before, gives me courage to intrude
on you again. I hope you will have pleasure in
being informed that a garden for indigenous botany,
under the patronage of the Dublin Society, is a
measure determined upon. A committee, at the
head of which is Mr. Forster, speaker of the House
of Commons, and of which I have the honour to be
a member, is vested with proper powers and a sum
of money for purchasing ground. We have actu-
ally agreed for the house and garden formerly be-
longing to Dr. Delany. It is within a short mile
of town, the soil excellent, the ground well varied
with high and low, a small stream running through;
it seems well adapted in every respect. I mention-
ed to the Speaker that I had hinted this already to
you :—it gave him great pleasure; and whenever we
get possession, and are enabled to begin the gar-
den, you shall be principally consulted, and your
advice and assistance chiefly reliedon. ‘The ground
consists of eleven acres, which is more than seven-
teen English acres. It is at present too much co-
vered with trees, but I shall be for cutting down
sparingly and with caution. Much of the old-

129

fashioned garden remains, and is pretty in its kind.
It is a sort of classic ground, having been admired
and frequented by Swift, and all the people of lite-
rature of that day. The Speaker proposes that
this should also be a garden for agricultural expe-
riments: I cannot say that I agree with him per-
fectly in this scheme. There was a similar project
undertaken by the Dublin Society several years
ago, and it turned out very unfortunately. They
brought over a gentleman from England, a Mr
Wynne Baker, rented a large farm for him, and
allowed him a salary of 300/. per annum. But
this did not satisfy him; he was for ever bringing
in bills for contingencies, and carrying them by his -
influence. He was a man of talents, agreeable
conversation, and convivial: an excellent farmer at
his desk and over the table, but execrable in the
field. When I first became a member of the So-
ciety, there was regularly a pitched battle twice
a-year between him and the real public-spirited
gentlemen; but Baker always brought down a
crowd of jovial squires and members of parliament,
and outvoted us. A fever at last carried him off,
and relieved the Society ; and had he lived on, he
would long before this have swallowed up the Dub-
lin Society and their funds altogether. I confess,
after this experiment, I am dreadfully afraid of any-
thing like a renewal.

I cannot help saying 1 am charmed with the ac-
curacy of the figures, and the clearness and ele-
gance of the descriptions in the English Botany:
nothing can be more complete.

VOL. Il. K

130

I have not seen Dr. Martyn’s Botanic Dictionary.
That, if well executed, would be a very convenient
and desirable work; but dictionaries are generally
loaded compilations, in which you meet with a
crowd of things, except the very thing you want to
find. It would be excellent if he would refer to
the particular flower, leaf, plant, or root, that might
illustrate his article: he should mention three or
four of the sort, that if the reader could not pro-
cure one, he might another. A collection of dried
specimens, ranged in the order of the dictionary,
would explain the terms infinitely beyond any
plates or verbal descriptions that could be given.
The reader should be impressed with a particular
caution as to terms that resemble and might be
easily confounded ; for instance, pinnatifid and
pinnate,—the one seeming the substantive, and the
other the adjective. I could wish Linneus had
dropped one of those terms, and invented a new
word. The difference between Ranunculus Flam-
mula and &. Lingua is not very satisfactory : the
Flammula is not procumbent, and difference as to
size is vague and uncertain: if it be decided that
the bottom leaves of one are always ovate, though
concealed in the grass, and the other never so, that
would be something to depend on. I wonder it

“is not mentioned that the leaves rise each from a
sheath that envelopes the stalk. There is often oc-
casion to lament that, in describing a flower, the
student is not sufficiently cautioned against con-
founding it with another to which it may bear a
striking resemblance; for example, Stachys and

131

Galeopsis, and many flowers of that class. The
most of the umbelliferous weeds are subject to the
same perplexity. Ifthere could be a precise posi-
tive character pointed out to refer to at once, it
would save much time and trouble.

Iam, Sir, your most humble servant,

A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

My dear Sir, Dublin, Nov. 17, 1795.

Ihave a long time owed you some account of
myself; I flatter myself at least that you expect it
from me, and think it your due. Nothing enter-
taining occurred on the journey ;—the weather
pleasant, and North Wales I had often traversed
before. We had a good passage from Holyhead,
and the ladies under my charge landed safe in Dub-
lin. My stay there was but for a few days, being
obliged to go to the country on particular business.
Though I travelled many miles, I cannot say the
landscape anywhere was as beautiful as what you
showed me in the neighbourhood of Norwich; if
truth must be uttered, it was more the reverse than
you could conceive. The posting too, I think,
would not have put Dr. Smollet into good humour.
The first chaise, of a venerable antiquity, broke all
to pieces and overset, just as it came to the end of
the pavement; e¢ pour comble de disgrace, a fair
stranger, a cousin of mine from Shrewsbury, was
under my care: this was her first adventure in a

K 2

132

foreign land; but we escaped with whole bones ;—
the journey altogether atragi-comedy. Having set
down my English girl at a friend’s house, I pro-
ceeded further. You shall be spared an exact re-
cital of all the varieties: I shall only mention, I
was obliged to get out of the chaise at half-past
seven at night, on the top of a mountain, and walk
five miles to the house to which I was bound; the
chaise, meanwhile, left amongst the wild natives to
be dragged on till horses could be sent to meet them,
the hacks positively refusing to stir a step,—I be-
lieve, indeed, perfectly unable. The natives little
dreamed two thousand guineas were shut up in
the seat of the chaise. Had they known the se-
cret, such is their simplicity, Iam not sure but the
shiners might have been as safe as near the police
of your great metropolis. I thought it, however,
as well not to put the moral sense unnecessarily to
the test. The night was fair, and a little moon
out, but such a storm of wind, and in my face, that
it retarded my march excessively. It was the night,
I believe, that did so much damage in England. I
often involuntarily recollected my late travelling
companion,—not that I wished him to share the
distress, but if by chance he had been there, his
presence would have cheered me.

I presume you did not forget the engaging bird
at Exeter Change, whether or not it be the Zurdus
nitens.

Dr. Wade last summer had the ardour to make a
stolen visit to the Giant’s Causeway, to search for
the Sci/a verna, having met in a manuscript note

133

in an old book that it grew there. He found it in
abundance, and brought away some roots.
Yours most sincerely,

A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

My dear Sir, Dublin, April 5, 1796.

I am highly gratified by the interesting commu-
nication in your last letter. I hope one day or other,
at no very distant period, the lady of your choice
will honour me with a place amongst the number
of her friends. I claim that from partiality to you,
and generous resignation to the formidable rival of
botany and me. It is true I can no longer flatter
myself with the imagination of exploring together
this Western Isle, or still less of visiting Italy with
one whose taste and mine are so congenial; yet,
notwithstanding, I willingly raise my voice.

Tu festas, Hymenee, faces; tu, Gratia, flores
Elige; in geminas, Concordia, necte coronas.

My warmest wishes are for a long continuance of
health to you and yours. You have too just a sense
of worldly prosperity to look for happiness on any
other principle than your own moderate desires,
goodness of heart, and ingenious occupations.

I have little to say about myself; it is unavoid-
able not to share in some degree in the dissipation
of a great town: that so ill suits my disposition now,
that I am never so contented as when alone, sur-
rounded with my books.

134

A gentleman of your name is come over; he has
brought several valuable things he purchased at the
Duchess of Portland’s sale; he told me he laid out
there upwards of two thousand pounds. Perhaps
you may know who he is?

A friend at Liverpool is to lend me Lorenzo de’
Medici: I wish much to read, since you recom-
mend it.

Yours ever,
A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

My dear Friend, Dublin, Jan. 6, 1797.

You might accuse me of the spirit of retaliation,
but I believe you think better of me than to suppose
such a motive. The influence of procrastination is
too powerful, and I fear I am as little able to resist
as those who are much my superiors.

There was amomentary feeling of regret at finding
you intended to remove,—an involuntary impulse
towards self; but I soon coincided with your ideas,
and allowed that you judged right.—How things
come about! My station is so distant from Nor-
wich, it is one of the last places I could have thought
of. I now think myself connected there.

Let me now give you my own history. The
months of June and July being incessant rain, al-
most confined me to the house; August clearing up
and promising well, the knight sallied forth. The
first excursion was to a place called Ross Trevor,
situated on Carlingford Bay, a high hill with oak-

135

wood down to the strand; lofty mountains all round,
except the mouth of the bay, which is broad and
due east. It is the prettiest place I have seen in this
country, and wants nothing but English taste and
opulence. I thought it was hardly ever visited, but
found it a noted resort for bathing and dissipation,
and the second evening met a multitude of acquaint-
ances; so next morning I packed off, and strayed
on to Tullymore Park, Lord Clanbrassil’s, a fine re-
tired spot,—a mountain his lordship has planted
almost to the summit, a very rocky glyn witha fine
stream terminated by the sea. His lordship has
naturalized Antirrhinum Cymbalaria. It seems to
grow spontaneously on bridges and rocks.

I then moved forwards to Donoghadee, to visit
my friend Mr. Arbuckle, who is collector there. He
was just gone over to Port Patrick, but expected to
return immediately. I waited three days, having ac-
quaintances, and Mr. A.’s elegant botanic garden,
where several plants of Veronica decussata formed
great bushes in the open ground, covered with profu-
sion of blossoms. It is strange it will hardly flower
here, nor at Lord Clanbrassil’s at Dundalk. Growing
tired of waiting for my friend, I determined to join
him at Port Patrick ;—we sailed the same morning,
and crossed in the middle of the channel; so on land-
ing in Scotland I found myself alone. I resolved
however to proceed, and went the first ten miles-to
Castle Kenedy, Lord Stair’s. There is arising ground
very nearly surrounded by two fine lakes, with some
wooded islands; the ancient castle, burnt in the
year 1716, but the walls strong and good, stands
elevated on the summit of the ground, a fine plat-

136

form round, and the sloping sides thick-planted,with
many avenues cut in the stairway down to the lakes,
It looks like a magician’s castle in romance, shut up
by dark woods and lakes. It strikes me as a fine
place, and wants only a long range of hill on the
opposite side of a lake, and to have a thick mass of
planting. Iresolved to push on to Glasgow, to re-
view early scenes of happiness in my college days ;
—went in my way to look at Cullean, Lord Cassilis’s.
It is a magnificent castle, lately built. It stands on
the edge of a precipice 150 feet above the sea; fine
views of the Arran mountains at a great distance ;
the plantations extensive, and all thriving in the
most exposed situation that can be imagined ; it is
a prodigious fine place.

Glasgow has double the inhabitants since I first
knew it. I spent ten days there with an old friend.
The town is now elegantly built, but they assured
me was nothing to Edinburgh. I returned .to Port
Patrick by another road, Paisley, Port Glasgow, and
Greenock. The view when you come to the Frith
of Clyde is beyond anything seen in Wales: the
vast expanse of water; Dumbarton, with its double
summits, on the opposite side; Ben Lomond’s vast
pyramid rising behind; the mountains of Bute and
Arran; the numerous cultivated seats and planta-
tions on the low ground near the water,—form the
noblest assemblage that can be imagined.

The remainder of the journey was coastways to
Port Patrick ; very charming, but the weather was
bad. Ayrshire and all about Glasgow is richly im-
proved; the trees only want age, and twenty years
hence the country will look as well as England.

137

I believe August is a bad month for botany ; the
fructification of most plants is over, and the Crypts
not come on. I found a profusion of Parnassia,
larger and more luxuriant than I had ever seen in
England or Ireland. Campanula rotundifolia covers
the fields, but no Echzwm or Verbascum. Rhodiola
yosea is found on one side of Port Patrick, but I
took the wrong side and missed it.

I spent a few days with Mr. Arbuckle. Lord and
Lady Clanbrassil landed and staid with us. I then
moved slowly on, having visits to a numerous cou-
sinhood. I gave three days to each, and seldom
more than five miles to go atatime. My last stop
was at Dundalk, forty miles from Dublin; a few
days there with Lord Clanbrassil. He goes first
there when he comes from England. The house is
an old patched one close on the street, but the
grounds behind quite in the country, and beautiful,
Here he has his garden and hot-houses. He is very
worthy and a great amateur, but not scientific; every-
body needs not be so. I have not room, I see, for all
my travels. When I came back to Dublin I was
obliged.to set out for the south, chiefly on business.
I am home, and settled about a month.

A. CALDWELL.

The two following letters relate to the state of
insurrection and rebellion in which Ireland was in-
volved at the period at which they were written. In
the first of these, dated May 16, 1797, Mr. Caldwell
addresses his correspondent thus :

“Tt is difficult now to think of any subject but

138

the alarming state of this country. A secret com-
mittee of the two Houses of Parliament have just
published their Reports. I wish I could send them
to you; they are worth your looking into, and are
curious historical documents. The Lords state that
it was calculated by one of the leaders of the con-
spiracy, that 30,000 persons must be massacred. I
understand, however, this was only from oral testi-
mony, and therefore to be received cum grano.

The Report of the Commons is satisfactory, and
seems well supported by evidence. Great ability
and contrivance is shown by the conspirators, and
yet many of the managers perfectly illiterate, and
not able to spell common words. If the French
could land a tolerable force here, the country is lost.
I perhaps, if I escaped with my life, should be a poor
emigrant; but I have not strength to work ina
garden like Mr. M‘Mahon ;—I don’t know what I
am fit for. Alas! I have this moment received very
melancholy news,—the death of a brother-in-law, a
most worthy man, and of great consequence to his
family; and a niece, an amiable young woman, very
happily married in Yorkshire. Between the public
and private distresses,every thing around me wears
gloom and melancholy.”

From the same.

My friend, Dublin, July 11, 1798.
What have I done, that you should forget me en-
tirely, and in the hour of peril and distress? I am,
it is true, alive and safe; and that probably I owe to

139

having command of myself enough to submit to
confinement in Dublin. All this fine summer, un-
usually so, has been lost in the smoke and dust of
a populous city. We seem secure here, and that 1s
the utmost ‘can be said ;—but we live in a state of
siege. All the avenues into town are secured with
guards and palisades; we must keep strict hours,
and be at home at nine o'clock :—that perhaps will
not appear to you a hardship, yet it is to sober
people like me an inconvenience, and sometimes
debars one from little indulgences. The pleasures
of rural excursions and country life are totally pro-
hibited. There is no safety, except military are quar-
tered at hand. What a misfortune is civil war!
You can form no idea of it: and though it may be
supposed that, with the great force now collected
here, a rabble, undisciplined, without leaders of emi-
nence, or concerted plan, must be supprest ; yet it
will, their numbers being very great, require time ;
and we fear that when the days grow short, and
winter comes on, there will be numbers of irregular
banditti in various directions ; so that it will be ex-
tremely dangerous to stir from home. I don’t choose
to mention particular facts ; it would be a long hi-
story, and not agreeable enough to compensate for
the trouble of reading it. I can say no more than
you will find in the newspapers ; and I am the less
inclined, as reports are spread every hour, and the
last always contradicting the preceding :—we are
confounded, and live in a state of constant suspense.

The night before last, the 9th, a sudden engage-
ment happened ata place within two miles of town.

140

A small body of rebels came down from the moun-
tains ; a few were killed on both sides; four priso-
ners were immediately shot, and five others brought
into town, tried and condemned at a court martial,
and they are executing at this very moment. Such
things are so frequent, nobody wonders or seems
concerned.

I fear you have lost your lively friend Dr. Gwynn.
You may imagine we have had little temptation for
botanical researches; yet it was a solace to turn
one’s thoughts to the subject: it served at least to
divert the attention from painful images.

I should have taken a jaunt to England, but it
was neither decent nor safe to leave home and all
my little concerns, when the country was in a state
of confusion and trouble.

I beg my most affectionate remembrance to your
mother and all your ladies, and am,

Dear Sir,
Yours sincerely,

A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

Christus natus est. 1798.
All the people of my neighbourhood are at their
devotions in church; the streets are as silent as
midnight, and I seize the quiet hour to write to my
friend. It is a long interval since the date of your
last favour; but procrastination is not altogether
the fault ;—I sometimes restrain myself, fearing to

appear a troublesome, importunate correspondent.

141

Nothing better occurs than to give you a history
of my life and labours ;—very unimportant, but the
partiality of friendship will receive the account with
indulgence.

The very day after the news that the French had
surrendered at discretion, I went into the packet for
Holyhead, the 5th, I believe, of September. The
scheme was to ramble for three or four weeks, to
visit several places that we have long been in the
habit of passing by, and never seeing.

The first place was Conway. It was too late for
much botany, but the sea prospect and the country is
beautiful. I then turned back and stopped at Aber.
I went up there to the top of a mountain, but met
with no plant worth notice; the dry, barren summit
of a mountain is not the place to expect botanic
curiosities. Hearing at the inn of Mr. Davies, I
immediately wrote to him; he came directly, and
in two hours you would have thought we had been
acquainted all our lives,—such is the liberality and
advantage of science. He is a most pleasing, well-
informed companion: his kindness and attention
were such that I staid six days. We were every day
together *.

There is aromantic glyn two miles long adjoining
the inn; it is closed at the end by a deep rock, down

* The amiable naturalist here mentioned is the Rev. Hugh
Davies, a correspondent and friend of Sir James.

* Surely no chemical affinity is stronger than that of congenial
minds !”’—and these two admirers of nature, Mr. Caldweil and
Mr. Davies, were remarkably similar in character, if we may

judge from the similitude of their feelings, as expressed in their
letters.

142

which a torrent rushes, and rolls through the glyn
over a rugged channel to the sea, which bounds the
other end, where the entrance of the glyn is. We
found Polypodium fragile, cristatum, Filix mas and
fem., Asplenium adiantum nigrum; and I gathered
the Papaver cambricum, some of which was still in
flower. There is plenty of Lichen geographicus and
concentricus, Sedum Telephium and reflexum.

All over that part of Anglesea is the greatest
abundance of Lychnis flore rubro, which I remark
because scarcely to be found here, though the coasts
are opposite, and the soil similar in all appearance.
It seems difficult to account for the predilections of
plants.

Bangor was the next: I prefer it to most places;
you have prospects of sea, mountains, islands, woods,
and can never want a varied entertaining walk. ' I
went to visit Lord Penrhyn’s slate quarry, rather
unwillingly: it is well worth seeing, and I had like
to have missed it. I was at Beaumaris and Caer-
narvon, towns worth seeing for their pretty situa-
tions and fine old castles, now picturesque ruins.
I went to the famous copper-mine at Paris Mount;
they have now got to a prodigious depth, but, con-
trary to most cases, the ore is not so good as near
the surface. There is so much sulphur produced,
you might think yourself at Solfatara. I came home
after an excursion of five weeks: my return was
unlucky ;—incredible as it may seem, I was five days
getting from Holyhead, when the passage ought to
be in twelve hours.

Mr. Templeton has been in town for a few days.

143

I never saw him before ; he is an alert, active bota-
nist; knows every thing at sight. We went toge-
ther toa friend’s about ten miles off on the sea-side;
it came ona storm, and so tremendous a surf it was
impossible to walk on the beach. He picked up a
Chlora perfoliata withered, but with ripe seed; it
don’t grow in this country; it seemed as much joy
as a good prize in the lottery.

You hear, I suppose, of the project for a Union.
It occasions much agitation here ; the majority are
strongly against it, but the country appears totally
indifferent as yet, and to take no part.’ A great deal
can be said for and against it; future consequences
must be conjectural and uncertain; that is one ar-
gument against a change. “ Better, perhaps, to bear
the ills we have, than fly to others that we know
not of.”

I must own, England appears in a desperate situ-
ation, notwithstanding the showy victories. The
worst of all, public spirit is gone; the country has
not energy to make resistance; the Constitution is
no more than a fiction, but everybody has entered
into a tacit consent to suppose it a real existence.
The power of the Crown is become irresistible. The
new scheme of inquisition into every man’s private
circumstances is beyond any attempt I ever heard
of under Louis XIV.

The disturbances here are so far at an end, that
the people don’t assemble in large bodies ; but the
roads are dangerous, and houses in the country are
repeatedly attacked. Discontent and disaffection
prevail as much as ever.

144

Your volume of Tracts I have seen, but would not
read till I get my own copy: all that came over are
already sold. I have got an opportunity of sending
your order to White ;—bid him give me a choice
copy; but I am sorry there cannot be “ex dono” in
your own hand. You ought by this time to be think-
ing of the new edition of your Travels. I am anxi-
ous for one improvement,—that you should men-
tion where good plates of the several articles of bo-
tany and natural history are to be met with. I mean
to begin reading the Travels again immediately.

I have just had a letter from Mr. Davies. He
laments the decease of Mr. Pennant; so must every
friend to science and a respectable character.

Yours sincerely,
A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

My dear Sir, London, August 30, 1799.

The agreeable manner in which you contrived my
time should pass,—your kindness,—Mrs. Smith’s,
and all your friends’-—was more than sufficient to
make me regret leaving Norwich: we must, how-
ever, submit to destiny, and often practise self-de-
nial. Yarmouth was so full, the landlord of the inn
where I stopped looked frightened at seeing me :-—
“Sir, if you were to give fifty guineas I could not
let you have a bed.” He calmed on my assuring
him I wanted nothing more than the loan of a room
for half an hour to dress myself. All I could get
was the common powdering room.

145

The Greek botany I shall never live to see the
end of; I had not even time to look through the
thousand drawings. With what pleasure I recollect
the quiet studious hours in your library! It put me
in mind of college days; young men then frequently
study together. It is not in every one’s company
now, that I can read with attention ; but you never
were a discomposure, nor I flatter myself was I to
you: I was sometimes impelled by curiosity to ask
a question, but I believe not too often.

I could not find the A4rabis stricta at St. Vincent's
Rock: the plant is too small to be easily seen, and
I had no one to direct me to the particular situation.
I observed the Gentiana, I believe the 4marella, on
the other side of the water; plenty of Geranzum
sanguineum, looking beautiful; both the Lychnis
diotca’s; and, in a woody glyn,a pretty lilac-coloured
mushroom.

Yours sincerely,
A. CaLDWELL.

P.S. We are sensible of the kind concern you
express for Lord Cloncurry. I got leave to visit him
twice: he is perfectly well in health, and his apart-
ment as pleasant as a prison will admit; but two
great battle-axes, beef-eaters, in the room night and
day, and they are as much prisoners as he is; but
they are changed every week. The young lord will
never be brought to trial; they have nothing against
him, except being warm in opposition, and impru-
dent. It is not unlikely they may detain him till
the war is over. He has a fine fortune, but greatly

VOL. Il. L

146

exaggerated in the newspapers. His three sisters
have 30,000/. a-piece, which is uncommon here;
and very good girls they are. The father did not
heap all on the one son. We are very tranquil here
and in all parts of the country; yet the newspapers
give quite a different account.

From the same.

My dear Friend, Dublin, March 25, 1801.

Our epistolary intercourse is not very frequent,
but it must not drop altogether ;—that idea I cannot
support. I am anxious to know how my amiable
friend and sometimes correspondent, Mrs. Smith,
does; mention everybody when you finda moment's
leisure and disposition to think of the absent.

My botanic study has been much interrupted, and
not by more agreeable occupation. I have now
begun however to resume. Vora Britannica is
my constant companion. Verbal description can
scarcely be conceived more clear or satisfactory ;
and I fancy, when the spring is more advanced, it
will be a delightful guide through the fields. I per-
ceive, however, that nothing but long and constant
practice can render the Grasses intelligible and fa-
miliar, so that at the first glance the genus may be
known. I doubt what I wish for is not attainable,—
that some one, or two at most, distinct characters
should be pointed out, that for immediate use would
decide the plant, without entering into description
and minute examination.

147

Iam heartily glad your travels through Greece
are performed at the desk near which I had some
pleasing silent excursions before you undertook the
task. That climate does not seem to agree with
English constitutions. Another traveller of great
expectation, Mr. Tweddell, (probably you knew
him,) found the effects of that air and country fatal,
and is much lamented. I always before this had a
favourable prepossession about the healthiness of
Greece, and cannot recollect that the ancients took
notice of it as being dangerous to the human con-
stitution.

If ever you quit botany for relaxation, you may
look into Helen Maria Williams. In the vast profu-
sion of chaff there may be found a few good grains
of fact.

Farewell for the present, fellow citizen and coun-
tryman! I believe we should rather say swlyect:
and to all friends communicate my affectionate tri-
bute from West Britain.

Yours sincerely,
A. CALDWELL.

From Walter Wade, M.D.

Dear Sir, Dublin, Nov. 7, 1801.

Much is due from me on the subject of Insh bo-
tany, since the Linnean Society honoured me so
highly by associating me with them. I shall, how-
ever, now make a beginning.

A favourable circumstance has lately occurred,
which enables me to submit to the Society some

L 2

148

account of a plant, which in your very valuable En-
glish Botany, vol. xi. p. 733, is noticed as not being
found in any part of the world but the Isle of Skye.

In the months of August and September last I
undertook a botanical tour through the county of
Galway in this kingdom,—my chief intention to ex-
amine that part of the county called Cunnamara, a
district, I may venture to assert, never examined by
any botanist before, although that celebrated and
industrious naturalist Llhwyd was in its vicinity
about the year 1699.

Cunnamara has its beauties in many particulars,
not only in the eyes of the botanist, but perhaps
might engage the attention of the poet and painter;
—numerous lofty, craggy, heathy mountains, and
lakes; meandering extended rivers; hills, bogs,
creeks,—and all surged by the Western Ocean;
which nothing less than the elegant descriptive pen
of the President of the Linnean Society could do
justice to.

Among many other rare plants, I met with the
one in question, Eriocaulon decangulare, Linn. Sp.
Pl. 129. Mantiss. ed. alt. 167-327? Phil. Trans. vol.
lix. 243.t.12. Lightf. Scot. 569. Huds. Angl. ed.
alt. 414,415. Nasmythia articulata, Withering, ed.
3.184. Ertocaulon septangulare, Flor. Carolin. 83.
Lamarck Encyclop. tom. ili. 276. Joncinelle décan-
gulaire, Eng. Bot. vol. xi. 733. Lrtocaulon septan-
gulare, Willdenow Sp. Pl. vol. 1.486. This rare
aquatic decorates the edges of all the loughs, great
and small, in Cunnamara, and is to be met with in
many places in the county of Galway. The generic

149

and specific characters given in English Botany,
with the annexed admirable plate, are highly satis-
factory. By Lightfoot’s excellent specific descrip-
tion no one can be deceived as to its identity; and
the generic character by the classical Hudson pleases
me much; his trivial name aréiculata is a good one;
perhaps reticulata would be better. His reasons for
changing the old generic name to Wasmythia I can-
not trace; may be to honour the memory of Nas-
myth, who was a botanist, and surgeon to James I.
Our Eriocaulon varies much as to the height of
its scapus, from a very few inches to nearly two
feet; the leaves are pretty uniform, and I think
‘grass-leaved’ a more descriptive term than ens?form
or ‘sword-shaped’. In all the specimens I have ex-
amined, the sheath at the base of the seapus is in-
variable ; but the angles undoubtedly vary,—most
frequently seven: if my eyes, with the assistance
of a watch-maker’s glass, do not deceive me, I have
counted from six to ten angles on a scapus; I am
therefore of the late Dr. Hope’s opinion, who, al-
though our Eriecaulon differs in many respects from
the £. of Linneus, yet thinks it the same. Per-
haps your valuable Herbarium may clear up the
point? I was, on the ground of angles, at one time
tempted to enumerate a few species, strengthened
in some measure by aconversation I had some time
since with a Dr. Browne, a very excellent, accurate
- botanist, who informed me that he had met with
several species of Eriocaulon in Ireland. I would
most willingly yield to this gentleman’s accuracy
and better judgement, on many other points ; yet in

150

this instance, for the present at least, I must pre-
sume to differ, if the angles alone on the scapus
have tempted him to form a specific difference ;
which, from our cursory conversation on the sub-
ject, I am not authorized to say is the case.

Thad almost forgot to inform you that our Ero-
caulon was in full bloom the latter end of Septem-
ber, when we last parted.

In the forming of my Flora Hibernica, which I
have the satisfaction of telling you is iu much for-
wardness, I have made it an unalterable rule not to
insert the docus natalis or modernized habitat on any
hearsay authority, however respectable, except in
addition to my own observation, if I can go or send
where a rare plant is to be met with, or unless I re-
ceive a living specimen along with the information.
The publication of my Vora must therefore neces-
sarily meet with some delay.

Wishing to do as I would wish to be done by, I
send you some specimens of our L7iocaulon, that
you and the Society may judge for yourselves.

I am, dear Sir,
With every possible respect,
Your very obedient, humble Servant,
WaLTeR WaDE.

From Mr. Caldwell.

My dear Friend, Dublin, Feb. 3, 1802.
Tam so delighted and surprised at the sudden, un-
expected blessing of peace, it is always uppermost
in my thoughts. Your hint about going to Paris

| 151
electrifies me. Who knows but that in such a scheme
we might coincide? Our enjoyments are doubled
by sympathy, and being shared with a friend ;—
mine, Iam sure, would be so. I never have been
there; you have tried the ground before. As for
me, such a crowd of things to see, to search for,
rush into my mind, I am bewildered: I am fearful,
if left to myself, it would end in neither seeing nor
hearing any thing. You could keep me in order and
regulate my proceedings ; but I must fairly acknow-
ledge, I feel insatiable and greedy to the last degree.

I believe Dr. Wade, at my suggestion, will trans-
mit to you the catalogue of the plants he found
in his excursion through Cunnamara. He set out
rather too late in the season, and his stay was too
short. I cannot say that my desires are incited to
pursue his track; there is not reward enough for
the fatigue and the total want of comfortable ac-
commodation. One would endure a great deal for
Greece or Italy, and go through with alacrity ; but
the West of Ireland is not sufficiently tempting.

Being obliged to stay in town the whole summer,
my botany was confined to my garden. I was,
however, part of May at Lord Besborough’s in the
county of Kilkenny. I found the little specimen
inclosed, on rocks, at a place called Owning; it is,
I think, the MZyosotzs B: the flowers were yellow,
singularly curled like a crosier. The leaves are hir-
sute as well as in a, but the blossom really yellow.
The crosier form ‘is perhaps accidental. The Audbus
Ideus was also there.

I shall be glad to know if you ever observed that

152

. the Orchis latifolia has, occasionally, a very disagree-
able hircine scent. This Orcfzs is in great plenty
about Besborough; but this peculiar scent I do
not find taken notice of by any of you botanic wri-
ters. The scent is more frequent when the plant is
pulled and put into water. It grows then so strong,
it is very unpleasant in a room; we were forced to
throw them out. Ihave also perceived it on the
ground, but that seldom. The puzzling circum-
stance is, that many of the same Orchises, scattered
close about, have no smell. ‘I have examined num-
bers, to try whether there was any difference to make
out a variety ;—never could perceive the least. I
have watched them for several days, to see whether it
was occasioned by the different stage of the growth,
—but to no purpose; that seemed not to produce
any change. Linneus says, bracteis flore longiort-
bus ; that is not the case in any plants I have ever
seen, nor in the figure in Miller’s Illustr., nor in
Curtis. The figure in Curtis is much better drawn
and more faithful than in Miller. The latter gives
the root palmated; Curtis’s and all the real plants
Ihave found have two bulbs. These disagreements
ought to be rectified.

I was at the Bishop of Dromore’s, county of
Down, in September ;—found in that neighbour-
hood, and particularly on the marshy banks of the
river Laggan, the Bzdens in plenty, but whether p.
or not, I cannot determine ;—at another friend’s
place, the Rubus [deus in very wild rocky situations
in great abundance. I suppose there is no doubt of
this being indigenous ?

153

Quantities of the Mymphea in the Laggan ; but
being quite out of flower, I could not find whether
lutea or alba: the leaves seem just the same.

The winter here has been severe, but from the
accounts not so much so as in England. Vast flights
of crossbills, Lovia curvirostra 1 believe, made
their appearance the latter end of August, and staid
till the beginning of October. They made great
havoc in the orchards; they never ate the apple,
but cut it to pieces, and picked out the pippins.
They came first over to the county of Cork, then
proceeded to Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wex-
ford, Wicklow, and Dublin; but no further north:
and yet they say it is a bird of Northern Europe.
They are good prognostics of a severe winter. They
were observed here, I am told, before the hard frost,
and once since; and now this time, when there cer-
tainly has been severer frost than usual. I observe
in December’s Monthly Review a work by R. S.
Barton on the natural history of Pennsylvania. He
considers the connexion between the seasons and
the migration of birds.

My young friend, I expect, may be the better for
the lottery prize ; therefore the less to be regretted
it went to the 7zch. It is truly strange, but I never
knew a great prize go to any but the rich. Could
I have given a little shove to the wheel of the blind
deity, it should have turned in another direction.
WN’importe! others have their riches,—the imagina-
tion, the intellectual: I would not exchange.

How kind, how flattering your call on me again
to Norwich! Be assured I do not want pressing.

154

There is a pretty little plant in our stoves, the
Eranthemum pulchellum ; the flowers fine blue in a
spike ; beautiful dractee: they say the London gar-
deners stole it from Kew.

Your affectionate
A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

Harrowgate, Oct. 5, 1802.
* * * * * * *

I have been now at Harrowgate since the latter
part of August. The weather at first was rainy, but
for three weeks past wonderfully fine. These water-
places do not suit my disposition; I really feel a
great dislike to them. The idle, sauntering way of
wasting time is tiresome to the last degree; nor have
I had the good fortune to meet with one companion
from whom I could derive a new idea. I believe,
however, the drinking and bathing has been of be-
nefit; and if the purpose is answered for which I
came here, I shall have no right to complain.

A little excursion I undertook some days since
has been the most pleasing occurrence that has hap-
pened to me here. I was two days at Wentworth
House; it is a most magnificent place, both as to
house and park and plantations. I next saw Went-
worth Castle, now inhabited by Mr. Conolly and
Lady Louisa*: it is nearly as fine as the other, and

* Sister of the Dowager Duchess of Leinster, and aunt of Lord
Edward Fitzgerald. For the character of these excellent women,
and of Lady Sarah Napier, another sister, see Moore’s Life and
Death of that unfortunate young nobleman.

155

in prospects and situation much resembles it. I
went from thence to York; the minster there every-
body has heard of, and all who see it must admire.
Castle Howard, Lord Carlisle’s, was the next ;—all
these places are so splendid, one is apt to think the
last the finest. This place terminated the excursion,
and I returned here.
Yours,
A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

My dear Friend, Dublin, Oct. 21, 1803.

It was a great misfortune not to be able to meet
you at Liverpool; and when I heard you had left it,
Tat once abandoned all thoughts of going there this
year. ig

So soon to be deprived of your amiable friend,
and your future schemes of intercourse blasted, is
melancholy. The frequent losses of those we love
is the great evil of life: every other misfortune in
my estimation sinks before it. I experienced a se-
vere stroke of this kind bat little more than a twelve-
month since; a friendship of more than thirty years
was then terminated. What a blank it has occa-
sioned! Such inflexible virtue, so much good sense
and information are rarely met with. There was
that intimacy, that in his society we might each of
us be said to be thinking aloud. His name was
Mangin, of one of the French Huguenot families.
He had been for many years first clerk in the se-
cretary of state’s office in the Castle; but from ill
health, much increased by unremitting application

156

to business, was obliged to retire seven or eight
years ago. His relaxation and favourite amusement
was collecting prints and drawings. He had the
best taste, and more knowledge on those subjects
than any man I ever was acquainted with. He ap-
pointed me one of his executors, and left me entirely
his vast collection of prints and drawings. This
mark of regard, however gratifying, can never give
me the same enjoyment as formerly; I am over-
whelmed with them ; and only trying to look into
one portfolio plunged me in melancholy. I ama
great deal older than you, and have met with so
many deprivations of this sort, that I feel a kind of
insensibility creeping on. I consider myself as a
spectator only of a fleeting world, and have little
interest in any thing that occurs. Nothing you say
in these cases avails but religion. It is the best
consolation, provided it be pure and benevolent,
unmixed with worldly craft,—not such as we have
to lament in this country, that sows hatred and ani-
mosity, and is the true source of all our mischiefs.

You allude, I suppose, to a future state ; the pro-
spect of which religion holds forth. I must confess,
however, that I do not feel that horror at the idea
of non-existence that Dr. Johnson did: I can con-
ceive a much worse circumstance ;—one alone,—
with the privilege of immortality, when every thing
else has ceased ;—that, in my opinion, would be
more shocking than any thing that could be con-
ceived.

My taste will not be questioned by my friend
Mrs. Smith as to the Ayrshire poet. The four vo-

157

lumes of Burns are lying in my parlour, and I open
one or other of them every spare moment. I certainly
admire him as much as she can do. The letters
surprise me more than the poetry: the refined cri-
ticism and good sense in them are astonishing, when
his humble birth and education are considered. I
feel great concern that he did not preserve Mrs.
Dunlop’s correspondence ; perhaps out of delicacy
to her it may have been suppressed. Dr. Currie I
am acquainted with; he is a most amiable man, as
well as of more than common abilities. Nothing
more perfect or complete could be desired; and as
he is in very full practice, it is extraordinary he
could have performed this task so admirably within
one year. "

There is another Scotch poet to whom I am ex-
tremely partial,—I mean Allan Ramsay. His works
are lately published,—the most full and complete
edition that has yet appeared. Though not equal in
genius to Burns, Ramsay has great merit. His songs
and Gentle Shepherd were the first poetry I knew
and was delighted with in my earliest years. They
bring to me many recollections, many associations
that.are pleasing, but often melancholy. The edi-
tor is not so satisfactory as Dr. Currie; there is a
want of illustration and anecdote, that often disap-
points our curiosity. Ramsay’s day is not so distant
but that every thing might be explained.

I dare say you have founded a good sect of bo-
tanists at Liverpool. It is a captivating pursuit, and
the more known the better liked. Our huge garden
here is a most pleasing one for a walk. I saw, the

158

other day, half a dozen sorts of beautiful Xeran-.
themums a lady had got from the ever-marvellous,
inexhaustible Cape. One sort, tke petals all curled
and formed a sort of globe of a straw colour: others
of a fine orange: others were flat and open, pur-
ple, and at a distance I took them for China Asters.
England, I dare say, has had them all, and you pro-
bably have seen them.

You mention some noble additions to your books.
Though your collection may not be so extensive
as Sir Joseph’s, I am apt to believe what you have
is more choice and perfect than his. I cannot
wonder your reputation attracted Madame Bona-
parte’s attention, and the presents she has sent you
are very gratifying. I shall-hope to see them with
you one day or other. They are not likely soon to
reach this part of the world.

My best affectionate complimenis to Mrs. Smith.

Yours sincerely,
A. CALDWELL.

From the same.

My dear friend, July 11, 1804.
* * source Stren pap oe *
AllI can say is, that it was a disappointment to me
—most grievous, the being prevented from going to
Norwich. I was introduced to so many agreeable
people at Cambridge, their civilities were such, and
their pressing desire to have me stay for the Com-
mencement, so great, I found it scarcely possible

159

to decline. Letters then came from London, that
obliged me to come hither without further delay.
When I went to the university, my intention was
to stay a week at the utmost, and I staid three
weeks ;—much more kindness I experienced than I
had any right to expect. I suppose you have heard
of Dr. Clarke: he and Mr. Cripps travelled to-
gether for three years. Dr. Clarke visited Pallas
in the Crimea, and purchased his herbarium. The
Doctor said he was old, and when he died nobody
there would think it of value, and it would be thrown
out of the window. Clarke has brought home
great collections, manuscripts, medals, minerals,
drawings consisting of views of interesting places,
antique marbles, and the colossal bust of Ceres,
discovered above a century ago by Spon and
Wheeler, in her temple at Eleusis: it is almost
quite destroyed,—not a vestige of the face; some-
thing remains of the shoulders and their drapery ;
she has a great turret or basket on her head, which
is called the calathos: it is covered with symbols,
pretty distinct. There will be a particular account
published. What an instance of instability in this
world,—the object of such mystery, adoration, and
magnificent ceremonies in ancient Greece, has now
removed to a college amongst the barbarian Bri-
tons! I dare say you will some day or other visit
Cambridge, and look over the herbarium of Pallas.
You will find in Dr. Clarke one of the most en-
gaging men you ever met with, and he will delight
in gratifying you to the utmost extent.

A friend in, Dublin mentioned to me, that the

160

drawing of Mars and Venus, omitted in the prints
of the Elogium Stultitie when you saw the copy, is
now engraved in M. Veaux’s French translation of
the L/ogzum, printed at Basle in 1780, and which
perhaps you had not since heard of.

I have had a letter from Mrs. Charlotte Smith,
She has had some thoughts of going to Lowestofft
for bathing. She wishes it much for the hopes of
seeing you there.

I am, dear Sir,
Yours sincerely,
‘A. CALDWELL.

From Dr. Wade.

My dear Sir, Dublin, Nov. 1, 1805.

I send you nearly 200 species of Mosses, and,
with very few exceptions, all in fructification. The
great majority of the more rare were gathered by
myself, in 1796 and this year,in the county of Kerry,
particularly on the mountains, in the woods, glyns,
&c., within a few miles of enchanting Killarney, so
rich in such uncommon scenes of natural wildness
and rural magnificence. Iam aware of having sent
a few duplicates in separate papers; but at the time
I arranged them for you, some trifling difference
seemed to occur, which your very discriminating
eye will best judge of. Pardon me for sending you
some common species which I gathered in this
county and the county of Wicklow.

My respected friend may inform Mr. Turner,

161]

that I have specimens of Musci tx quantity at his
service, as he seems to make the muscology of
Ireland his favourite object.

You will receive by this opportunity a few speci-
mens of plants which may be considered as rare
with us in Ireland,—particularly the Stam verte-
cillatum (truly a Stwm), which I got in marshy
ground near Loun Bridge, about four miles from
Killarney; Bartsia viscosa, whose hab:tat you know
(Pl. Rarior.). I will now answer for the hadctat of
Saxifraga Geum or hirsuta ? specimens of which I
send, having met with it in abundance in that asto-
nishing and bewitching spot to the naturalist, the
Gap of Dunloc, about eight miles from Killarney,
and which divides the black and craggy sides of
those stupendous mountains Mac-Gilly-Cuddy’s
Reeks from the Tornies Mountain, and is the di-
rect road and best way to the Purple Mountain. As
you may suppose, I did not meet with it in flower,
as it isa very early flowering plant, and I went there
very late in the season. However, I have sown
some of the seeds, and planted the roots, by which
means I shall be enabled to determine exactly what
Saxifraga it is ; as well as some other species of the
same beautiful tribe, particularly some extraor-
dinary varieties of Saxifraga umbrosa; Pinguicula
lusitanica, common; Schenus rufus? on Purple
Mountain in abundance. I can assure you that
Euphorbia hiberna is uniformly furnished with
umbella quinquefida, for 1 have examined above a
thousand growing specimens this season, and met
with one only 6-fida. Many measured between thirty

VOL. II. M

162

and forty inches high; a cauwlis simplex invariable ;
none branching at the base, and the avlary ramuli
almost always present. I have a very correct figure
of our LZ. jib. nearly finished, and pardon me if I say
a correct figure of it is very desirable, as none ap-
proaches in likeness to our Z. zd. but t. 290. Hort.
Lilth., and, if recollection serves me, in Fzvin. Tr.
Mon. Serapias latifolia about the old cobaltic
copper-mine holes, very common in the delightful
and romantic peninsula of Mucruss.

Orobanche elatior in profusion in the different
chambers, &c. of the old abbey at the northern
side of Mucruss, together with Polypodium cam-
bricum, ina state of great luxuriance. -Aspidium
Oreopteris I consider as a rare fern, as well as
Adiantum Capillus-Veneris; but as I am forming a
collection of them for you, I shall for the present
reserve my sentiments on the subject of Irish ferns.

Do you consider Schenus mariscus as rare?
Besides the haditats in Pl. Rarior. 1 met with it,
but rather sparingly, in the fens at the N.W. side of
Mucruss. You cannot conceive, my esteemed and
respected friend, how abundant Hymenophyllum
tunbridgense is on all the dripping rocks on the
mountains in the county of Kerry; and the un-
common state of luxuriance and magnitude which
Osmunda regalis assumes on all the islands in the
range to the upper lakes at Killarney is truly as-
tonishing, looking more like large highly culti-
vated shrubs, than a humble fern.

You will be pleased to present to the Linnean
Society the inclosed remarks on Holcus odoratus

163

and Buddlea globosa, which perhaps are only valu-
able by being accompanied with excellent coloured
figures,—thanks to the artist. Do you know of any
coloured figure of Holeus odoratus ?

I long to see Mr. Turner’s prediction in the
preface to his Mus. Hid. verified, as to a Flora of
Ireland by Mr. Templeton: for my part, I fear it
will be long before Mr. Turner will have an oppor-
tunity of honouring my name with a similar pre-
diction; and I say it with regret, for the reason
stated in my humble preface to Plant. Rarior.

Our mutual friend Mr. Caldwell desires to be
kindly remembered to you, and intends writing
shortly to you. I feel I have intruded much on
your very precious time, and shall only add that I
am, with every possible respect,

Your sincere and obliged humble Servant,
Water WapDeE.

From Mr. Caldwell.

My dearest Friend, Dublin, March 7, 1808.

The grateful feelings for the testimony of your
remembrance and friendship that I received yes-
terday by your letter, surpass all my powers of ex-
pression. I read it over and over: it contributes
to my happiness, but I am conscious I do not me-
rit such attention; I do not meet with it from many
on whom I might have some claim: but your kind-
ness is all from generosity and sincerity, and with-
out any pretension on my part.

M 2

164

I have passed but a melancholy, lonely winter,
having been much indisposed since the beginning
of November. It is not being alone that is dis-
tressing: where one can take a book, and likes
reading, amusement and enjoyment run hand in
hand; but a heavy sickness renders me incapable
of enjoyment: it has been a labour and an exertion
at different times to write my name.

It gave me great comfort to find you were well ;
but though I used to receive or answer aletter from
you with delight, I this time find myself disabled.
I am, however, growing better, and look forward to
the hopes of seeing youin London, where I scheme
to be the latter end of next month. It is to be re-
gretted by me that fortune had not placed me with-
in the reach of your society, and some others in
England: I should have enjoyed much more con-
stant friendship and attention than here; this place
is too dissipated, and there are few whose tastes
agree with mine in preferring quiet social inter-
course.

I have endured a long truce with botany, but
must lose no time in refreshing my memory, or
shall forget the very elements. I went to our great
garden two days ago,—the first visit since last June.
It made no great appearance, and has suffered much
from the uncommon severity of the weather : though
it is almost ten times as large as the garden at Liver-
pool, and there is expense to the greatest prodigality,
I doubt whether it be half as curious. There is a
fine specimen of the New Norfolk Pine, but which
will soon be too high for the green-house ; a very

165

great Banana, which looks as if it would produce
fruit. They have had the Bohea Tea in flower :—
and excepting these articles, our garden has nothing
to show at present. I believe where we exceed Li-
verpool is in the large trees and shrubs.

I hear your new work is come over, and I am
impatient to see and begin it. If I canmake it out
so as to be in time for the Institution course, I shall
be enchanted. Mr. Roscoe, from his writings, and
intimacy with my relations, I think myself well
acquainted with: I was introduced to him, and
enjoyed his conversation for half an hour when last
in Liverpool.

I believe our politics, that is, yours and mine,
being founded on strict moral principles, can never
differ. I look on the outrage at Copenhagen with
as much indignation as if I were a native of the
place: I am glad to hear there are some people in
England that are sensible of its baseness; but I fear
very few, and that is a dreadful symptom of general
depravity.

Botany, that in England unites people and
classes them in friendship, produces here a contrary
effect; they are all at variance: the University has
displaced Dr. Scott, an ingenious, lively man with
great merit, and a good botanist.

I have read Mr. Johnes’s Froissart, and think it
a most curious picture of its times. All the little
skirmishes and battles that resemble one another so
closely, we may skip over in a great measure. How
melancholy the consideration, that in all countries
and in all ages to fight and to slaughter is the road

166
to glory! I am rather displeased with Mr. Johnes,
for not reprobating that mischievous absurdity ; and
he never produces a sentiment or makes a remark
on the occasion.
I am, my dear Friend, yours sincerely,
ANDREW CALDWELL.

This letter, written under the pressure of illness
and dejection of spirits, was the concluding one of
a correspondence which for many years afforded
considerable enjoyment to both parties, and pre-
sents a lively image of the conversation and tem-
per of the amiable writer. He died very soon after
the date of the above.

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167

CHAPTER X.

Miscellaneous Letters from 1810 to 1816:—Sir Thomas Frank-
land.— Mr. Walker.—Mr. W. Smith.—Dr. Waterhouse.—-
Mrs. Cobbold.—Sir J. E. Smith —Mr. J. Lee.—I. A. Pavon.—
Dr. Bigelow.—Sir Joseph Banks.—Dr. Tenore.—Mr. Repton.
—Rev. Mr. Walpole.—Baron Humboldt.—Professor DeCan-
dolle.—Duke of Bedford.

From Sir Thomas Frankland.

Dear Sir, York, March 10, 1810.

TuHoucu I have been confined by rheumatism
nearly since Christmas, I feel a fancy to write you
a gossiping letter. ‘Till last summer I had never
crossed the Tweed; but in July my son and I set
out to accept the Duke of Gordon’s invitation, and
to see what we could in a month and a tour of
above nine hundred miles.

We went by Newcastle to Dunbar and Edin-
burgh, where we stayed forty-eight hours, and were
enchanted. From thence to Stirling, Crieff, Perth,
Brechin, and turned off a few miles to Mr. Alex-
ander Brodie’s at the Burn (purchased of Lord
Adam Gordon), where we stayed two days: then
to Aberdeen, and by Inverurie and Huntley to Gor-
don Castle. After six days, to James Brodie’s for
two days. He very kindly went with us to Inver-
ness, where we hired four horses for the Highland

1638
road; and in four days they got us to Crieff, 120
miles. Then to Stirling and Glasgow, where we
were most highly gratified: but rainy weather be-
gan then, and continued throughout the remainder
of the journey to Carlisle, Keswick, Ambleside ;
Lord Lonsdale’s, at Lowther, for three nights ; and
home, seventy-six miles, with ease in a day. It is
dificult to say what we saw or did. We were
asked how many brace of moor-game we had
killed. Answer—We went to gain new ideas of
country and inhabitants, and refused all opportu-
nity of sporting. What plants did I find? None,
but two or three which the Duke’s factotum showed
me in the woods; for my son being no botanist, I
was determined not to delay him for a moment,
and, except his laughing at my being annoyed with
precipices in the Highland road, we never had a
difference ; indeed that road is so bad, that, but
for an excellent carriage and servant, we should
have been lost in difficulties. My son saw the
Cumberland Lakes to disadvantage, from an un-
ceasing rain; but I have seen them twice before.
Lord Lonsdale’s new house is a wonder. It is a
gothic palace ; and, although only begun two years
since, is already inhabited by all the family. Smirke
is the architect. Brodie has a botanic garden for
British plants, and employs himself almost entirely
with them, though I got him to salmon-fishing one
day. Where salmon is most plentiful, there is the
worst angling; for they are harassed with nets
night and day, and have no time to feed. The
Duke’s fishery lets for 6000 guineas per annum!

169

and the renters are said to make a fortune. I saw
the ice-houses, which are entirely above-ground and
have no waste drain, the melted ice sinking into
the sand. Two thousand salmon have been taken in
one day in that fishery (river Spey). The largest fish
I heard of was caught at Aberdeen in May, 1762,
and weighed sixty-three pounds, Dutch weight, of
seventeen ounces and a half to the pound.

- Gordon Castle is five-hundred and sixty-eight
feet long, and eighty-four high in one part. Mr.
Hoy was endeavouring lately to determine, upon
Arrowsmith’s map of Scotland, the number of
square miles contained in the Duke’s estate in the
different counties, and found that in Moray, or
shire of Elgin, along the side of Spey, there are
132; in Banffshire, low country, 242; in the same,
high country, 204; in Aberdeenshire, 107; in
Inverness-shire, Badenoch, 325 ; in Lochaber, 330;
—total, 10044 miles, and 642,720 acres; all pro-
perty lands, without including those over which the
Duke has only the superiority.

The plants which were shown me in the woods
at Gordon Castle are Satyrium repens and Pyrola
secunda. Mr. Brodie gave me Eviocaulons..

Satis superque from your most faithful

THOMAS FRANKLAND.

From John Walker, Esq.

My dear Sir, Bedford Square, March 16, 1810.

I beg to offer you my particular acknowledge-

170

ments for your truly friendly attention in sending
me cuttings of Willows. Some of the species, par-
ticularly the 2twsselliana, a very valuable one, I did
not before possess.

When you come to town, you will have the satis-
faction of seeing Sir Joseph Banks looking uncom-
monly well, and perfectly free from gout, which he
attributes to a French quack medicine he has been
induced to try, at the pressing solicitation of Lord
Spencer. From a single dose of a tea-spoonful
and half, he experienced almost immediate relief.
Mr. Home left him one afternoon in agony with
the gout in eight different places, and with a hard
and high-beating pulse at 94. The following day
he found him altogether without pain, tenderness
alone remaining, and with a pulse perfectly tran-
quil and reduced to 67. I am aware that a solitary
instance is by no means sufficient to convince you
or any medical man of its general utility; but to
the above instance I may add those of Major
Rennell, and near twenty more who have tried it
with the same immediately beneficial consequences,
however inexplicable they may appear. It has been
prepared in France upwards of thirty years, under
the name of Lau medicinale d Husson. Che-
mistry has proved it to be vegetable ; but from what
plant the very extraordinary powers of this medi-
cine are derived, remains at present unknown.

You will have heard that we have lost Mr. Ca-
vendish,—a man of a wonderful mind, more nearly
approaching that of Newton than perhaps any indi-
vidual in this country since his time. Educated

171

and trained by his father from very early youth to
scientific pursuits, they became habitual, and were
the sole occupation of a very long life, fruitful in
important discoveries, forming the basis of modern
chemistry. That his mind remained unaltered and
unimpaired to the very last, his paper in the second
part of the Transactions for 1809 is a sufficient
proof. “Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes” ought to
improve the whole man, the heart as well as head.
It is to be regretted that science and charity were
wholly forgotten in the distribution of his property.
He might well have divided 100,000/. between them,
which I believe would not have been an eighth part
of his immense possessions.

Yours most sincerely,
JoHN WALKER.

From Wilham Smith, Esq.

My dear Sir, Parndon, Noy. 20, 1810.

T am really sorry I was not of your party in the
so well described library*, with its so well appre-
ciating visitants; but with all due and humble sub-
mission, I should have made, I will not say a better,
but a more every-hour companion for Lord Spencer
than yourself; for when tired, if ever, of the library,
I could have gone with him to the field,—from
taking down books, to knocking down pheasants,
—which I fear you could not.

* Mr. Coke's, at Holkham.

172

He is an admirable specimen of the pteriple-
gistic, philosophic statesman,

“Who rapid turns the keen observant eye
From men to books, from books to man again ;
Stores and compares ; his well-digested store
Then opes and uses in the walks of life ;

And when the faint o’er-laboured spirit flags,
Renews its vigour in the sportful field.”

I cannot recollect where is your most happy and
poetic quotation about the dusty books, if indeed I
ever knew it.

Yours truly,

W. SMITH.

From Sir Thomas Frankland.

Dear Sir, Thirkleby, York, April 13, 1811.

My son has just returned from Lincolnshire,
where he has been hunting these last five weeks.
It agrees with him, as far as my eye informs me.
In the third week of October last I went to Sir
Joseph Banks’s in Lincolnshire, where I stayed near
a week, and had a most agreeable and interesting
visit. The singular fineness of the season and good
breeding of game gave me uncommon diversion
there; but late in October I perceived a strain in
my tendon which was broke in 1792, and, though
I favoured it, bya slip (at Duncombe Park) in
November I contrived to be crippled. However,
I was trout-fishing all this morning, and feel no
concern on the subject. Glauctum fulvum, of

173

which you gave me some seeds two or three years
since, is the most desirable plant of the kind which
I know. We found it in full blow on returning
from town, and for some months it was in gorgeous
flower, renewed daily. I saved much seed, and
have distributed it as an acquisition to every gar-
den. I had great pleasure in thinking Sir Joseph
particularly well in mind and body, notwithstanding
the alarm which many persons have felt respect-
ing the gout medicine which he has latterly taken
as an alterative.—Accum tells the Duke of Gordon
that it is Gratiola; and that a medical friend of
his gives that plant with success. In looking into
Lewis’s Materia Medica, I was struck with the ef-
fects of Gratiola agreeing so exactly with those of
Eau medicinale.

I found lately a lime-tree branch like a teapot
handle, about four feet from extremities ; but whe-
ther the branch grew upwards or downwards does
not appear, the union is so perfect. Jt is in a row
of very fine old trees. .

Ta:

From Dr. Waterhouse.

Dear Sir, Cambridge (America), July 24, 1811.

I here send for the library of the Linnean So-
ciety a little work I have just published, in which
I have endeavoured to do honour to our great mas-
ter. I have laboured to make him known to my

174

countrymen during eight-and-twenty years past,
and at present Linneus is no stranger to the in-
habitants of these “ ends of the earth.”

As I was the first who gave lectures on natural
history in America, I was obliged to give it the
popular dress which “‘ The Botanist” comes forth
in. I was compelled to clear the ground to pre-
pare it before I sowed the seed. I found I must
first excite a taste, and then try to gratify it. Our
elder brethren in Europe know not the difficulties
that the first settlers in science have to encounter.
I found it particularly difficult when I first gave
lectures on mineralogy to persons who had per-
haps never seen a book upon that subject. This
will account for the popular dress in which bo-
tany has been presented to the youth of both sexes
in this country, and it will explain why I tried to
celebrate certain female characters who had distin-
guished themselves in natural history. I hope to
send you hereafter some paintings of plants and
insects, executed by some of our ladies, that Marian
herself would not be disgusted at. Natural history
will flourish among us, although we may not pro-
duce a Linneus or a Buffon. I observe among us
young Swammerdams, young naturalists on whom
Fate has written “ Laudatur et alget.”

My bookseller already talks of a new edition of
“The Botanist ;” but before I determine on that,
I should like to profit by the criticisms of such a
great master in the science as Dr. Smith.

My wish is to open such a path in the field of

175

botany, as would be most useful to such a country
as ours, and at the same time be gratifying to the
botanists of England.
With a high degree of respect,
I am yours, &c.

BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.

From Mrs. Cobbold*.

My dear Sir, Ipswich, March 26, 1812.

The pleasure I received from those lines which
you showed me of Mrs. Barbauld’s on the King’s
illness induced me to order her pamphlet} of 1811,
which I have read with much attention, and, I must
add, much feeling. It is in a high strain of poetry,
and possesses a fire of genius and force of language
which I should not have expected from her ad-
vanced age and what I had seen of her earlier pro-
ductions; but if I were offered the powers of genius,
together with the feelings manifested in that poem,
I would reject the combination as a dangerous and
deadly gift. It yet remains for the world (I would
say a world of false philosophers, were that race
not sinking fast into oblivion,) to invent a word so
monstrous as to express hatred of one’s country,
and exaltation of her rivals! Could such a passion
have a name, I should say this is the ruling one of

* This accomplished lady is the author of some very beauti-
ful and appropriate verses on the death of Francesco Borone,
which were published by Sir James in his volume of Tracts, in
1798.

+ Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, a poem.

176

Mrs. Barbauld’s mind. Was it by degradation of
his country that Nelson infallibly led her sons to
victory? Is it by filling the minds of her sons
with gloom and despondence, that we would enable
them to support her through the present arduous,
unequal, and dreadful conflict? Shall that being
dare to assume the name of patriot, who shall call
it guilt in Britain to contend with the giant-power
of France? Or shall a mortal pretend to read the
decrees of the Almighty, and declare that he has
doomed the fall of Britain ?

Columbia, too, is the land of freedom! the tem-
ple of science! Pray tell me how has she im-
proved in science since she lost her Franklin? and
how has the pristine vigour of her constitution, and
its freedom, been preserved, since she lost her great,
her truly exalted Washington? What are her le-
gislators now? One half of them servile knaves,
sold, for the most ignoble of all rewards, to the
despot of Europe; the other and more virtuous
half, distracted by jarring interests, and feeble and
disunited in their councils.

America, from her extent of territory, her con-
siderable and increasing population, and the abun-
dance she possesses of all the necessaries of life,
can never reasonably be the object of conquest:
any attempt to subdue her must increase her moral
and physical strength by cementing her civil union.
Discord is her great and only danger. She may,
and probably will in time, become a great nation ;
but she is at present only in her youth ; strong and
agile, I grant, but with a head not sufficiently ener-

177

getic to direct the limbs in the most efficient man-
ner. Should that head be weakened by fatuity, or
perverted by the corruptions of the heart, adieu to
all the visions of rising grandeur.

Far, far be from me to say that Britain is all
god-like! that she owns none of the human im-
perfections to which other states are subject! Her
rulers have the same corruptions as those of other
lands ; and perhaps the dreadfulexamples of anarchy
around her, have led her to submit too easily to
the encroachments of power. Still there is a vi-
gour and purity in her constitution, which will ma-
nifest itself,—not I trust in the rude efforts of brutal
strength, but in calm and steady energy. Dearly
do I love my country, and I cannot suppress my
indignation, when I see any of her sons or daugh-
ters, even in imagination, attempting to bow her
neck beneath the feet of a nation which I consider
so inferior to her in all moral dignity, as America.

It is a most unusual thing for me to enter on
any subject connected with politics ; but as I know
my opinions to be perfectly independent of any
party, I thought I might be allowed to express
those genuine feelings which arose in my mind on
the perusal of a book, which, on the most mature
consideration, I cannot find tending to produce any
good effect in society ; and which is only the more
dangerous on account of its poetical excellence. At
the present momentous crisis, we ought to be
awakened to a sense of our danger; but so much
the more should the amor patrieé be excited to avert
it. Had TI been acquainted with Mrs. Barbauld, it

VOL, II. N

178

is probable that a sense of her private worth might
have led my mind to overlook or palliate the gloomy
tendency of her poem. As it is, I read without
prejudice.

I promised to tell you what I thought of this
book, and I have done so without reserve; you
would have a right to despise me, if I could sacri-
fice truth even on the altar of friendship. I would
rather lose some little portion of the love of my
friends, than one iota of their esteem. Love may be
won by flattery ; esteem must be the result of good
qualities, and the power of appreciating them.

Your ever affectionate Friend,
7 KE. Cosson.

Sir J. EF. Smith to Mrs. Cobbold.

My dear Madam, Norwich, March 30, 1812.

I did not doubt your admiring Mrs. Barbauld’s
poetry ; indeed, I think this poem (without any al-
lowance for her age) may take its stand amongst
the most lofty productions of any poet, male or fe-
male; as I think her hymn, beginning

* Jehovah reigns: let every nation hear!”

the most sublime and poetical hymn that ever was
written,— without any allowance for her youth or
her sex in that case either. Indeed she requires no
allowance, though ever ready to claim it; for her
character and her humility are equal to her talents.
Now let me tell you my opinion of the politics of
her poem. I conceive the three first pages and

179

four lines of the fourth are a virtuous, patriotic, and
just view of the evils produced by the usurpation
and policy of Buonaparte: what follows is too just,
though I hope too gloomy, a picture of what Britain
has to fear. As to the ‘ guilt’, that involves a ques-
tion on which very good people differ. Mrs. B.
seems to think the war, not being unavoidable, was
guilty. Some think it the cause of the tyrant’s suc-
cess, who might never have had an existence, if
France had been left to herself. This would lead
me too far; you know better than I do what has
been said. I only mean that Mrs. B.’s idea is con-
formable to that of numberless undoubted good
Englishmen and good subjects.

From p. 6 to 17 appears to me to express the
most enthusiastic /ove and patriotic admiration for
her country, and all that has ennobled or will immor-
talize it. It must be a ‘false philosopher’ indeed,
who could pervert this eloquent celebration of Bri-
tish virtue, talent, and distinction into an effusion
of ‘hatred’! And where does she exalt the rivals of
her country? Does not she express that even
America, if it should, iz the lapse of ages, (for that
I know is her meaning,) become what Asia was, and
Europe is,—even America, I say, will be indebted to
England for all her taste and learning, and will
fondly dwell on this as classic ground? I surely
need not point out to you that the sublime and for-
cible picture (p. 17 to the end) is a highly poetic
personification of the power of civilization. In this
she looks forward to ages yet unthought of, taking
her stand far above the present events or contem-

N 2

180

plations ; comprehending the whole history of ci-
vilized man, all antiquity, in the retrospect, and
anticipating what thousands of years may produce.
Whatever alludes to Britain in this prospect ex-
presses what has been the fate of all other countries;
and it is lamentable for any,—but not less inevita-
ble. Has not the progress of Christianity been
from east to west? So we are taught to trust it will
embrace the globe. She does not say Columbia zs
the temple of freedom or science, but that it pro-
bably wed/ de. Far indeed is she from descending
to the paltry speculations for which you give her
credit about the petty parties of the day, there or
elsewhere! Now, my good friend, forget all party,
and be (not a false, but) a ¢rue Christian philoso-
pher; take this excellent woman to your heart as
a congenial spirit; for if you knew her as I do, I
will do you the justice to believe you would love
and admire her as much. My wife is copying two
productions of hers*, that abundantly evince her

* Mrs. Barbauld’s Hymn before mentioned. Long as it is

since it first appeared in print, the writer makes no apology for
inserting it at length in this place.

HYMN.

Jehovah reigns: let every nation hear,

And at his footstool bow with holy fear ;

Let heaven’s high arches echo with his name,

And the wide peopled earth his praise proclaim ;
Then send it down to hell’s deep glooms resounding,
Through all her caves in dreadful murmurs sounding !

He rules with wide and absolute command
O’er the broad ocean and the steadfast land :

181

patriotism and her piety. How far her precise no-
tions or opinions may agree with yours or mine, I
really neither know nor care. I know she is a zeal-
ous Christian, but not a zealous Socinian, Arian, or
Athanasian ; I should suppose most of the second.

Jehovah reigns, unbounded, and alone,

And all creation hangs beneath his throne :
He reigns alone; let no inferior nature
Usurp, or share the throne of the Creator !

He saw the struggling beams of infant light

Shoot through the massy gloom of ancient night ;

His spirit hush’d the elemental strife,

And brooded o’er the kindling seeds of life ;
Seasons and months began the long procession,
And measured o’er the year in bright succession.

The joyful sun sprung up th’ ethereal way,
Strong as a giant, as a bridegroom gay ;
And the pale moon diffused her shadowy light,
Superior o’er the dusky brow of night ;
Ten thousand glittering lamps the skies adorning,
Numerous as dew-drops from the womb of morning.

Earth’s blooming face with rising flowers he drest,
And spread a verdant mantle o’er her breast ;
Then from the hollow of his hand he pours
The circling water round her winding shores,
The new-born world in their cool arms embracing,
And with soft murmurs still her banks caressing.

At length she rose complete in finish’d pride,

All fair and spotless, like a virgin bride ;

Fresh with untarnish’d lustre as she stood

Her Maker bless’d his work, and call’d it good ;
The morning-stars with joyful acclamation
Exulting sung, and hail’d the new creation.

Yet

182

I can speak positively to her Christian charity, which
you and I think the most important point.

Thus I have written as freely as yourself in the
true spirit of friendship: and if you find me in the
right, it is all I care about; for you are worthy to
know, and capable of appreciating, if you did know,

my highly honoured friend.
&e. &e.

J. E. Smitu.

Yet this fair world, the creature of a ‘day,
Though built by God’s right hand, must pass away ;
And long oblivion creep o’er mortal things,
The fate of empires, and the pride of kings :
Eternal night shall veil their proudest story,
And drop the curtain o’er all human glory.

The sun himself, with weary clouds opprest,
Shall in his silent dark pavillion rest ;
His golden urn shall broke and useless lie,
Amidst the common ruin of the sky ;
The stars rush headlong in the wild commotion,
And bathe their glittering foreheads in the ocean.

But fix’d, O God! for ever stands thy throne ;
Jehovah reigns, a universe alone ; 5
Th’ eternal fire that feeds each vital flame,
Collected, or diffused, is still the same.
He dwells within his own unfathom’d essence,
And fills all space with his unbounded presence.

But Oh! our highest notes the theme debase,
And silence is our least injurious praise ;
Cease, cease your songs, the daring flight controul,
Revere him in the stillness of the soul ;
With silent duty meekly bend before him,
And deep within your inmost hearts adore him!

183

From Mr. James Lee.

Dear Sir, Hammersmith, July 9, 1812.

I received your kind letter of the 12th of May
with a packet of seeds from Russia, for which ac-
cept our best thanks; and also your other of the
22nd June concerning the particulars of the life of
Mr. Masson. I mentioned to you that I thought
he had been ill paid, considering what he had done
for the science of botany. He explored the Cape
of Good Hope twice, Madeira, the Canaries, Azores,
Spain, Gibraltar, Tangier, Minorca, Majorca, the
West Indies, and Canada. Masson was of a mild
temper, persevering in his pursuits even to a great
enthusiasm, of great industry, which his specimens
and drawings of fish, animals, insects, plants and
views of the countries he passed through, evince;
and though he passed a solitary life in distant coun-
tries from society, his love of natural history never
forsook him. Characters like lim seem for the pre-
sent dwindling in the world, but I trust they will

revive.
I am, dear Sir, with great respect,

Your much obliged Servant,
JAMES LEE.

From J. A. Pavon.

Madrid, the 22 of July, 1813.
To the must celebrated Botanist Sir J. E. Smith.
I conserve in my power and to your order a little
offering, which I make to the merit that Sir Smith

184

obtained of the charmer science of the botany. This
little present is a Monography of eight and twenty
new sorts of Laurels that I discovered and drawed
in the native places, and under the trees of the
South America. The present was prohibited me to
publish it, and so I send only to you the engraved
patterns ; and you will have the goodness to tell
me any person to give them in Madrid, along with
another exemplar, that I inscribe for your media-
tion, and in my name to the wise Society of Lon-
don, asking vou and the wise Society will be so
good to censure, with kindness, the imitation of the
patterns in the botanist part, and tell me the defects
which you know in the analitic or anatomic part of
Linneo’s system. .

I send to you the note of collections which I will
sail to live; if any wise man lover of the botany
will buy some of them, you will have the goodness
to tell me by our ambassador the Count of Fernan-
nuiez.

I will send to you the other exemplars of the
Laurography so soon as I can publish it. I shall be
very giad if you will be so good to answer me, only
to have a memory or letter of the wise Sir Smith,
honour of the botany for your works that I read
every day to learn and to know your erudition.

I was eleven years in the South America, and I
experienced great many tempest in the Cape of
Hornos and in the South Sea, and by land the re-
volution of the Indians under the command of Tu-
pac Amaro. In Spain I have been many times to
be killed by the bayonets of the famous scholars of

185

Neron Targuine, and above all them the new Ma-
guiabel Bonaparte.

I wish to be useful to you in any thing, and in
the mean time I am,

Sir,
Your most obliged and obedient Friend,
The Spanish Naturalist
JoseEPpH ANTONIO Pavon.

The envelope of this letter was thus singularly

inscribed :

“To celebrious botanist, Sir Jacob Eduard Smith
member of various academys scientificals.—
To London.

“Para el celeberrimo botanico el Doctor Smith
J. EK. presenta esse pequefio fruto de sus tra-
bajos literarios botanicos, su afectisimo con-
socio el Botanista Espafiol, Autor de las
Floras Peruana y de Chile, José Antonio
Pavon.”

From Dr. Bigelow.

Sir, Boston, Massachusetts, Nov. 18, 1813.

I take the liberty to address you, inclosing the
introduction which my excellent friend M. Corréa
has obligingly given me. In the present imperfect
state of science in this country, I am every moment
sensible of the necessity of an European correspon-
dence, to supply the defect of books and advantages
which it is impossible here to command. I cannot
but feel highly honoured in having at this time the
privilege of epistolary access to the head sources of

136
the science. In the New England states we have a
country as yet little explored by European botanists,
and having in some degree a botany peculiar to it-
self. Many of our species resemble those of Eu-
rope, but at the same time differ in small particulars,
so as to leave it doubtful whether they are species
or varieties. For example, our Salicornia herbacea?
has its joints entire, not emarginate, and its calyx-
scales acute. Our Callitriche aquatica has very ob-
tuse or cuneiform leaves. Our Aithusa Cynapium ?
of which I inclose seeds, is destitute of a nauseous
taste, &c. On these plants it is difficult to decide,
without a comparison of actual specimens. The
present unhappy war presents a serious obstacle to
the conveyance of seeds, &c.; but opportunities
must sooner or later occur for making communica-
tions or exchanges of this sort. I send you with
this the seeds of an Iris, which is new to me, but
perhaps is already in your collection. Its character
is, 1. zmberbis, folis linearibus, alternis ; caule terete,
multifloro (7—8-floro); germine trigono, lateribus
bisulcis. It has the habit of Z. szbzrica, but differs
in its germ, which is smaller; grows in wet lands
with J. verginica, but is less frequent. I also send
seeds of a tetradynamous plant of our salt marshes,
which from its habit I think a Bunias. I should
describe it, B. selicula articulis binis levibus mono-
spermis ; foliis obovatis, sinuato-dentatis. The silicle
is drupaceous. It answers nearly to Cakile egyp-
tiaca of Willdenow, without the “dente obtuso”. I
wish very much to know whether the Datura Tatula
of Linneus be a distinct species. We have here a

187

Datura with a purple, spotted stem, answering in
every way to the description of D. Tatula, but which
is evidently a variety of D. Stramonium. I have
sought in vain for any permanent difference.

I have caused to be put in the press in this town
an edition of your excellent Introductory work, for
the attendants on lectures which I have undertaken
in this place. Our botanists are not yet sufficiently
numerous to induce the booksellers to publish large
works; but as the country grows I hope the taste
for science will increase. I have the honour to be,&c.

| Your obedient Servant,

Jacos BIGELow.

From Sir Joseph Banks.

My dear Doctor, Soho Square, Dec. 9, 1814.

We are all here at a loss on the subject of Her-
modactyls. We have little doubt that the gout me-
dicine is composed of that root, and that the doctor
of Yoxford in Suffolk, who sells a medicine similar
in taste and smell to the French, uses our Colchi-
cum, but have some doubts whether our Colchecum
autumnale is the same plant as that used in the
Greek Pharmacopeia.

Cesalpinus on the article Hermodactyle says, that
the flower is white; in other respects the plant re-
sembles our Colchicum: but he speaks of two other
plants of the same genus, that are poisonous. Have
you any thing among Sibthorp’s papers that throws
any light on the Hermodacty/ of the Greeks? If

188

you have, I shall be thankful for the communica-
tion. If you have not, I intend to write to Constan-
tinople, where I have no doubt the drug will still be
found in the apothecaries’ shops.
Adieu, my dear Sir James!
Always faithfully yours,
JosEPH Banks.

From Dr. Michel Tenore.

Naples, Jan. 6, 1815.
My very respectable Sir and Fellow!

The favourable circumstance of the amiable rela-
tions happily established between our countries, and
the great desire of enjoying the honour and the
advantage that every botanist may obtain by the
correspondence with a personage as worthful as the
celebrious author of the British Flora, encouraged
me to address you this very respectful letter, with a
copy of the Royal Botanical Garden’s Catalogue.

This establishment, although was born but in
these years, is at present notably enriched of every
kind of plants, and specially of those collected by
my voyages all through the different provinces of
this kingdom.

It is several years since I am applied to illustrate
the plants of the Neapolitan Flora, as you may see
by the prospectus that I have the honour to envoy
you; and I pray you to let them circulate amongst
the learned men of your country.

If your goodness will not disdain my corre-
spondence, I shall make myself a duty to put every

189

care for showing you the devotion and the high
esteem which I am penetrated with for your re-
spectable person. Iam the honour to be

Your most obedient Servant,

MicHeEL TENORE.

From H. Repton, Esq.

Harestreet, near Romford, July 9, 1815.
My dear Sir Edward,

How mortified have I been ever since I found
your card on my study chimney! After nine
months’ confinement, I at length ventured to spend
a week in town, and carried my pains and penalties
with me, or had them carried about from place to
place in a carriage,—to which the entrance and
exit were always felt to my heart. I can now sup-
pose that you intended to pass the day with me; and
had I known it, I could have left London a day
sooner to enjoy such a meeting.

After having rubbed on for sixty years in this
same world, where we all have our rubs, so many
old friends are rubbed off, that to me it is a pecu-
liar satisfaction to see a long-known friend; and if
you had no other quality than what Dr. Johnson
would call sexagenary contemporaneousness, it
would be a cause of jubilee; but we have both
passed through life without shutting our eyes, like
half those whom we remember to have seen, while
they saw nothing but vanity and frivolity. You,
like your great precursor, have examined from the

190

cedar to the hyssop, and could surprise him by pro-
ducing your hortus siccus to show how little he.
knew; and yet after all, you still have a list of de-
siderata,—something to add to that mass of won-
ders which daily inquiry has been collecting almost
beyond the power of numbers and of names. If
you should ever be at a loss for the latter, and could
afhx it to some plant of the Ivy tribe, or of any
climbing genus, which, like myself, wants to be
supported, I should rejoice to have my name re-
corded by your power of conferring immortality.
My great predecessor 4dam would never have been
able to find names for an hundredth part of your
vocabulary ; but he lived in a garden with one friend,
and one enemy, who, like Buonaparte in our days,
was the enemy of peace. What wonders have
we lived to witness! kingdoms raised and kicked
down like a child’s house of cards. The mighty
empire of the Franks, one week given to the Bour-
bons, the next to the Buonapartes! then taken
away, and now hanging in jeopardy, to be decided
by the Russian Cossacs ; while a Wellington anda
Blucher are supposed to have, according to a fa-
vourite French phrase, “covered themselves with
glory.” Who but must see something beyond the
power of man, which has been operating by means
unaccountable, to produce these wondrous changes ?
and while we boast our conquests of kingdoms, and
our power and glory of victory, without the most
distant taint of Methodism, I am insensibly led to
consider whose are the kingdom and the power and
the glory. Such thoughts will naturally arise when

19]

the body has been so long preparing for that change,
which, instead of being an object of terror, is to me
a source of joy and hope,—not only as the means of
escaping from much torture and some anxiety, but
as holding out new scenes of beauty, and a more
intimate knowledge of the works of the Creator,
which, however numerous, are now become fami-
liar, and excite less of wonder although more of
reverence for their Divine contriver. Is it possible
for you, who know so much more of the created
evidences of the Deity, to feel satiety here, and a
wish to enlarge your scene of observation? I have
no doubt this will happen to all whose active minds
lead them to wish for such enlargement; and then
you and I shall meet, and compare our ideas on
that and many other subjects :—but I will not be-
lieve we shall never meet again somewhere,—till
when, God bless you!
H. Repron.

From the Rev. R. Walpole.

My dear Sir, Aylsham, Feb. 12, 1816.

You may remember our speaking once together
on the subject of pAopuoc (the modern name both of
Euphorbia Characias and Verbascum sinuatum,)
being used for stupifying fish; and I mentioned to
you that Sibthorp says, Mercurialis annua is used
now for catching the Searus. On looking at a vo-
lume of the Memoirs of the French Institute, con-
taining a paper on the fishing of the ancients, I find
the following passage :—“ Ainsi ils attiroient le

192

Scare avec le Zinocotis, qui paroit étre ndtre mercu-
riale.” I suppose this is from Oppian, bat no re-
ference is made : this, however, I will look to. “ Les
anciens pécheurs avoient, ainsi que nous, des re-
cettes pour endormir le poisson, et aussi pour lem-
poisonner. Aristote nous apprend quils em-
ployoient a cet usage l’ellébore. Suivant Oppien, on
faisait des gobbes pour enivrer le poisson avec du
cyclamen et de largile. Le cyclamen est une plante
a racine tubéreuse que le vulgaire appelle paz de
porceau, parceque cet animal en est tres friand.
Théophraste lui reconnoit entre autres propriétés,
celle @endormir.”—itst. Plant. ix. c. 10.

It is remarkable that the French writer should
say nothing of that passage in Aristotle which de-
scribes fish being caught 7 wAoue; for so it is
written.

Will you be kind enough to give me your opinion
about the first statement respecting “nocotis ; and
also if you have anything to remark concerning the
use of ellebore, as intoxicating? The three plants -
that Sibthorp mentions with this quality are Co-
nium maculatum, Kuphorbia Characias, and Verbas-
cum sinuatum. Will you also be good enough to
add the modern name of cyclamen ?

I wrote some months ago to a gentleman who
was travelling in Greece on this subject; and he
answers me, that one mode of catching fish is “ by
means of ddouoc, great Tithymal: they dam up part
of the water, and then throw into it some of the
herb: this intoxicates the fish, so that they float
on the water’s surface, and are easily taken by the

193

hand. There are two species of @Aonoc, one larger
than the other. For want of this, dconitum is
sometimes used for the same purpose.” You see
part of this agrees with Sibthorp’s statement, and
confirms us in the use of Aonoc. I will here ob-
serve, that Sprengel says Ewphorb. Char. is yapaxwac
of Dioscorides, and +upadoc of Hippocrates.

What can my correspondent mean by Aconitum ?
I am sorry to have intruded thus on your time ; but
you must blame only yourself, because my trou-_
bling you arises from your readiness always to an-
swer what questions I send you.

With our best regards to Lady Smith,
Believe me to remain, dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
R. WALPOLE.

From Baron Humboldt.

A‘ Paris, 18 Mars 1816.

Je profite de occasion du fils de Sir Samuel Ro-
milly, qui part cette nuit pour Londres, pour offrir
4 Monsieur le Chevalier Smith, en mon nom et
celui de mes amis et collaborateurs M. Bonpland
et Kunth, le premier demi-volume de nos Genera
et Species Plantarum. Je désire qu il veuille bien
agréer cet hommage avec cette indulgence qu'il a
daigné accorder jadis 4 mes travaux. Je vous sup-
plie trés particuli¢rement de jeter les yeux sur mes
Prolegomena. C’est un travail auquel j’ai mis beau-
coup de soin. L’ouvrage que j’aurai Phonneur de

VOL. Il. Oo

194

vous adresser successivement renfermera 4 volumes
in-4to. Les planches sont presque terminées. Vous
jugerez par l’étendue de cet ouvrage et par notre
position sur le continent, combien j’ai di m’armer
de courage pour me jeter dans cette nouvelle entre-
prise.

Jattends impatiemment le temps ou je pourrai
vous voir au milieu de vos richesses 4 Norwich: je
tourne mes regards vers la haute chaine des mon-
tagnes del’Inde. J’ignore si je les verrai; je trouve
tout naturel que le gouvernement accorde plus de
protection a des sujets Britanniques qu’a des étran-
gers; mais j'ai eu trop 4 me louer des personnes
qui composent le gouvernement, et j’ai trop de con-
fiance dans la libéralité @idées de votre nation, pour
penser que l'on puisse blamer chez vous le désir
d'un voyageur d’examiner des roches et des herbes,
dont Dieu, je pense, n’a donné le monopole a per-
sonne. Vous direz que ceci ressemble a une plainte.
Vous jugerez si elle est juste lorsque vous lisez le
dernier N° du Quarterly Review, Vextrait d’Elphin-
stone. Pourquoi vouloir décourager les hommes
qui parcourent le monde pour casser des pierres. Si
le Chevalier Smith n’est pas tout-a-fait mécontent
du travail botanique de M. Kunth, je le supplie de
Yagréger un jour a la respectable Société Linnéenne.
Je.demande cet honneur pour mes amis, je saurois
Yapprécier pour moi-méme.

Mon ami, M. DeCandolle, m’a dit que vous dai-
eniez vous rappeller de moi. Je vous prie d’agréer
l'expression de ma vive reconnoissance.

Le Baron DE HuMBOoLpt.

195

From Professor DeCandolle.
Monsieur, Paris, 18 Mars 1816.

J’ai quitté Norwich, ou plutdét votre maison, I’e-
sprit tout occupé des journées intéressantes que j’y
avois passées, et le coeur pénétré de reconnoissance
de votre aimable accueil: j’ai reparé souvent dans
ma mémoire les conversations que j’ai eu le plaisir
davoir avec vous, et me suis sans cesse félicité
d avoir eu le ‘bonheur de pouvoir maintenant vous
connoitre personnellement: je n’ai point oublié
Phistoire du Corchorus, &c. &c.

Mon premier soin en arrivant 4 Londres que
d'examiner le Smithza: je dirais presque si ce n’étoit
trop bizarre, que j'ai eu du regret a trouver le genre
trop bon dans létat actuel de nos connoissances pour
pouvoir étre changé; le caractére du calice le di-
stingue bien de l_ 4ischynomene, et Mr. Brown m’adit
avoir deux nouvelles espéces qui ont le méme ca-
ractére, et qui renforceront le genre de Dryander.
Obligé de renoncer au plaisir de vous dedier le genre
que j’avois envie de vous offrir, j’ai au moins une
occasion de me dedommager et de vous temoigner
publiquement mes sentimens ; et j’ai redigé sous la
forme d'une lettre qui vous est adressée mes ob-
servations sur les deux genres a rapporter selon moi
a la famille des Rosacées. Si vous trouvez cette note
digne de l’attention de la Société Linnéenne et la
langue ou elle est ecrite n’y met pas obstacle, je
vous prie den donner communication 8 cette illus-
tre Société. Je vous l’adresse avec d’autant plus de

0 2

196

motif, que «est vous qui avez le premier observé
Yun des points fondamentaux de cette petite discus-
sion. Elle etoit préte le jour de mon depart de
Londres; mais je n’eus pas le temps de la mettre
au mot pour vous l’adresser. Je suis arrivé ici il y
a peu de jours, et un de mes premiers soins est de
vous l’envoyer pour avoir en méme temps occasion
de me rappeller 4 votre souvenir. J’ai remis votre
lettre 4 M. Desfontaines, qui a eu grand plaisir a
recevoir de vos nouvelles ; lorsque je lui ai raconté
mes journées de Norwich, je croyois qu'il alloit
partir pour vous faire aussi une visite: quant a moi,
Monsieur, j'ai beaucoup plus envie d’en faire une
seconde que j’en avois de la premiere, et c'est beau-
coup dire. Veuillez, je vous prie, présenter a Lady
Smith mes hommages empressés. Je vous prie
dagréer, Monsieur, l’expression de ma considération
distinguée et des sentimens avec lesquels je suis
Votre dévoué Serviteur,

A. P. De CanpDo_te.

From the Duke of Bedford.

Dear Sir James, Endsleigh, Sept. 9, 1816.

Accept my very sincere thanks for your kind let-
ter, inclosing one to my gardener Sinclair. I am
sure he will feel your goodness to him as it deserves;
for your opinion and advice cannot but be highly
valuable to him in the pursuit in which he is en-
gaged with so much zeal and earnestness, and which
i trust*will do him credit, and be of some utility to
those who take up agriculture as a science. And

197

surely when every thing tends so much to the de-
pression of agricultural pursuits, those who think
them of some importance to the interests of the
country cannot too closely investigate every part of
this subject, which may in any degree operate to
render the earth more productive, and give a stimu-
lus to the industry and skill of the cultivator of the
soil. 3

I was much gratified by your visit to Woburn,
and flatter myself that you may be induced to repeat
it; and if at any time you should be brought into
this western corner of the island, I shall be delighted
to show you the humble but picturesque beauties of
the scenery surrounding this little cottage, which,
though on a more confined scale than the moun-
tains of Wales or Highlands of Scotland, are not
without considerable interest.

Believe me to be, with sincere regard,
Your very faithful Servant,

BEDFORD.

198

CHAPTER XI.
Correspondence of the Abbé Joseph Corréa de Serra.

Amonc those friends of Sir James Smith, who were
created such at first sight.by the magic sympathy of
natural science, the Abbé Joseph Corréa de Serra
must be placed foremost. He was a botanist of
the first rank; and the reader may recollect that his
acquaintance with Sir James began at M. de Jus-
sieu’s at Paris, and that they afterwards met at
Rome.

The Abbé Corréa was a man of great genius and
penetration, of good family and connexions; but,
although a priest, appears to have fallen under the
suspicion of the Inquisition. The particulars are
involved in obscurity, yet some light may be thrown
upon them by the letters which immediately follow.
The first is from M. Broussonet, to whose acquaint-
ance Sir James was first introduced at Edinburgh.

From M. Broussonet.

Mon cher Smith, Saragosse, 29 Juillet 1794.
Persécuté en France et pret a y périr, je me sauve
i travers les plus grands dangers en Espagne, et je
desire pouvoir me rendre en Angleterre pour passer

199

ensuite Amérique Septentrionale, ot j'ai envoyé
quelques marchandises, dont le produit me fera vivre
jusques a ce que je gagne quelque chose en fesant la
médecine, ou en donnant les lecons @histoire natu-
relle. Je me rends dans ce moment a Cadiz, ou je
voudrois trouver une passage sur un vaisseau de
guerre Anglais ou sur une frigate.

Peut-étre méme pourrais-je passer 4 Gibraltar ou
4 Lisbonne; mais je crains que les fonds ne viennent
4 me manquer, n’ayant pas pu en emporter beau-
coup de France. Je me suis adressé au Chey. Banks,
je le prie de me procurer de passage sur quelque
vaisseau de la marine royale: je tremble que ma
lettre ne le trouve dans le Lincolnshire. Veuille
bien, mon bon ami, l’engager a prendre intérét a ma
situation ; elle est réellement digne de pitié.

Envoyez-moi des lettres pour Gibraltar, pour Lis-
bonne. Aidez-moi a me tirer de la position bien
malheureuse ow je suis. J’ai été nourri dans le mal-
heur; je puis me contenter de peu; la table méme
des matelots me conviendra. Si vous pouvez me
préter quelque chose, vous me rendrez un véritable
service; il me faut peu, et encore méme ce ne sera
que pour le passage. Les marchandises que j'ai a
Baltimore, les effets que j'ai assurés en France, enfin
mon frére et mes sceurs vous repondront de la bonté
de ma dette. Je ne connois que vous et le Chey.
Banks 4 qui je puisse m’adresser dans cette occa-
sion. Adieu, mon cher Smith; plaignez-moi, mais
nabandonnez pas

Votre Ami,
Auc. Broussoner.

200

N. Ecrivez-moi aussi sous deux envellopes, la
premitre dug. Broussonet, la seconde Don Antonio
Cavanilles, Hotel del’ Infantado en Madrid.

Ecrivez-moi; ce sera une grande consolation.

Adieu!

From J. T. Koster, Esq..

Sir, Lisbon, Oct. 23, 1794.

By desire of Dr. Withering, to whose good ad-
vice on the score of health during the two winters
he resided among us here Iam much indebted, I
send you a specimen of the Creeping Fig with its
fruit. Mr. Masson, with whom I had the pleasure
of being acquainted here some years ago, I think
called it Fecus pumila; but my worthy friend the
Abbé Corréa calls it Ficus repens: it grows abun-
dantly and luxuriantly in the green-house at the
Royal Betanic Garden near this city, covering the
trellis on the inside the glass to the very top.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Abbé yesterday
afternoon, who called upon me, and brought with
him the unfortunate M. Broussonet: this gentle-
man came in a merchant-ship from Cadiz, under
convoy of the America and two frigates on their
way to England; but having heard of many French
cruizers being out, who have taken another of our
packets, he is afraid of proceeding. I have done
everything in my power, at the Abbé’s earnest re-
quest, to get a passage for him in the King’s ship ;
but Captain Rodney’s orders are so strict against
carrying French passengers. that he could not con-

201

sent to it. They both begged that I would make
this circumstance known to you, and desired to be
remembered. M. Broussonet had been at the bo-
tanic garden, and seen this plant, which he also spe-
cifies by the name of repens.

The specimen is packed in a small paper box
stuffed with cotton wool, and directed for you. Sir
Henry Vane, Bart., who is a passenger in the Ame-
rica, has kindly taken charge of it, and will deliver
it to you, if in his power.

I wrote to Dr. Withering some time ago, and told
him that the plant would produce its fruit about
“this time; and in his answer he expresses a wish
that the specimen might be sent dried to you; and
it is fortunate that so good an opportunity should
immediately offer.

After having mentioned to you these four names,
Tam confident it would be superfluous to make any
apology for troubling you with a letter.

I am, with very great respect, Sir,
Your most obedient and most humble Servant,

JOHN THEODORE KosTER.

From the same.

Sir, Lisbon, Jan. 25, 1795.

I received the honour of your letter of the 16th
of December by the packet that arrived the 15th
instant, and it was exceedingly unfortunate that she
did not come in a few days sooner. M. Broussonet

202

might then have gone in the Boston frigate, and his
stay here has been the cause of great mortification
and real detriment to our friend the Abbé Corréa.

I explained to Sir Joseph Banks that his presence
here gave umbrage to the two emigrant Dukes of
Luxemburg and Coigny, and that they had applied
to the court to have him sent away. Since that time
still more noise has been made about it, and it has
been contrived to supersede the Abbé in a lucrative
and honourable place, which had been promised
him,—that of public librarian; and he still appre-
hends other disagreeable consequences: not that I
imagine poor M. Broussonet is the real cause, any
further than that the Abbé’s enemies have eagerly
seized upon the opportunity, and alleged his at-
tachment to Mons. B. as a proof of their former
slanderous accusations. It is true that our friend
the Abbé has been rather too unguarded in express-
ing his political opinions in such a country as this.
Under a weak, irresolute, though arbitrary prince,
surrounded by a corrupt, ignorant, bigoted, intri-
guing court, what else can be expected? It happens
too, very unfortunately, that the Duke de Lafoens* is
confined in a violent fit of the gout, or he might in
some measure have stemmed the torrent.

In consequence of Sir J. Banks’s recommenda-
tion, Iam sure Mr. Walpole would readily undertake
it, and could certainly protect Mons. B., and obtain
leave for him to stay here as long as convenient ;
but you may judge of M. Broussonet’s feelings on

* John de Braganza, uncle to the Queen of Portugal.

203

knowing that the Abbé’s civilities to him cost him
so dear; he has therefore resolved to set out di-
rectly for Gibraltar. He carries a passport to our
Mr. Pinto, the secretary of state; another from
Mr. Walpole, with his letter to General Rainsford,
and the admiralty order. I hope he_will get safe
to that fortress; indeed I shall be anxious to hear
of his safe arrival in England; for when once a
man’s affairs get into a wrong train, it is often so
difficult to set them right again, that one cannot
help being suspicious and apprehensive about fu-
ture events. I can assure you that poor M. Brous-
sonet can hardly resolve to set out, and goes with
a heavy heart, foreboding a cool reception from
General Rainsford, and all the ills that can possibly
happen; and I am persuaded that, when you ac-
quaint Sir J. Banks with these circumstances, he
will have the goodness to write again to General
Rainsford.

The first time you see Sir Joseph, I beg the fa-
vour of you to let him know that I have advanced
a small sum of money to M. Broussonet, that I have
procured a letter of credit for him to Gibraltar, and
also to Faro upon his route, of all which I will give
Sir Joseph an account in due time.

As soon as I saw your Tour advertised, I sent
for it, which the Abbé laid hold of and had the first
reading; perhaps this was the work you wished to
send him. M. Broussonet has just finished a letter
to Sir Joseph Banks at my house, and will set out
as soon as ever a man and horse can be procured
to conduct him to Faro; from thence our deputy

204

consul will take charge of him, and send him for-
wards in a proper manner, either through Spain or
by sea, as most convenient.
I have the honour to be, most truly,
Your most obedient, &c.,
Joun THEeopore Koster.

Whether the Abbé Corréa escaped from a real
danger or not, there is no doubt that he fled from
his country soon after these letters were written to
Sir James, and took refuge in his friend’s house in
Great Marlborough Street, who received him with
open arms. ‘This was early in 1795.

The following extraordinary letter explains all
that is known of this affair; it is certain his mind
was deeply impressed with terror, which has no ap-
. pearance of being imaginary.

From the Abbé Corréa.

Dear Sir, Penzance, Cornwall, April 13, 1795.

Perhaps you will be surprised to find me so much
nearer you than you believed; but I am sure you
will be still more surprised when you will know the
motive of it. I have been obliged to leave Portugal
by a persecution whose injustice and iniquity is only
to be credited when seen, and whose particulars I
will explain to you in London; and our friend
Broussonet will tell you what part of it he saw him-
self.

The inquisitor-general bore the greatest part in

205

that hellish plot, whose final aim was not directed
against me, but it was deemed necessary to strike
me down before.

As there was no time to lose, and I was not in-
formed of the peculiarity of your alien act, I did not
provide myself with the passports which I now find
necessary to enter England, and which I own are
very just precautions in such a time as this of war
and suspicions. Now at Penzance I am detained by
contrary winds, and by an embargo laid on all your
ships coming from abroad. I cannot without leave
from your government take the way of London by
land; and even in case the ship will be permitted to
proceed to London, according to the master’s hopes,
I cannot disembark there without such a permis-
sion. What I did for our common friend Brousso-
net at Lisbon in the days of my prosperity, I beg
from you now that I am in the same circumstances
he was then; and I beg less, because I will not re-
main in England but just a few days. I will then
embark for anywhere else but Portugal and Spain,
to be out of reach of my infernal persecutors, who
(for some time at least) will, Iam sure, be unrelent-
ing, and will not spare any just or unjust means,
false or true pretext, to hurt me as much as it will
be in their power. Happily I could bring with me
money enough to reach whatever part I will choose,
and live there for some months; and I could leave
in Lisbon, in sure hands, about three hundred pounds
to begin my settlement where I will choose to re-
main. ‘That makes me in some sort tranquil for
the future; but that does by no means diminish the

206

embarrassment I now lie under,—the want of this
permission of your government, which I entreat you
by all the reasons of humanity to endeavour to ob-
tain to me by the interposition of Sir Joseph Banks,
who, in his character of general patron of sciences
and letters, will, 1 am sure, not be scandalized, if I
apply to his protection for such a narrow permis-
sion of staying in London.

I have so full a confidence in your friendship and
humane generosity, as well as in his liberal heart,
that I entertain no doubt of obtaining it. This fa-
vour can make me happy; and what is to me now
a time the greatest benefit to receive, is not I con-
fide very difficult to you to bestow. I do not write
to the Chevalier Almeyda, our ambassador, because
he is the nephew of a great man who is in the num-
ber of my persecutors, and from what I have seen,
none of the less violent ; and this same reason hin-
ders me from thinking of England for the place of
my asylum. The ship I am in is the sloop Mary,
Captain Anthony Reskruge. The name I have
taken is Joseph Porto, which is the family name of
a relation of mine, not by any other reason but to
get safe out of the Tagus; but now I shall pass. by
it till I reach London, and the permission I so
earnestly pray you to obtain me is to be obtained
with that name.

Perhaps a letter for me from Lisbon has reached
Sir Joseph Banks’s hands, as also now I send a du-
plicate of this, the more to be assured of your re-
ceiving it. I entreat you to beg pardon to him in
my name for such importunities ; but the friend

207

who probably has written to me does not know your
address; but he knows that of Sir Joseph Banks,
and also that by your means it would have come
to my hands. Did you ever believe that I would
have found myself in such circumstances, when you
wrote in the third volume of your Travels, “ that
you wished me long life to reap the fruit of my be-
nevolent aims”? But if you can obtain for me this
permission, which is rather of going from England
than of staying in it, I would reckon myself very
happy; and you will be a great benefactor to your
most obedient and affectionate Friend and Servant,

JOSEPH CORREA DE SERRA.

P.S. Do not forget my address here is Mr. Joseph
Porto.

From Sir Joseph Banks.

My dear Doctor, April 16, 1795.

A letter will by this evening’s post be dispatched
to the mayor of Falmouth, directing him to grant
a passport to Mr. Joseph Porto to come to London.
I inclose you a frank and the Abbé Corréa’s letter,
in order that you may apprise him of the circum-
stance.

Very faithfully yours,

JosEPH Banks,

I find it has been reported in Lisbon that he was
a little deranged in his faculties; but his letter to
you seems to put that matter out of question.

208

It appears from the following correspondence,
that the Abbé continued in England, and remained
in tranquillity some years in the neighbourhood of
London.

From the Abbé Corréa.

Sir, London, June 15, 1795.

Till now I have not thought proper to obtrude
myself in your way. I know what is to be in the
bosom of one’s own family, much more on such
occasions as this which now brought you to Nor-
wich, and have given you full time to enjoy it un-
disturbed. But I have my rights also, and will not
be negligent about them. I have a right to know
how you do, and to be happy in the knowledge that
you are so: I havea right to present my best re-
spects to your truly respectable mother ; and have a
right to tell you what I do here, and what news I
receive from my country about my affairs. Did you
ever expect such a bill of rights from a man who
owes you so many obligations? Don’t be afraid;
I will not be severe for the moment, because I be-
lieve you are nearly about the time of returning to
London, where I will know what respects to you,
and tell you what concerns me. At Norwich I wish
you only to assure your mother of the sentiments
of respect and deep esteem I have for her, and how
heartfully I wish her every blessing. As for you,
I believe you are sure enough how sincerely and
heartily

I am, Sir, yours &c.,
JosepH CorRREA DE SERRA.

209

P.S. The news from Portugal are far from being
bad. C'est le meilleur des mondes possible, in Pan-
gloss’s language.

From the same.

Dear Sir and Friend, London, July 4, 1795.

Since you wish to have from me a long letter and
botanical news, I will readily comply with it, because
of all England you are the person with whom I like
the better to converse, and botany is now the purest
spring of pleasure to me. Your Kvapog is a pretty
name, and I find the ancient botanists very explicit
in its signification. They distinguish well enough
the Cyamus egyptius, which is the Melumbo, from
the Cyamus hellenicus, which is the common bean.

It seems that xvanoc was to them a general name
of a class of resembling seeds, just as the word pots
in French, which is given to the Piswm Ochrus, to
the seed of the Cnestis, to the Cytisus Cajan, to the
seeds of Gutlandina, &c.; and the English word
bean, which is given not only to the Fada, but to
some Phaseoli, &c., only distinguishing them by
epithets, as the Cyams were.

I wish to ascertain if the beans of the Mareotis
andof the Tritonia Palus,—to eat whose (which) was
asin to the AXgyptians, they being under the in-
fluence of Typhon, a cruel deity,—were the seeds of
the Nelumbo.

But there is another reason why the word xvapoe
is a happy one for the Tamara emblem of prolific
nature. Its original root cvw is applied in some

VOL. II. P

210

senses to the act of fecundation and gravidation ;
and if some of our Greek scholars put any difficulty
to the derivation of the word cvayioc from xuw,—which
he can very reasonably do, since there is no forcible
analogy in that language to bring the one from the
other,—we can stop his mouth, presenting him the
verb kvauZw, a verb by the common consent of
grammarians derived from xvw. If I had here at
hand philological books, as I have of natural hi-
story, something should be done to illustrate the
archeology of this new genus; but still I will go
to the library of the British Muszeum, and try to
make a classical nosegay for the christening of so
classical a genus. So Cyamus let it be, and Cyamus
for ever !

Since your departure three new botanical works
have appeared, viz., Thunberg’s Monographia of the
Hermannia, and Major Velley’s and Mr. Stack-
house’s works on the Fuct. These last I believe to
be very good books; but the physiological part is
so obscure and vague, that I have dared to do a little
memoir myself on the fecundation of submersed
plants, which I defer reading till after your return :
because I confide in your friendship, you will not
treat me in this and other such occasions as Ray
treated Sir Hans Sloane. The docility and deference
which you always will find in me for your advices,
will, I hope, entitle me to your kind patience and
inspection in my botanical undertakings.

Days ago I was at Lee’s with our fellow Lambert;
and, as many species of Verbascum unknown to me
were in blossom, I tried in all of them the pheno-

211

menon of their irritability, with the greatest success
in all of them. I remember having spoken to you
about it; and as probably the English Verbasca are
now in flower about Norwich, I will be very glad if
you observe it minutely. Strike with a stick, and
with some force, the stem of the plant, under the
branches, two or three times, and wait patiently for
some minutes; you will see the mbus of the co-
volle move towards the centre, and afterwards the
basis of the ¢wbus slowly detach itself from the re-
ceptacle, and fall,—and immediately the ca/y# close
itself with impatience, and embrace the seeds; and
that will happen to all the open flowers one after
another. In Portugal I had observed it in the Ver-
bascum Thapsi, sinuatum, Blattaria, now at Lee’s in
many others, and I wish I could observe all its spe-
cies and the Celsie: I know nothing analogous in
other plants. Next year this will be followed, and
make a memoir for our Society. Mr. Bauer is about
to publish the Digitalis. Mr. Menzies has written
to Sir Joseph from Valparaiso in Chili, and in a few
months will be in England.—These are all the bo-
tanical news I can send you.

From what you say, I am convinced it is my fate
to be obliged to all your family. I will endeavour
to justify the good opinion which your mother has
given of me. Pray remember me to her; and also
where I am not yet acquainted I vow myself, as in
the Roman dedications, notzs et zgnotis Diis.

I wish Mr. Voght* was in London, to get ac-
quainted with him ; the author of such a benevolent
* Casper Voght, Esq. See p, 71.

Pp 2

212

pamphlet must be, I am sure, a man of an equally
amiable character and sound understanding.

Your compliments have been presented to the
botanic circle at Soho Square, and I am charged to
send you theirs. To see you again in London, happy
and in good health, is the constant wish of your
hearty friend,

JosEPH CORREA DE SERRA.

The writer recollects with much pleasure the
Abbé Corréa’s visits to herself and Sir James, when
they resided for a short time at Hammersmith in
the spring of 1796. She was prepared to admire this
engaging foreigner, and was not disappointed. No-
thing could exceed the hilarity of his spirits, and
the lustre of his dark intelligent eye, while in a sort
of poetic rapture he talked of the charms of nature,
and of flowers in particular, and especially of the
satisfaction it would afford his mind to have a plant
named after him. This he declared was the lasting
honour he desired. He had witnessed the events
of the French Revolution, had seen rank and for-
tune overthrown, escutcheons effaced, and names
obliterated ;—while in this mode of perpetuating an
honourable fame, nothing human could destroy it ;
the remembrance of him would be renewed every
season with the revolving year, as long as the world
endured !

His friend had the pleasure of dedicating to him
a beautiful genus, native of New Holland, of which
three species only are known: that called Correa.
virens is figured in Exotic Botany. How much

213

soever the Abbé might pride himself in this posses-
sion, he found he was in danger of innovation where
he thought himself most secure. “ Do you know,”
says he, “that La Billardiére has transformed the
Correa you granted me into Mazeutoxeron? What
a barbarous name! It seems to meas if a Vandal
or a Longobard had been put in possession of my
territory. God help me; is it not misfortune
enough to be stripped of my property, but I must
be robbed by such a monster as Mazeutoxeron !”

From the Abbé Corréa.

London, Jan. 80, 1797.

Do not judge of my readiness in answering your
letters by the long time I have waited to answer
yours of the 3rd instant. I hope I will seldom be
interdicted the use of my right-hand to write, as I
have been in the present occasion, by an abscess in
the second finger of it, which is at present perfectly
healed, after a tedious and they say dangerous sup-
puration in this cold season. By this time I am
sure your work is advanced: I wish I could say as
much of mine; but I begin to feel the necessity of
drawing by myself, otherwise it will be impossible
to advance as fast as I wish. Willemet’s Herbarium
Mauritianum I have seen in Usteri’s Botanic An-
nals, and is, as you say, a poor performance. ‘The
Conway of which the preface speaks is the French
general commanding in India, who perhaps did per-
secute Willemet rather from difference of party in
politics, than from any dislike to natural knowledge.

214

They are now in France planning an expedition to
the interior of Africa, according to the report of
the secretary of the class of natural sciences in the
public meeting of the Institute in the 4th of Janu-
ary, where also an historical eulogium of Professor
Sibthorp was read, composed by M. de Guys.

The only work of natural history worth men-
tioning comes from foreign countries, Since you
are at Norwich is the Aduseum Ichthyolithologicum
Veronense, which is a splendid publication, and
the written part of it deserving commendation.
As for English publications, I am sure you have
seen Mr. Salisbury’s Prodromus, and found me
turned into a star,—a nebulous one indeed; others
will rather say meteor.

Afzelius has brought very extraordinary plants
from Africa, and truly paradoxical. His Flora Gui-
neensis will be a great step advanced towards the
improvement of botany. Few remain to be exa-
mined, and I believe in a week more they will be
over.

I have lately received a very friendly letter from
Don Rodrigo de Sousa, and he sends compliments to
you. I believe you will do well if you write to him.

My respects to Mrs. Smith and your venerable
mother. Since Miss Fanny deigns to recollect and
claim my old acquaintance, you will be so good as to
give her my most grateful thanks.

As for you, believe me ever entirely yours,
JosEPH CORREA DE SERRA.

215

From the same.

My dear Friend, London, March 23, 1797.

What have you thought of my silence ?— Be sure
it was not want of friendship or of gratitude. When
you are acquainted with what it was, you will laugh
perhaps.

I have in my hand your diploma from the Lisbon
Academy, which I do not send to Norwich, because
you are to visit London in the next month. The
Academy sends to you a present of all its works,
and they are at Lisbon (ready to be embarked) in
Koster’s hands, who has written to me to inquire
if you would think them worth paying the duties on
them, which he says are very high on books in
England. Sir Joseph Banks, to whom the Aca-
demy also made a present of its works, tells me
that he is very glad of having them all. I wish to
know what you intend to do. .

In your last letter to Lambert, I saw with the
greatest pleasure your division of genera of the
Protea family. It happened that I had just then
examined the Cape Proteas in Masson’s collection,
which has occupied us in these last weeks, and will
occupy for some more; the variety of seeds and seed-
vessels, and the different ways of aggregation in the
flowers had struck me. When your letter to Lam-
bert came to my hands, I was enchanted at the read-
ing of it, and must give the due praises to your
discriminating powers, which I always have told
you will constitute your proper character of a bo-
tanic writer. All your genera are, I suppose, taken

216

mostly from New Holland plants; some of them
are not familiar to me, but I can see the justness of
the characters you establish. I wish you would also
examine the Cape Proteas, because the two Floras
are much more alike than it is supposed they are,—
not only parallel, but are both fragments of a whole.
Styphelias are found at the Cape. Masson has
brought two species, and God knows if in the dif-
ferent genera of the Protea family many are not
common to both Floras, and to be reciprocally il-
lustrated by each other. Will you allow me the
liberty of a friendly observation ? The general ten-
dency of the family is to be te¢rapetalous, notwith-
standing the insertion of the stamina in the corolla;
so I wish you would try those which appear mono-
petalous, before a definitive determination, because
many of them may be only slightly connated petals
in a tubular appearance, as I will be able to show
you in the Lambertia, which is perfectly te¢rapetala,
and the petals of which are only a/e, which accom-
pany the filaments to the insertion under the ger-
men, extremely alike to the a/a which accompanies
the pedunculus of the flowers in the Z?ha, and
which is commonly reputed a dractea *.

I beg pardon, my dear friend; but if the caution
is not a good one, it comes at least from a friendly
heart.

Be so good as to present my compliments to
Mrs. Smith, and to your respectable mother.

I am most heartily yours,
JosEPH CoRREA DE SERRA.

* I don’t say these petals are bractee, but only the form of
them is like the bractea of the Tilia flowers.

217

J. E. Smith a son Altesse Royale Monseigneur le
Duce de Lafoens, « Lisbonne.

Monseigneur, Aout 12, 1797.

Lorsque j'ai été 4 Londres pendant quelques mois
du printems de cette année, mon trés cher et esti-
mable ami M. l Abbé Corréa m’a mis entre les mains
un riche paquet de livres, que votre Altesse Royalea
daigné m’envoyer de la part de Académie des Sci-
ences de Lisbonne, dont les recommendations du
méme ami m’ont rendu, depuis quelque tems,
membre. Je suis trés sensible, Monseigneur, a l’hon-
neur que votre Altesse Royale et Académie m’ont
fait, et je vous supplie d'agréer mes remercimens
les plus respectueux. Je serai charmé davoir
quelque chose touchant lhistoire naturelle digne
d’étre offerte 4 ! Académie, et de lui témoigner ma
reconnoissance.

Mais je saisis avec encore plus d’empressement
loccasion qui se présente d’offrir mon hommage le
plus sincére a son illustre President, dont le carac-
tére et les lumiéres relévent méme son rang élevé, et
doivent le rendre cher a sa patrie et au genre humain.

Je suis charmé que M. Corréa se trouve si bien
en Angleterre. I] s’est devoueé a la botanique, sur-
tout ce qui regarde l'économie des plantes, et il me
semble qu il né se ressent nullement de ses mal-
heurs passés lorsqu’il se trouve dans un jardin de
botanique.

Je suis, avec les sentiments les plus respec-
tueux, de votre Altesse Royale le trés hum-
ble et trés obéissant Serviteur,

) JAMES Epwarp SMITH.

218

From Don Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho.

Monsieur Smith, Lisbonne, ce 22 Nov. 1797.

Je viens de recevoir par mon ami M. lAbbé
Corréa, votre trés estimable lettre en date du 16
Aoiit, et ce n’est que trop vrai que je me suis em-
pressé de demander de vos nouvelles a peine arrivé
icl.

Le souvenir que vous daignez garder d'un ancien
ami, que vous avez méme voulu honorer avec le
titre de votre confrére dans la Société Linnéenne, a
été pour moi trés flatteur, malgré que mes occupa-
tions m’eussent depuis long tems privé de ’honneur
de vous écrire. J’attens avec impatience les deux
ouvrages de votre Tour sur le Continent, et des
Lectures Botaniques, que vous avez la bhonté de
m/’adresser, et que je n’ai point recu. Je donne l’ordre
a mon libraire 4 Londres pour votre magnifique
ouvrage sur les Insectes de Georgia, que je n’avois
point vu annoncé, ou que peutétre jaurais oublié,
car le regne animal a toujours eu moins dinterét
pour moi, que les deux autres. J’attens aussi le livre
de Mr. Staunton, votre ami, dont j’ai lu quelques
passages sur Madeira, Praya, et Rio de Janeiro, qui
changeront maintenant en mieux par les soins éclai-
rés et par les ordres de mon auguste maitre, dont
les vertus sont supérieures 4 toute expression.
Votre amitié est la cause de lillusion que vous vous
faites pour mes foibles talens ; mais si je n’ai point
des droits aux qualités que vous me supposez, au
moins j’en ai a votre estime, car je préférerai 4 bien
dautres choses le doux plaisir d’aller vous voir a

219

Norwich avec M. l Abbé Corréa, et d’y parler sur les
sciences, dont les progrés devroient intéresser bien
plus le genre humain, que d’autres objets dont il ne
rétire aucun profit essentiel.

Les progrés de la Société Linnéenne me font le
plus grand plaisir, et je viens aussi de donner des
ordres pour qu'on m’adresse tout ce quelle a publié.

Je n'ai point recu des nouvelles du Dr. Bellardi,
qui pourroit bien venir ici s'il n’avoit point une si
nombreuse famille, mais qui poursuit toujours ses
travaux botaniques avec passion.

Daignez agréer les sentimens d’estime que je
vous voue, et permettez que je fasse des voeux,
pourque vous veniez un hiver herboriser en Portu-
gal, et que je puisse de vive voix vous renouveller
les assurances des sentimens d’estime et considéra-
tion avec lesquels j’ai Vhonneur d’étre

Votre trés humble et obéissant Serviteur,

D. Roprico pvE Sousa CourTInHo.

From the Abbé Corréa.

My dear Friend, London, Sept. 3, 1800.

Since you are determined to do our Academy the
honour of writing a paper for her, I thank you for
it, and will take proper care of forwarding it by a
safe conveyance.

You are so good as to take notice of my horror
of the Mazeutoxeron; but I can tell you, that not
only is your publication much anterior to that of
La Billardiére, but that Jussieu is decided to sup-

220

port the old name. Jussieu has written me a long
friendly letter, and entreats me to make not only
his compliments, but his excuses also to you for not
writing to you as he wished.
Yours most sincerely,
JosEPH CorREA DE SERRA.

Thus was his desire established; and still may each
returning season perpetuate the memoryof the friend
who conferred and the friend who accepted so beau-
tiful a memorial! In the world he had tribulation ;
and whether real or ideal, the Abbé’s sufferings excite
our tenderest compassion, as he again appears under
the influence of a power armed with most direful
means of inflicting terror and despair.

From the same.

My dear Friend, London, Sept. 16, 1801.

When your letter of the 8th instant reached Lon-
don I was in Birmingham, and this is my good ex-
cuse for not sending a prompt answer. The descrip-
tion I had made of the Doryanthes I had long been
at a loss to find again; but to satisfy you, I have
written it again in fewer words, and you will find it
here inclosed, together with the two plates already
engraved for it.

About my Excellency and my diplomacy I cannot
tell you; but there was no unluckier fatality than,
after being six years out of Portugal in peace, to fall
again in the clutches of the same family who had
driven me from my country, after having brought

221

me to madness and lunacy. All the ancient hatred,
sanctified in their eyes by the motives you know,
without any scruple about the means, for the same
reason are and have been exerted by this monster
of ambassador to effect my ruin, either by sending
me back to Portugal, where the Duke of Lafoens is
now in disgrace, or in England if he can. I have
been for many and many weeks almost driven to
madness, living the greater part of the time with
him, and have afterwards left him and given my
resignation, which he did not choose to accept, but
I have sent it directly to Portugal. He is the son
of the Marquis of Ponte de Lima, cousin to the
Grand Inquisitor. I am, my dear friend, in the
situation of Laocoon when encircled and torn by
the serpent,—and this is a poisonous one.

Believe me, I am most sincerely yours,
JosEPH CORREA DE SERRA.

The Abbe’s next letter, written twelve years after,
is dated from America, whither he went in a high
official capacity, as Portuguese minister plenipo-
tentiary at Washington.

Dear Sir and Friend, Boston, Noy. 18, 1813.
From what a distance do I address you at present !
but it is to send you not only the assurances of my
unalterable friendship and respect for you, but also
a compensation, and a thorough one, for my long
silence, as time I am perfectly confident will show
to you.
Botany is still in her infancy in America: some

222

amateurs are scattered through this continent; and
some European rather travelling gardeners than real
botanists are collecting plants and shrubs and trees
for the gardens of European rich men,—or for the
nurseries. In the two years that I have lived and
travelled in the United States, I have found only a
man*, and a young one too, a physician of this town,
who shows a true botanic genius and great zeal for
science; he has already acquired a great scientific
knowledge, only aided by his industry and the limited
number of botanic books which the country affords.
He will be I am confident an illustrious botanist, if
he is put in correspondence with the chiefs of the
science, and helped by their knowledge in the doubts
that he may encounter.

I am persuaded I doa great service to botanyas well
as to him by introducing him to you, our venerable
patriarch. By fostering his efforts, and by resolving
his doubts, you will I am sure in a few years bring
forth more thorough knowledge of North American
plants than we have hitherto had. He will write to
you and send this little memorandum. His name
is Dr. Bigelow, and his fixed residence Boston.

If I live some years, I am confident you will thank
me, in the name of the botanic church, for having
been instrumental to open this correspondence.

From Philadelphia I intend to write to you and
send you some few things. Farewell till then !

Most sincerely yours,
JosEpH CorREA DE SERRA.

* Dr. Muhlenburg excepted.

223

The Abbé’s latest letters have the date of 1821,
when he was again in England, and then preparing
to take a voyage to the Brazils, whither he was ap-
pointed by the King of Portugal to superintend
the sciences and arts, and to a very honourable
and lucrative situation.

Dear Sir and Friend, London, July 23, 1821.

I promised you a letter before my leaving En-
gland, and I keep my word. The day after to-mor-
row I go to Falmouth to embark in the packet de-
stined to sail the 29th or 30th of this month, and
hope to be in Lisbon by the 10th of August, if not
before. It will be a new sight for me, after twenty-
six years and five months absence. All is changed:
God grant it may be for the better! My health is
very precarious still, but on the whole is ameliorated,
and my impatience raises my spirits. I beg you to
present my compliments to Lady Smith, and for you
my best wishes for your happiness, peace, and long
life. You see by the erratas of this letter, the state
of weariness which my mind is in this moment, by
the little teasing numberless details concomitant to
a déménagement, that may be called the horrors of
removal. At all times and in every country be sure
of finding in me an obliged and grateful friend.
and an obedient faithful servant.

JOsEPH CORREA DE SERRA.

Soon after this period the venerable Abbé re-

224

turned in very ill health to his native country, and
died at Lisbon in 1823.

In reference to a foregoing letter, dated J ayaa 4
1795, the two following ones are added for a further
illustration of the same subject. They are from the
hand of the learned and elegant scholar Dr. Frank
Sayers, of Norwich.

Dear Sir, Sept. 12, 1808.

The discussion into which you were so obliging
as to enter yesterday evening, induced me to look
a little more for the earliest meaning of the word
kvayoc. I do not find that it is used more than once
by Homer in the Iliad or Odyssey; the passage
which I noticed to you yesterday in the Iliad (v.589)
is thus translated, I find, by Damm (in his celebrated
Lewxic. Homeric.): “A ventilabro in area saliunt fabe
fusce et pisa—nam color harum fabarum est fuscus
et rufus.” The same writer translates xvapoc, “faba
maxime ea species quam Germani walsche bonen,
vulgo saubonen vocant, et quas Greci vooxvapoue
appellant.” In the Batrachomyomachia (of which
the ezra however, as you well know, is somewhat
uncertain,) the word xvayoc again occurs :—in the
arming of the Mice it is said, 1. 123,

Kynpucas pev TPWTAaA Tepe KV MNCL eOnkav
“Pnfarres kuapovs xAwpous, EvT aTKNOOYTES.

The xvayoc, thus ingeniously used for greaves by the
mice, must of course have been of the shape of some
of our ordinary beans. The common meaning of
xvapoc, then, before the time of Pythagoras is thus

225

sufficiently plain. It appears, too, from the use of the
word xvauoc in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and
others of about the same era, that this ancient
sense of cvauoc was retained in the time of Theo-
phrastus (as in fact it was always), and possibly he
may have been the person who /irst extended the
name of kvanoc to the Wymphea Nelumbo, and may
thus have thrown the light which you so skilfully
discovered upon the precept of Pythagoras.

In Suidas and Julius Pollux I find no hint of the
Nelumbo under the head of xvapoc. Suidas has
Kvawioc, evdog oompiov. Pollux also enumerates the
kvanoc among the oozpia or legumena, and says kvapor
ol Kat TUAMOL. Hesychius makes it an oo7 Lov, but in
a note to him (from Eustathius) is added caAovpevor
KoA oKaouov.

In Athenzus, however, I find mention made not
only of ordinary xvayo eaten at feasts, but also of
the Kvapoc Avyumrioc, of which he gives a descrip-
tion extracted from Theophrastus (viz. that of the
Nymphea Nelumbo, not of the Lotus); he also
quotes Nicander, who recommends the sowing of
this Kvayoc Atyurtioc, saying that garlands may be
made of its flowers, and that its frwzt and roots may
be eaten. This Nicander (who was certainly no Py-
thagorean) lived about 137 B.C. In his time then,
and probably Jefore, (but how long before I know
not,) the Wymphea Nelumbo was known as a plant
Jit for food, and the name xvayoc was commonly af~
Jired to tt, perhaps taken from Theophrastus.

The only apology which I have to make for send-
ing you these crudities, is the desire which I felt to

VOL. II. a

226

make you some slight return for the amusement
and instruction which I yesterday received from you.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours most truly,
F. Savers.

I must leave our learned friend to settle the ety-
mology of xvayoc, as I am not fluent either in the
Coptic or Cushite. Herodotus, when he mentions
that the Egyptians did not eat the cvauoc, and that
the priests thought it unclean (ov cafapoc), uses the
word oowpiov in the same paragraph as including
the cvapoc.

From the same.

Dear Sir, Close, Oct, 3, 1808.

Since I had the pleasure of sending you a few
passages which I had hastily collected respecting the
kvapoc Of the ancients, a supposition has occurred to
me, by which I think some of the difficulties arising
on that subject might possibly be removed. I have
therefore thought proper to trouble you with it.
As we have found no Greek writer, prior to Theo-
phrastus, who has used the word kvayoc with any
any other meaning than that of the ordinary degu-
men so called,—does it not appear possible that
the Hindu xvapoc (or Wymphea Nelumbo) may have
been first imported from the East, at the time of the
conquests of Alexander ? Might not even the king
himself have ordered so celebrated a plant (and pro-
bably other curious natural productions) to have

227

been sent to his preceptor Aristotle, from whom a
knowledge of it would have been readily obtained
by Theophrastus? But without supposing any in-
terference of the conqueror himself, specimens of
such a striking vegetable as the Mymphea Nelumbo
could hardly fail of finding their way to Greece from
the East. Its introduction into Lgypt may, I think,
be similarly accounted for, and may be reasonably
fixed at about the same period. The xcvayoc men-
tioned by Herodotus as being held in abomination
by the Egyptians, is certainly not the Mymphea Ne-
lumbo, I conceive; he expressly calls it an oozpiov, and
the circumstance of its being held in abomination,
of its being deemed ov xafapoc, sufficiently points
out that it could never have been the holy, adorable
Nymphea of India. Herodotus, then, knew nothing
of any other kind of xvayoce in Egypt than of the
ordinary bean. But the Mymphea Nelumbo might
very probably have been introduced into Egypt
about the time of the first Ptolemy: to Micander,
who lived at Alexandria under the seventh Ptole-
my, it would of course be known; but it might still
be so little cultivated as to induce him to insist upon
its excellence in his Georgics. What effect this
exportation might have, I know not; but the culti-
vation of the Wymphea Nelumbo appears to have
continued in Egypt in the time of Pliny, who men-
tions two genera of Egyptian fabe, one of which he
calls “ rotundius et nigrius ;” this I conceive to be
the Nelumbo: the other kind I presume was the
ordinary xvayoc of Herodotus. If the above hypo-
thesis be true, it is certainly somewhat unfavourable
a2

223

to your supposition of Pythagoras having borrowed
his precept from Egypt,—supposing it, I mean, to
apply to the Vymphea Nelumbo: in case of its so ap-
plying, Pythagoras must I think have taken it direct
from India. But it appears to me more probable
that he did borrow it from Egypt, and applied it (as
the Egyptians themselves seem to have done,) to the
ordinary xvauoc (of the time of Herodotus). Upon
this supposition the precept itself would have been
very intelligible to the followers of Pythagoras (al-
though the reasons for it were not understood) ; but
if it contained any allusion to the Mymphaa Nelum-
bo, such allusion must have been totally obscure and
unavailing to the inhabitants of a country where
that plant appears to have been unknown.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
F. Sayers.

The beautiful plant which has led the botanist and
scholar into this elaborate disquisition, was figured
in Exotic Botany under the name of Cyamus Ne-
lumbo, the Sacred Bean of India, tab. 31, 32. It
is denominated xvayoc by Theophrastus; Mym-
phea Nelumbo, by Linnzus and Aiton ; Nymphea
indica major, by Rumphius ; elumbo nucifera, by
Gertner; elumbium speciosum, by Willdenow ;
and Zamard, by Rheede. Those who do not possess
the Exotic Botany may not be displeased to hear
Sir James Smith’s reasoning concerning the name
and character of this celebrated plant.

“‘Germen superior, green, smooth, inversely coni-

229

cal, its upper broad flat surface perforated with se-
veral holes, opening into as many cells. Each cell
contains the rudiment of a seed, protruding through
the orifice, and crowned with an oblong, obtuse,
perforated, yellow, permanent stigma. ‘The whole
germen becomes a coriaceous entire capsule, which
in process of time separates from the stalk, laden
with ripe oval nuts, and floats down the water. The
nuts vegetating, it becomes a cornucopia of young
sprouting plants, which at length break loose from
their confinement, and take root in the mud. This
peculiar mode of propagation has evidently occa-
sioned the plant, in conjunction with water, to be
adopted as the symbol of fertility, in which point of
view it has, from the remotest antiquity, been con-
sidered with religious veneration in India, and
makes a conspicuous figure in the mythology of
that ancient country. It is most generally known
to the learned of Europe under the name of Lotus ;
the natives of Hindustan call it Tamard; the people
of Ceylon Nelumbo. It has been confounded by
very able writers, even lately, with the Lotus of
Egypt, Nymphea Lotus of Linneus; see Andr.
Repos. t. 391, and Curt. Mag. t.797. We pre-
sume the latter to have become important in the
Egyptian mythology, only as a substitute for the
former. The Lotus of Egypt is a real Nymphea,
bearing its seeds much in the manner of a Poppy,
and scattering them in the mud. There is nothing
peculiar in its appearance or mode of growth which
could have caused it to be chosen for an emblem of
fertility, were it not from the general resemblance of

230

its leaves and flowers to our plant, the original Lo-
tus of India. Hence I have for some time presumed
to deduce an argument in support of the doctrine,
now prevalent on other grounds, that the religion
of the Egyptians was adopted from the East.

*‘ Innumerable illustrations respecting the Za-
mara, Lotus, or Nelumbo, as connected with the
poetry or religion of the Hindus, may be found in
the learned works of Sir W. Jones, Mr. Knight, and
others. In the fourth volume of the Amenitates
Academica, p. 234, a carved horn of a rhinoceros,
sent to Linneus from China, is described. This is
now before me, and is an exquisite specimen of
Oriental sculpture, evidently alluding to the mytho-
logy of India. The whole inverted base of the horn is
carved into an elegant leaf of elumbo, rising from
the water amid a group of perforated Chinese rocks.
It is encompassed with various plants of a more
diminutive proportion; a peach tree and a medlar
(or rather perhaps the mangostan), with Sagzttarza,
Pothos, and the Nelumbo itself in flower and seed,
cover the outer surface. Some fantastic lizards,
with bunches of grapes and the Lit-che fruit in
their mouths, are crawling over the whole.

“We have to add some remarks on the botanical
characters and name of this plant.

“ Adanson, Gertner, Jussieu and Willdenow are
most unquestionably justified in separating it from
Nymphea, with which Linnzeus and other writers
have confounded it. The very peculiar fruit, unlike
anything else in the vegetable kingdom, and the
stigmas, so totally different from those of Mym-

ls

HES ALO WY 208

UOl }99]]©;) UeeRUuul” | oy wot}

“WET sprompy sn

bots
Ay se

ays blr:
aoe.

‘

231

phea, sufficiently distinguish it. The chief question
in dispute is the name. JVelwmbium is formed from
nelumbo, a Ceylon word of very confined use. If it
must have a barbarous appellation, Zamard would
be preferable, as being in general use among the
learned and the vulgar throughout Hindustan. Hap-
pily we have no occasion to adopt either, for the
plant has already a classical Greek name of primary
authority and antiquity, being the real kvapyoc of
Theophrastus; and therefore the word Cyamus is
what by every right and title belongs to it. We-
lumbo may be retained as a specific name, rather out
of deference to Linnzeus and Gertner than for any
good reason; for Zamard, being more universal,
would be more proper; and speciosus, given by Will-
denow, more expressive. We wish however to re-
spect the right of priority, and to avoid all needless
changes. |

“We claim no merit in the restoration of this
ancient generic name. Bodeus AStapel in his Com-
mentary on Theophrastus, p. 446, and Hermann in
his Paradisus Batavus have amply illustrated the
subject; and others, as Plukenet, have alluded to
it. But it is remarkable that no recent writer on
the mythological history of the Welumbo should
have been aware of its being the celebrated xvapoc
or Pythagorean bean, which is so evident from the
description in Theophrastus. The ‘cellular head
like a round wasp’s nest, with a bean in each cell
projecting a little beyond its orifice; the rose-co-
loured flower twice as large as a poppy, as well as
all the rest of his account, are strikingly character-

2324

istic. By this discovery many things, hitherto dif-
ficult of explanation, are elucidated. We can no
longer wonder at the prohibition of these beans to
the Egyptian priests or the disciples of Pythagoras.
A plant consecrated to religious veneration as an
emblem of reproduction and fertility, would be very
improper for the food, or even the consideration,
of persons dedicated to peculiar purity. The Egyp-
tian priests were not allowed even to look upon it.
Authors scarcely explain sufficiently whether Py-
thagoras avoided it from respect or abhorrence.
However that might be, we need not, in order to
ascertain his motives, have recourse to any of the
five reasons supposed by Aristotle, nor to the con-
jectures of Cicero. Neither can there be any doubt
that the prohibition given by Pythagoras was literal;
and not merely allegorical, as forbidding his follow-
_ers to eat this kind of pulse because the magistrates
in some places were chosen by a ballot with black
and white beans, thereby giving them to understand
that they should not meddle with public affairs.
Such far-fetched explanations show the ingenuity
of commentators rather than their knowledge. As
the Pythagorean prohibitions are now obsolete, per-
haps these beans, imported from India, might not
be unwelcome at our tables. The root of the Cya-
mus is also used as food, but we have many vege-
tables preferable to it.”

In some unfinished notes upon the subject of
monumental inscriptions, which Sir James Smith

233

left, he speaks of the elegant memorial of Pope Ur-
ban in the Augustine church at Rome.
Ursano VII. Pont. Max.
brevis imperil principi,
sed memorize diuturne.
Illud Fortune fuerit ;
hoc erit Virtutis.

Which he has thus rendered, observing, “It is not
easy to retain its conciseness in a translation :”
To Pore Ursan VII.
a prince whose reign was short,
but whose memory will be lasting.

The former Fortune might controul ;

but the latter his Virtues will command.
“ The intelligent friend*,” he continues, “who first
pointed out to me this inscription, is himself the
author of one not inferior to it in simplicity.

Humanitati Sacrum.
Cineribus Henrict Frexprne, Angli,
quze heic absque honore jacebant,
Johannes de Braganza
monumentum hoc ponendi curavit,
ne Musis inhospita
hee tellus videretur.

Sacred to Humanity.

The ashes of Henry Fiexpine, an Englishman,
having been here for some time buried in obscurity,
John de Braganza erected this monument,
that the land might not seem altogether
inhospitable to the Muses.

This intended tribute to our admirable historian of
human nature proved abortive. The virtues, the

* The Abbé Corréa.

234

taste, the liberality, and even the illustrious rank of
the Duke of Lafoens (John de Braganza), uncle to
the Queen of Portugal, had no weight against monk-
ish fanaticism, which would by no means connive
at such a compliment to a heretic; and the monu-
ment was never executed.”

Sir James was himself the author of several in-
scriptions prompted by affection for departed worth;
—one only shall appear in this place. Its excellence
consists in its being perfectly just and appropriate.

In memory of
Mr. James Dickson,
one of the original Fellows of
the Linnzan Society,
and a Vice-President of
the Horticultural Society of London;
a man of a powerful mind,
and of spotless integrity;
whose singular acuteness and accuracy,
in the most difficult departments of botany,
have rendered his name celebrated
wherever that science is known.
He departed this life at Croydon,
August 14, 1822,
in the 85th year of his age.

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J
Miph Chey Bys gs Serra
Cd) Sodriga 2 Me a Oe me ae

Ps
Dione ae Cavanilled.

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peaks) ere

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oro

z poe’ alee pied

- “ a m +e . nh %, z. a
5 if % ¥ .* @ ¥ ‘ me SK vee ee oF ; vty . “J
vs SIC Pe rit Ady
at Apa exist facpperl: ste - A} yrs Se :

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fates >i. labo ot Speck pee) eGendsd ellen wily chanelle
; ¥ ; ’ evtaetad rhe nd es oe a
iets. ba aires ‘phan? wigre rus ee 1 aq ' ' ' aes: ‘ .

is grays be temte WIE ry wow Hal7 ag “=
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More, oer oe 3 ;
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235

CHAPTER XII.

Miscellaneous Letters to and from Sir J. E. Smith, from 1817 to
1827.—Sir Thomas Gage.—Hon. DeWitt Clinton.—Rev. R.
Walpole.—Sir J. E. Smith.—Dr. Wallich.—Sir T, Gage.—
Sir T. G. Cullum.—Sir T, Frankland.—Panzer.—Rev. J.
Yates.—D. Turner, Esq.—Mr. Sinclair.—Professor Hooker.
—Bergsma.—Mr. Lambert.—Mr. Talbot.

From Sir Thomas Gage*.

Florence, Casa Dini Borgo Santa Croce,
My dear Sir James, June 11, 1817.
I Have for a very long time had in my possession
the books from Mr. Targioni, which I have at last

* Of Hengrave Hall in the county of Suffolk, Bart. Sir Tho-
mas Gage died at Rome on the 27th of December, 1820, in the
40th year of his age, and was buried there in the chiésa del Gesu.
“Enthusiasm and delicacy distinguished his character, and were
blended in a manner as happy as unusual. Had these been sup-
ported by strong health, there was no perfection in art or science
to which he would not have been capable of attaining. His tastes
and pursuits were all elegant. Whatever he said or did was emi-
nently marked by gentlemanly feelings. It was both from nature
and from cultivation, and scarcely less from cultivation than from
nature, that he possessed a tact, which, while it was essential to
the pursuit of botany, his favourite science, rendered him trem-
blingly alive to the beauties of art and the more sublime charms
of creation. In the more abstruse parts of the vegetable world
he had laboured hard, by the lamp as well as the sun; studying
the works of his predecessors in his closet, and exploring the
objects themselves in the fields.’—History and Antiquities of
Hengrave.

236

found the opportunity of sending by a friend ;—
chances of this sort are rare, and I would not trust
them to the merchants, having myself lost a packet
by this means. I ought also long since to have
written to you; but the account I could have given
of myself, till within these few months, was such
that it would neither have given pleasure to my
friends nor myself. Iam happy now to be able to
say, that I have escaped from a very serious state of
ill health; and am far better than when I last had
the pleasure of seeing you.

I have not neglected my botanical pursuits, and
have made great additions, particularly to my Cryp-
togamia. I have collected everything of that kind
I could meet with here, and have purchased a very
fine collection, particularly of Lichens, from Schlei-
cher of Bex, whose list I send you. His price is so
moderate and his specimens so good, that, should
you or any botanical friend desire to have anything
from him, I would readily undertake to procure it.
He sends me constantly specimens as well to pur-
chase as to determine; and Iam much advanced in
my drawing to illustrate Acharius. The present
state of botany at Florence is respectable, but not
much encouraged. The Grand Duke is fond of
plants, and has lately purchased a copy of English
Botany; and I believe some other works, of which
I furnished a list. He has built a fine range of
stoves and houses in the Boboli garden, where many
good plants are cultivated, though it cannot be con-
sidered a regular botanical garden, the best plants

237

having been removed a few years since to the new
Orto Fisico under the care of Mr. Targioni, which
is a liberal establishment and an extensive ground
well laid out, a part being destined for agricultural
experiments. There is a want of glass, but improve-
ments are making, and the collection of plants in-
creases. Mr. Targioni is a man of much acuteness,
and has great love for science, and of a most amia-
ble disposition, and highly liberal in communicating.
Ihave not only had the advantage of selecting spe-
cimens from the garden, but also of examining all
the Lichens,to the number of several hundred, in the
rich herbarium of Micheli, and of taking what spe-
cimens I pleased; I have therefore verified all the
synonyms of that author, and made out a list for
Mr. Targioni of the Acharian names. Agricultural
and botanical lectures in the Linnean system are
given at stated periods, both at the garden and the
academy of the Georgofili. Mr. Targioni’s son is
professor of chemistry, and is a good entomologist.

At the head of the Royal Museum, which is a
magnificent establishment, especially in minerals, is
Mr. Radi, a young man of the first talents, indefa-
tigable as a botanist, and in every branch of natural
history, of which he has more practical knowledge
than any person I have ever known. We are con-
stant companions, and make excursions into the
mountains occasionally. I have been able to assist
him in the Lichens, so that now he has become
well acquainted with all the Cryptogamia of the
country. He had already discovered new Mosses,
particularly the Fabronia pusilla, of which genus

238

Swartz has found another specimen. He is now
engaged in publishing an account of the Junger-
mannie of this country on a new system, which will
appear shortly, and of which I hope to send you a
copy. I wish to engage him in a pocket Flora Tos-
cana, in hopes to encourage the same spirit which
has so contributed to botanical knowledge at home.
Here there is little taste of that kind; for the nobles
are not rich enough to purchase science, nor wise
enough to esteem it. There are some exceptions:
the Princess Corsini has a good collection of plants,
as also the Marquisses Feroni and Pucci. Nothing
is published here in the way of natural history. At
Pisa Mr. Sair has begun a Flora Etrusca, which has
great merit, but advances slowly. It is a rich coun-
try in every branch, and deserves to be well known.

Though I was very ill when I crossed Mount Ce-
nis, I collected several rare plants, and I thought of
you when I found Cetrarta cucullata near the Hos-
pice, as mentioned in your Tour.

My residence in this city has been pleasant
enough, particularly since my health is improved,
and it is not my intention to leave it before the
month of October, when we talk of going to Rome.

The quantity of English who have been here du-
ring the winter has been excessive, though I by no
means think it a good place for a delicate constitu-
tion at that season. The air is very damp, and I
should think bad; most of the houses in the lower
parts of the town having stagnant water under them,
and the changes from heat to cold are rapid and se-
vere. Violent inflammations are very frequent, and

239

we have had a bad typhus fever, which has caused
great mortality among the lower classes, chiefly
owing to the badness of the crops of last year, and
the want of food in the mountains. It is now sub-
siding, and the ma/ arza fortunately does not extend
to Florence. Lady Mary Anne and our children
have enjoyed constant good health; the latter are
grown stronger since they left England.

I ought not to forget to thank vou for the con-
sequences of the letters you were so kind as to give
me. At GenevalI got acquainted with several per-
sons of science, as Mr. Pictet, MM. Jurine and
Morricand; at Turin by chance with Professor Bi-
roli of the garden; and at Milan I delivered your
letter to Oriani, and was made known to Mr. Her-
man of the garden and Mr. Breislach, the minera-
logist, who gave me a letter for Mr. Targioni. I
was obliged to send yours to the Marquis Ippolito
Durazzo, whose sister is here, married to the Sar-
dinian minister Brignoli,—a very amiable family.

After proving myself so bad a correspondent,
it would be very unreasonable for me to hope to
trespass on your. time, which is so much better em-
ployed; but should you find a leisure moment, I
should feel very great pleasure in knowing you and
Lady Smith are well, as also in hearing anything
concerning Mr. Turner, Borrer, or any of our F.L.S.
who may ever think of me.

I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very sincerely,

Tuomas GAGE.

240

From His Excellency De Witt Clinton, LL.D. Go-
vernor of the State of New York, and President
of the Literary and Philosophical Society there.

Sir, Utica, July 18, 1817.

A few days ago a farmer stopt with his waggon
at a house in the village of Rome, about fifteen
miles from this place. A respectable gentleman,
who was conversing with him on business, observed
among some hay, lying in the waggon, a few stalks
of a strange plant, inquired what they were; and on
being told that they were wild wheat, and were cut
with common grass in a beaver meadow and on a wet
soil in the town of Western in this county, he took
out a few grains, and gave them to an honest and
industrious farmer in his vicinity, who planted them
in his garden. ‘The second crop produced about a
peck of grain, which yielded upwards of twenty
bushels the third year. Wheat of the same species
has also been found in a wild state in a swamp co-
vered with trees near Rome. It is said to differ from
the common wheat in a variety of respects,—in the
compactness of the stalk, in the largeness of its
leaves, in the peculiar position of beards at the apex
of the head, which is in all other respects bald, and
in its superior height, being considerably taller.
Since the comparative scarcity of snow, which for-
merly served as a protection against the attacks of
frost, our wheat has suffered severely by what the
farmers denominate winter-killing. Our ground

241

freezes during the winter about a foot and half in
depth. When the sun resumes its vernal power, a
partial thaw of two inches takes place in the course
of the day; and owing to the porosity and hollow-
ness of the common wheat, the water is absorbed
in it. On the return of night, the ground is again
frozen, and then the expansive power of frost pro-
duces the destruction of the plant, by eradicating it,
or breaking the roots to pieces, and bursting the stalk
where the water has penetrated. Rye is not affected
in this way, because it is not so permeable by water,
and because its roots are stronger, more elastic, and
strike deeper into the earth. In like manner the
wild wheat of Oneida County is said to resist the
power of frost; and this is imputed to the same
causes which protect the rye.

As I am persuaded that the history which I have
given of this wheat is substantially correct, it pre-
sents a very interesting subject for investigation. Is
it indigenous, or was it originally imported wheat,
and accidentally conveyed to the places where it
was found? If the former, it is the very grain which
nature created for our soil and climate. If the lat-
ter, it has been evidently improved by its wild state
and spontaneous growth;—a circumstance of an
anomalous character, and contrary to the usual
course of nature.

Although I am not prepared to give a decided
opinion on this subject, yet I may be permitted to
observe, that there are cogent arguments against
the latter hypothesis. The plant was found in a

VOL. 11. R

242

swamp and in a meadow, and appears to delight in
a wet soil, which is not congenial with the common
wheat. It presents not only a different aspect, but
seems to have peculiar and characteristic qualities.

Linneus, if I remember rightly, made six species
of Triticum. Sixteen species are now enumerated,
besides varieties ; and these are found in the most
diversified climates: the Murwaary Wheat of Bar-
bary ; the Spring Wheat of Siberia; the Spelter of
Germany ; the Wheat of Egypt, of Switzerland, of
Poland, and of Sicily, cannot be derived from the
same country. Ceres, who, according to the hea-
then mythology, discovered corn, was said to have
had her principal seat in Sicily; but this granary
of the ancient world has no exclusive claims to the
most important of the Cerealia. The Froment tre-
mais, which arrives at maturity in these marshes, is
as different from the other kinds of Z72¢zcwm, as it is
possible for different species to be; and it unques-
tionably could not have had an identity of local
origin with them.

I have been a long time of opinion, that many of
our native plants have been improperly considered
as naturalized; and as I am anxious to claim the
most important culmiferous plant as an indigenous
production, I have no hesitation in denominating
this wheat, discovered near Rome, 7?eéicwm ameri-
canum.

I also transmit by this opportunity specimens of
a plant called the Wild Rye, which grows sponta-
neously and in considerable quantities in the coun-

243

try bordering on the upper parts of the Mohawk
River; aud I believe it might be cultivated to ad-
vantage.
The opinion on this subject of such an eminent
botanist as yourself will be very acceptable.
Yours most respectfully,

De Wirt CuinTon.

P.S. To hear from you will always be acceptable.
Nothing would give me more gratification than to
see the distinguished proprietor of Holkham, whose
name, as well as that of Sir J. E. Smith, is highly
appreciated in this country. But I am unfortunately
denied this pleasure at present.

From the Rev. Rh. Walpole.

My dear Sir, Aylsham, Dec. 8, 1817.

Can you give me any information from your own
or Sibthorp’s sources respecting Greek melons? I
find in a work I have been lately reading, that our
melons were known to the Greeks and Romans:
Likvoc, it appears, was the genus, the species being
Melo, Melopepon, and our cucumber. The AZelo-
pepon is what the French call Sucriz: what is our
word corresponding to Sucrin? There is a passage
in Galen which clearly distinguishes the JZelopepon
and the Pepon ; after citing it, my author says, “ex
hoc loco patet pepones Galeni esse nostros melones,
&c.” Aristotle, he adds, knew them well; for he
asks (Prol. 1. 20), Stati ot cixvor wéroves apiorou yly-
vovrat év TOG EAWSEot TEdlOLG OVE EVUYpOLG, OLov wept

R 2

244

‘Opyouevoy Kai ev Avyotrw,— Why the best melons are
produced in marshy and moist places, as about Or-
chomenus (in Beeotia) and in Egypt.

Will you be kind enough to favour me with a
line at your leisure ;—and believe me to be, dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,

Roz. WALPOLE.

Sir J. E. Smith to Dr. Kallich.

Dear Sir, Liverpool, Sept. 16, 1818.

Your most polite and cbliging letter of the 12th
of January last (accompanied with those of Colonel
Hardwicke and Mr. Loring,) did not reach me till
afew days before I left home for this place. I find
letters are readily sent to India from hence, and
therefore I will not delay thanking you for your li-
beral offers of communication, in which I fear I
shall be the chief gainer, unless you have any bo-
tanical doubts or queries which you think I may
have a chance of solving. Nothing could be more
desirable to me than to receive from you dried spe-
cimens for my herbarium, especially of any of your
new or rare plants. I am particularly desirous of
Scitamineea, Orchidee, Liliacee, which experienced
botanists now learn to dry well, but which, being
rather difficult, have formerly been given up in de-
spair by collectors, and are rare in herbariums :—I
find a weak solution of corrosive sublimate, with a
little camphor dissolved in it, preserves dried plants
from the attacks of all insects. My whole Linnean
herbarium is thus poisoned, by means of a camel-

245

hair pencil; but the specimens must first be dried
thoroughly. I long much for specimens of Dr. Rox-
burgh’s 4eginetia and any Orobanche, or plant of the
parasitic kind, which cannot be cultivated here.
You see, my good Sir, how ready I am to grasp at
your kind offers. I trust you will not find me less
willing to fulfill my part of the treaty, and I beg you
will send me anything that is doubtful or difficult.
You may depend on my not ¢elling more than I
know; for if I find difficulties, I will freely confess
my ignorance. The Linnzan Society will be very
happy to receive any communication from you, and
also to have you enrolled on our list of Fellows,
whenever you may be pleased to permit it: Colonel
Hardwicke will inform you of the laws and obliga-
tions. I take the liberty of inclosing a letter for
this worthy friend of mine, and one for Archdeacon
Loring.

I am extremely happy to find you are in corre-
spondence with my valued friend Mr. Roscoe, and
also with Mr. Shepherd of the botanic garden here,
no less excellent in his way. The latter has a ne-
phew who is very expert in raising ferns from seed,
and you will render a great service to botany in
sending him fragments of any of that tribe with
fructification in a ripe state.

I received one of your rich packets of seeds, and
after letting Mr. Shepherd take his choice, I have
divided the rest among several friends, particularly
_ the worthy Bishop of Winchester, who propagates
the Cinnamon-tree by seeds ripened in his own
hot-houses ! The other packet, containing the Rho-

246

dodendrum arboreum, and the new white-flowered
species, &c., has not yet reached me.
I remain, with much respect, &c.

J. E. Smiru.

From Dr. VFallich.

Botanic Garden, Calcutta, July 24, 1819.
Dear Sir,

Although it is only a short time since I had the
honour of answering your favour of the 16th of
September, and transmitting a parcel of specimens,
I feel confident that you will please to pardon my
thus early intruding on your time, especially in so
voluminous a shape as this sheet exhibits, which
Mrs. Archdeacon Loring has kindly supplied from
the stores which she has received from her father,
for the express purpose of writing on their szgle-
sheet letters, without any risk of surcharge from the
post-office.

My long expected regular supplies of Napal spe-
cimens have at last arrived from Katmandu, after I
had almost despaired of their reaching me in safety,
if at all; and in so beautiful a condition, and such
vast numbers, as to enable me to have the honour
of presenting you, Sir J. Banks, Mr. Lambert, and
Mr. Rudge with abundance of plants from that
highly interesting country. This large collection,
which has been made entirely by my faithful and
deserving men, stationed under the protection of
the resident at Katmandu, during the latter end
of 1817 and the whole of 1818, arrived in boats

247

from a place near the frontiers Segowly; and so
anxious was I to avert the ruin which would inevi-
tably result, were the specimens allowed to remain
in Bengal during the rains, which have been pour-
ing down latterly in excessive quantities, that I have
been at work since the arrival of the boxes (on the
4th inst.), in order that the dispatches might be in
time prepared for embarkation on the Blenheim.
The circumstance of my having used the shortest
possible time for arranging the specimens to avoid
the dangers which such extensive collections would
be exposed to from the extreme wetness of the pre-
sent season, will, I flatter myself with the hope, at
once account and apologize for the fewness of the
labels which have been attached to the individual
species ; at the same time it will evince to you how
gratefully sensible I am of the high honour you have
conferred on me, by granting me the privilege of
corresponding with the first and most illustrious
botanist of the age. Accept, dear Sir, again and
again, my warmest and most respectful thanks for
so flattering a distinction,—a distinction which I
have so long felt ambitious of enjoying ; and do me
the justice to believe, that I shall incessantly endea-
vour to show myself not wholly unworthy of your
kindness. The tribute of respect and gratitude
which I have now the satisfaction of presenting to
you, I trust may not prove unacceptable, and I am
not without hopes even of its containing some speci-
mens ot included in that splendid collection which
my most esteemed friend and predecessor Dr. Ha-
milton (Buchanan) presented to you from the same
quarter.

248

At the close of this year another invoice will be
sent down to me; partly collected by my own peo-
ple, and partly by those of my valuable corre-
spondent and friend Mr. Robert Stuart, at present
acting British resident at the court of the Rajah of
Napal, of which, of course, a large proportion shall
be forwarded to you in due time. Besides the speci-
mens which I am daily receiving from thence, the
most astonishing treasures are frequently sent to
me from Mr. R. Colquhoun*, from the province of
Kamaon; from Dr. G. Govan, the intelligent su-
perintendent of the botanic garden at Sahrunpore;
from Dr. Gerard at Nahn, and other elevated tracts;
from Captain Webb at Srinaghur, with whom also is
stationed a collecting party, which has within these
few days transmitted to me some very fine packets,
containing many of the beauties recorded in the sixth
volume of the Asiatic Researches, by my inestimable
benefactor and friend Colonel Hardwicke.

From all these stupendously high countries bor-
dering on the snowy mountains, you may rest as-
sured that supplies shall be sent to you; so that I
may indulge a hope that a number of new plants
may in time be added to your splendid herbarium,
“ haud sine veneratione summa adeundum,” to use
the words of DeCandolle, in the preface to his
matchless work Regni Veget. Syst. Nat., which I
had the happiness to receive yesterday from Mr.
Lambert.

I ought not to omit mentioning two other sources ;
namely, the expedition of my excellent friend Dr.
Moorcroft, who has set out on anarduous tour to the

* Now Sir R. Colquhoun, Bart.

249

north and west, and has taken two of my plant col-
lectors with him, and Singapore in Sumatra, from
whence I expect extensive collections from my highly
valued friend Mr. W. Jack, the personal surgeon to
Sir Stamford Raffles, who has already favoured me
with ample harvests of rare and interesting plants
gathered by him at Penang. A letter from Sir Stam-
ford which I got yesterday has already prepared me
for the arrivalof some highly curious things, amongst
them a new /Vepenthes, of exquisite beauty and gigan-
tic dimensions, parallel in its enormous size to the
marvellous flower, measuring in circumference six
feet !* found last year in a tour through the island
of Sumatra, and of which an account has, I learn,
been sent to Sir Joseph Banks. Lastly, I expect
large additions from an expedition sent up to Gos-
sain Than (alas Neel-Khaunt), by Mr. Robert
' Stuart, from Katmandu, for the express purpose of
investigating the natural productions of that part of
the Himalaya or snowy range of mountains, and of
collecting specimens and seeds for me.

I beg you will pardon the length of this digres-
sion, which has entirely originated from my anxious
wish of becoming a not altogether unprofitable cor-
respondent and contributor.

A good number of the plants in your chest
(which I beg leave to observe are all natives of and
collected in Napal, at and about Katmandu,) I have
named in my dispatches to England; so that you
will meet with abundant, and I fear but too numerous
occasions for correcting my errors and mistaken

* Rafflesia Arnoldi.

250

notions ; a favour which your generous offer induces
me to solicit, and which will lay me under infinite
obligations. I entreat and beseech you to grant
this my earnest request, thereby enabling me to
judge with precision of the nature of the specimens
I may have the satisfaction of presenting to you.

Among the contents of the chest you will find a
number of Scitaminee, of which you will be glad to
hear. I have this very day the following species in
the fullest blossom in the garden :—Hedychium
coccineum, Buch., id. var. carneum mihi, bothof them
_inconceivably grand; HZ. flavum, Roxb.; H. ellipti-
cum, Buch., a most superb species; HZ. spicatum,
Buch.,the flowers of which are most delightfully per-
fumed, like the carnation and Echites caryophyllata ;
—all these are in profuse blossom with me, together
with H. coronariumand angustifolium,R. The name
of the last is not so well adapted, because there is a
more distinct character in the leaves,—their diste-
chous position, which would have at once afforded a
name and a specific difference.

This species (angustifolium) and coccineum are
very much alike in stature and inflorescence; the
former differs chiefly in its more rigid and perfectly
distichous leaves. Roscoea, so beautifully repre-
sented in your Exotic Botany, is also in flower,
which, however, are of a very pale blueish colour,
precisely like those of Aaempferta rotunda. I have
a vast number of plants of every individual species
above mentioned, of which, immediately after the
rains, I shall do myself the pleasure to send you a
share. There are likewise in your chest of speci-

251

mens a great variety of Orchidee, among which
your splendid O. gigantea, pectinata; Epidendrum
precox ; your lVeottia acaulis, and a very large spe-
cies which I call procera: of these two tribes you
will receive from time to time large supplies, ac-
cording to the wish you have expressed, as also of
Orobanche and Aeginetia. Of the former of these
I have the pleasure to present you on this occasion
with a species, which I cannot distinguish from z-
dica of Buchanan; of the latter, there are also spe-
cimens in the chest.

I presented Mr. Roscoe with a good many Sc-
taminee, which were forwarded in the Cornwallis.
That illustrious man, as also the Botanic Institution
at Liverpool (which in 1816 conferred the flatter-
ing distinction, of electing me their first and only
honorary member), have placed me under personal
obligations for some excellent collections just re-
ceived from the ship Bengal. What a clever and ex-
perienced man Mr. Shepherd must be !—out of one
hundred and one sorts of plants packed up in a light
chest, according to his judicious mode, not less than
forty-seven were in the highest vigour; eight were
in a state of dangerous weakness, but still holding
out hopes of recovery! If it is considered that the
chest was embarked on the 22nd of January; that
more than half a year had elapsed since the roots and
plants were packed up; and that the chest remained
on board the ship after its arrival here,for some time
at least,on account of its being placed so far down in
the ship’s hold as not to be come at without taking
out part of the cargo;—if all this is considered, too

252

great encomium cannot, in my humble opinion, be
bestowed on the judgement and success of the cu-
rator of the Liverpool Botanic Institution. I have re-
solved to give this method ample and frequent trials,
andI shall begin by returning the compliment to that
excellent garden. I shall not forget sending, also,
ferns.—Lastly,among your specimens you will find
numerous JZelostomee ; Labiate; Scrophularinee,
among them my Ser. urticzfolia; several Ternstroe-
miacee, Polygonee, Liliacee, Melanthacee, viz. An-
guillaria indica of Brown; Filices ; Gramineae; Cy-
peracee ; several species of Hydrangea, Viburnum;
Ranunculaceae, Umbellate, Corymbifere, many Quer-
cz. There is a &hus, which I take to be the genuine
Sitz of Kaempfer, and which I call R. juglandifo-
hum. A seemingly dioecious species of Cynomorium,
two species of Adyrica, one of which is Colonel
Hardwicke’s Aaephulin Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. ;
the other is a doubtful species, which answers to .
Rumphii Lignum Emanum; its fruit and female
flowers I shall do myself the pleasure to present to
you on a future occasion. Several species of a ge-
nus which has a close affinity to Zncarvillea, and
with that forming, according to Mr. Brown’s sug-
gestion, a distinct section of Bignoniacee. I call
the genus in question Didymocarpus. It has three
stamina, one of which is abortive. The capsule
linearis pseudo-4-locularis, 2-valvis, dissepimento
contrario 2-lobo: lobis valvulis parallels margine
involuto seminifercs, seminibus nudis! Herbe humi-
les, encano-pubescentes venoso-punctate, aromatice.
One of the species, my DJ. aromatica, is in high

253

estimation at Napal, its young leaves being em-
ployed in a dried state as a perfume and for sacer-
dotal offerings, under the name of Aoom-Koom
(which is also that of Turmeric), and Ranee-Go-
vindha.

A plant intermediate between that genus and
Incarvillea 1 retain under the latter, and call it
I. dubia.

But it is time that I should conclude this long,
digressing letter. Happy, most happy shall I be, if
you are pleased to pardon its faults, and if the col-
lection of specimens to which it alludes chiefly, prove
in any manner acceptable. My venerated friend
Colonel Hardwicke enjoys a better state of health
than has been his portion for several years past; he
wrote to you by the Isabella, and he requests me to
offer you his kindest regards.

I have the honour to remain, with sentiments of
the most profound respect and esteem,

Dear Sir,
Your highly obliged and devoted Servant,
N. Wacticu.

Sir J. FE. Smith to Dr. Wallich.

Norwich, March 6, 1820.
[| Observations on Dr. Wallich’s plants, and his
letter of May 27, 1819.]

Rubia Munjistha of Roxburgh is precisely 2. cor-
difolia, Herb. Linn, and we therefore avoid a most

uncouth name. Such names I think are seldom
eligible.

254

RF. alata, Wallich, a new species, and an excel-
lent name.

Gatum elegans, Wall.; seems new, though I have
one very near it, if not the same, from Madeira,
which appears not to be described.

G. Aparine I have carefully compared with En-
glish specimens, and find no difference.

G. asperifolium is new to me. The name surely
cannot be found fault with.

I cannot undertake your unsettled parcel of Sper-
macoces at present. It would be better for you to
determine their distinctions in a fresh state. At
least I will now proceed to more certain and urgent
matters; nor is it necessary to follow the order of
your letter, or any other.

Your “ Stellaria? triandra” is a very interesting
plant. Itis a Holosteum, very like the cordatum in
general appearance, but the calyx affords a clear di-
stinction. 7. cordatum, native of the West Indies,
(where it is used in bleaching linen and taking
out iron-moulds, being called JZoron by the
French in Cayenne,) has folia calycina uninervia,
glabra, planiuscula. Yours, which I would call
striatum, has fol. cal. trinervia, sulcata, scabra, vel
pubescentia. Seed would be welcome.

Aegiceras majus—good.—< Ajuga Hyoscyami,”
—whyso called? Isee no resemblance,and I cannot
commend such names in the genitive case. See
Introd. to Botany, ed. 3. 290. If I am wrong in
my principles or opinions, I beg with all my heart
to be corrected; but if I help to improve science, I
wish to be supported by classical botanists like you.

’

i)

259

I have not Brown’s 4. stnuata, but your plant seems
to answer to his character. If new, cana would be
a good name.

Berberis pinnata, Roxb. I have this fine plant
from Dr. F. Hamilton, by the names of Leontice
Jfruticosa, and Berberis Miccia. It may be Mew ja-
ponica of Thunberg, as you suspect ; but how could
he overlook the pinnate leaves? What is most re-
markable is, that I have the very same plant from
California, gathered by Mr. Menzies, who likewise
called it B. pinnata, an excellent name.

Saxifraga hgulata, Wall.—You have, I doubt
not, a reason for your name, though it does not
appear; but I have an idea of there being some-
where a S, igulata. On searching, I find there is a
lingulata of Bellardi, which however is my callosa,
published in Dickson’s Dried Plants. Your plant is
next akin to S. crassifolia, and might have been
called fimbriata, from its essential distinction.

Geranium from Kalmouda, called T2ssoo soah, is
next akin to G. bohemicum, but the flowers are little
more than half so large, and the bohemicum has the
capsule corrugated transversely, which in yours is
even (an excellent mark) and rather less hairy.
Your leaves too have rounder and more deep lobes.
The various pubescence of the stem is singular; in
some parts very dense; then suddenly smooth. It
would be charity to help you to a specific name in
such a great genus. Perhaps heterotrichum might
do, if the above character be constant.

Pavetta tomentosa, precisely mine.

Izvora lanceolata, Colebr.—new to me. I pre-
sume the name alludes to the form of the leaf; /an-

256

ceolaria, if it were latin, would mean that the tree
or wood served for little spears.

Paris polyphylla.—Thank you for this fine supply.

Colebrookea oppositifolia—good.—Ixora cunei-
Sola, Roxb., and its variety,—new to me.

Triumfetta oblonga, Wall. Very good. I have it
from (Buchanan) Hamilton, with a question whe-
ther it may not be 7. annua of Linneus ; but this I
have no means of determining, having no specimen.
He also refers to 7. glandulosa of Willdenow, as
probably like it. This I have not.

“ Calhcarpa arborea, Roxb.” This seems what I
have from Dr. Roxburgh by the name of C. vellosa.
Are they the same ?

C. macrophylla, Vahl.—seems right. I have it not.

“ Dalrympela pomifera, Roxb.?” With this and
its history I am quite unacquainted. Whom is it
named after? Is the name Dalrymped or ple?

Holmskioldia sanguinea—very fine and acceptable.

Loranthus bicolor, Roxb. I have one very near
this, from Tranquebar, by the name of L. lonice-
rotdes, which it may be.

Anguillaria , Brown, precisely Jelanthium
indicum, Herb. Linn. I think, as you say, it ought
to be an Ornithoglossum.

Teucrium macrostachyum, Wall., is my Leuco-
sceptrum canum, Exot. Bot. t. 116.

Commersonia echinata. Yours looks different
from Forster’s original Otaheite specimen, whose
leaves are only 2 or 3 inches long, and 1 or 14 broad.
The pubescence of their under side is very fine and
dense, scarcely visibly stellated.

Thank you for your fine specimens of /thododen-

257

dron arboreum, and the white-flowered one, sup-
posed a variety. I think a specific difference may be
founded on the back of the leaf; but of this you
must judge. Both are growing in England, from
your seeds.

Daphne Gardneri, Wall., I have from Dr. Hamil-
ton, by the name of Dats Bamutis. I know not
why he made it a Dats, unless it be decandrous,
which is of no consequence. I retain your name
of course. May not this be (0b capitulum) Daphne
endica of Loureiro ?

Daphne cannabina of Loureiro is probably right,
for I pay little regard to the opposite leaves he at-
tributes to it. I take under this name your plant
with glaucous leaves, yellowish beneath. This I think
is Hamilton’s D. papyrifera in his MSS., though the
leaves of his flowering specimens are less glaucous.
They are glaucous, like yours, in his fruit-bearing
specimens. But I presume to think you have here-
with mixed two other species. One is D. Botlua of
Hamilton, (I would call it D. saligna if there be none
already), whose leaves are much narrower, not glau-
cous ; flowers larger, without the involucral leaves of
the cannabina. The branches are long and wiméneous.
The other is a smaller, more densely branched plant,
with smaller leaves, not glaucous, of a broader
figure ; flowers smaller, with fringed deciduous in-
volucral leaves.

Ormosia dasycarpa, Jackson Tr. L. Soc. v. 10,
right—a native of the West Indies. I hope it will
afford you its beautiful seeds in due time. I thank
you much for the flowers, as my specimen is in fruit.

VOL. Ll. s

258

Hedyotis gracilis—new to me. It seems a pretty
plant, and I hope this name, which you have now
chosen, will suit it well.

Clematis smilacifolia—a very curious new species,
so I must not complain of the badness of the spe-
cimen.

Mespilus from the mountains near Katmandu—
seems to me very distinct from japonica (which has
now borne a very hard winter in my garden without
any shelter). Yours has elliptical, nearly entire leaves,
not decurrent at the base as in AZ. japonica, nor
sharply serrated as in that*. J. elliptica would be
a good name.—lI find a few teeth here and there
near the points of some leaves.

Buddlea paniculata, a fine species, new to me,
though probably among Dr. Hamilton’s plants,
which I have not yet all arranged.

Cornus aggregata. I must rely on you for the
genus, as the specimens are not in a state to deter-
mine it.— C. oblongifolia is new to me. Both these
indeed may be among Hamilton’s plants.

Cupressus from Almora. May not this be C. pen-
dula of Thunberg and Willdenow, though perhaps
not 4% Moro of Kempfer, which seems by his short
account to be a Juniperus ?

Ligustrum napalense. 1 think this only a downy
variety of L. japonicum. Thunberg’s original spe-
cimen, though in fruit, retains some pubescence
(exactly like yours) on the flower-stalks. I find no
difference at all in other respects.

Andromeda ovalifolia. This seems what Dr. Ha-

* I see you remark these particulars.
>.

259

milton first named 4. lat?folia, and then 4. capri-
cida. The latter, if true, would be preferable.

Acrostichum flagelliferum. A very fine fern, new
to me; frondes apice radicantes, seu gemmipare,
occur in several species.

Bauhinia corymbosa, Roxb. Beautiful! new to me.

Botrychium zeylanicum.—Good and neat speci-
mens of this would be one of the greatest treasures
you could send European botanists.

Bauhinia racemosa, with a great downy legume,
I had long ago from Roxburgh by the name of
scandens.

Juglans pterococea. Of this I know nothing, nor
of Ulmus virgata of Roxburgh.

I know not whether this fine Jaga in flower,
“ Mimosa Djiring of Roxb. ?” be supposed different
from other specimens with young fruit. They seem
to me the same. Is Bua Jiring the Malay name?

Your pretty Primula, with short radical flower-
stalks, was called by Dr. Hamilton P. Cushia. He
gathered it near the source of the Bagmutty. I am
not partial to such specific names, but they are not
the worst of all.

Uvaria dioica, Roxb. New to me.—Gualtheria
Jragrantissima, Wall., I have from Dr. Hamilton
as an drbutus. It comes near G. erecta of Vente-
nat, Jard. de Cels, t. 5, but has smaller flowers, and
more dense, downy (not hairy) clusters. Leaves also
more glandular beneath. Gaz/theria is certainly
right.

Heyneatryuga, Roxb. Very acceptable, though
I want the flowers.

s 2

260

Combretum costatum, Roxb. — A very noble plant.
—Lpidendr. moschatum, very precious. I wish you
could send me the leaves.

An Orchideous plant, without a ticket, is a Sa-
tyrium, called by Hamilton in his MSS. Orches b:-
cornuta.—A Viola also without a ticket, is called
by our said friend longifolia, not very happily, but
it is difficult to find a good name for it.

fHoya viridiflora, Br.—right, of course. I do not
find that I have it.

Fraxinus floribunda, Wall., is, as you say, very
near Ornus, but in yours the corolla and stamens
are 3 or 4 times shorter than in / Ornus; the
leaflets more stalked, more pointed, and sharply ser-
rated. They are certainly distinct.

Callicarpa, with long leaves, sent from Sirinagur
by Sir R.Colquhoun ;—how does it differ from Vahl’s
macrophylla ?— Vitis parvifolia, Roxb., well named;
new to me.— Connarus from Penang,” I know no-
thing about. It is a magnificent plant—A few that
remain, I am obliged to pass over, either for want
of time, or because I have nothing to say.

Thus my dear Sir, I have endeavoured to show,
as well as I could, my gratitude for your bountiful
communications. <A vast parcel of very fine things
which came last year, before the present parcel, I
have not yet been able to study; but I have devoted
many days to the present, and to your very kind
letter of May 27,1819. Pardon me if I make re-
marks freely, especially about names. I wish those
who, like you, are competent to take the lead, to
consider and to study to keep the science as clas-

261

sical, elegant, and correct as possible. Do you sup-
port me in this, against illiterate botanists, &c. &c.
You may see by my articles in Rees’s Cyclo-
pedia that I keep these things in view, and defend
the Linnean fortress as stoutly as I can; but I am
thankful for, and concur in, all sound correction and
improvement. Mr. Brown and I are sworn friends,
though he uses the natural arrangement. He is one
of the most amiable, acute, and worthy of men.
Pray tell my dear cousin Mrs, Loring, with my
kindest regards, that I have just buried my venera-
ble mother, who died at 88, without any previous
infirmity, the delight of all, old and young.

Great part of your parcel was half devoured by
insects. I shall distribute the duplicates as you
order. I wish however you would send me, in fu-
ture, what you destine to me only, compact well
pressed specimens. This sheet, or rather half of it,
shows the size of my herbarium, being the paper I
use for it. I have nothing at hand to send you at
present, but the 3rd and last edition of my Compen-
dium Flora Britannice, perhaps the best thing I
have done, but I wish to correct its defects. Great
numbers of the seeds you sent me have succeeded
very well, and some of the roots; but most of the
latter were eaten by rats in the ship. Seeds are al-
ways acceptable. Pray send Ormosia if perfected.

Believe me, dear Sir,
With every sentiment of regard and respect,
Your obliged and faithful Servant,
J. E. Smiru.

262

From Dr. VWWallich.

Dear Sir, Botanic Garden, Calcutta, May 10, 1820.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that a chest
of specimens to your address, directed to the care
of Mr. Kindersley, has been embarked on board the
Henry Porcher. Its chief contents consist in Na-
pal plants, among which I hope there may be found
some not formerly sent, and worthy of a place in
your museum. They have been collected by my
people about Katmandu, and by some who were
dispatched by my late friend Mr. R. Stuart to Gos-
sain Than, at the foot of the Himaleya, or rather
within its first range. The other specimens are
from this garden, and I have to make an apology
for several of these which belong to exotics in this
country. They were preserved by my people among
other plants of this garden. I have reason to fear
they are not of any value to you.

There are likewise specimens of Sumatra and
Penang plants which were left with me by my ever-
valued friend Mr. Jack, surgeon to Sir Stamford
Raffles, for the purpose of their being presented to
you in his name. Some more shall follow in my
next dispatch. Of the Scitamineous plants, I re-
quest you will do me the favour to communicate
some to Mr. Roscoe, with my best compliments. I
have lately had some most heart-cheering letters
from that great and good man, to which I shall re-
ply shortly. From them I learn that a package I
had the satisfaction of forwarding, of Scitamineous
plants, had proved acceptable to yourself and to

263

him ;—among them were what I rejoice to find
that you consider as several new species of Roscoea.
He also kindly communicated a highly interesting
synoptical view of all the Hedychia I had sent. I
anticipate the most glorious harvest in that tribe
from my Napal journey, for which I set out in J uly
next. I hope that I need not assure you of my
cordial desire to transmit to you such collections of
every description from thence as I may anticipate
will be favourably received. Yourself, Sir Joseph
Banks, Mr. Lambert, and Mr. Colebrooke, shall
receive ample supplies, and I propose continuing to
send them until I learn that you want no more of
them ! |

It was my full intention to have presented you
with a chest of specimens, with a request that you
would kindly offer them to the Linnean Society as
a feeble tribute of my respect and esteem; but the
necessary leisure was wanting. I may however still
be able to effect this intention before my departure,
because I am amply prepared with treasures for
that purpose.

Mr. H. Graves, proceeding in the Henry Porcher,
will present you with a copy of the first volume of
Roxburgh’s Mora Indica, which I request you will
do me the favour to accept, as a feeble testimony
of the high esteem and respect which I entertain
towards you. He will likewise deliver into your
hands another copy, which I request you will do me
the honour to present to the Linnean Society, for
their library.

I ought to have mentioned that almost all the

264

Primulas and Androsaces are from the Himalaya,
and all the Lysimachi@ are from the neighbourhood
of Katmandu.

Mr. and Mrs. Loring are in excellent health:
they are at present living at Barrackpore, and if
they knew I was addressing you, would certainly
have desired me to present you with their compli-
ments.

Believe me, with the greatest possible respect and
esteem,

Dear Sir,
Your faithful and humble Servant,

N. WALLICH.

From Sir Thomas Gage.

Castel a Mare, July 30, 1820.
My dear Sir James,

The object of my troubling you with a letter from
this distant place, is to state, that having spoken of
our Linnean Society to the Prince de Butera, a Si-
cilian nobleman of the first consequence in that
country, he expressed very strongly a wish to be-
come an honorary member. The Prince is extremely
fond of botany, and cultivates with great success a
number of very rare and curious plants.

The Prince informs me there is a good garden at
Palermo, and well kept. I cannot say as much for
that of Naples, which is completely in a state of
disorder. Though introduced by letter to Tenore,
I have never been able to make his acquaintance.

265

He is publishing, on an expensive plan, a Crambe
recocta of indigenous and foreign plants, cultivated
in his garden. Petagna, Stellati, and Briganti, are
the only naturalists I have heard of here: the latter
I am assured is a man of considerable talents. No-
thing is published on the subject in this country.

My health, which still continues very uncertain,
prevents me from taking the advantage I should
have among these fine mountains of Castel a Mare.
I have been obliged to give up my favourite pur-
suits, as I walk with great difficulty.

The Ophrys Speculum and Distoma of Bivona
are the best things I have got of late. The country
about Rome affords a much greater variety of rare
productions, and there is now a good Flora pub-
lished by Sebastiani and Mauri. The former I am
sorry to learn has fallen into an unfortunate state of
health, which affects his mind; and the latter, a
young man of great promise, disgusted by want of
encouragement, told me he had been obliged to give
up his studies, to endeavour to live by teaching
Italian. A part of the Farnesina garden has been
given for a botanic garden, but not the means of
putting it into order. I see by our papers, that even
at Bury St. Edmunds we are further advanced, and
that a garden has been made even there. I have
applied myself a good deal to the study of insects,
and have made a collection of about two thousand.
How very little have we advanced in this branch
of natural history! Kirby, Spence, Marsham,
and MacLeay, must help us to something better
than what we have got yet. I saw with great re-

266

gret in our late papers, that we have lost our vene-
rable and excellent Sir Joseph Banks, to whom I at
least owe the greatest obligations for his assistance
when a young man.

Having written so much on my favourite subject,
you will see at all events that we enjoy perfect se-
curity and feel no apprehension for our safety,
though living in the midst of a revolution. Indeed,
unless a foreign power interferes, I think this place
as likely to be quiet as any in Europe. Nothing
can exceed the attention paid to public security and
respect to the persons and property of every indi-
vidual. In short, we see a whole nation fixed and
united for the attainment of a grand object, and de-
spising all the common and little means which in
general are adopted, and sacrificing even the natural
violence of its character in the general cause.

I shall remain here for the benefit of the waters,
if possible, till October; and I think I shall again
pass a winter at Rome.

Lady Mary Anne and my children are well. I
trust Lady Smith is so, and beg you will accept our
united compliments.

Believe me, dear Sir,
Very sincerely yours,
Tuomas Gace.

From Sir Thomas G. Cullum.
Bury, August 27, 1820.
My dear Friend Sir James,
My sincerest thanks for your affectionate con-
gratulations on Lady Cullum’s recovery of her sight.

267

The operation on one eye did not exceed two mi-
nutes, nor more than three minutes in the other ;
and I am happy to tell you that the operation has
succeeded so well, that, with the help of spectacles,
she thinks she sees as well as ever she did in her life;
she never suffered five minutes pain after the opera-
tion :—but how fortunate has Lady Cullum been! She
was couched on Monday morning the 19th of June,
and on Saturday the 24th the intense heat came on:
had this intense heat come on the first or second
day after the operation, the loss of her eyes would
probably have been the consequence. The operators
do not regard the advanced age of their patients,
nor the season of the year, except in extreme hot
weather. If I was forty or fifty years younger than
Iam, I should never forget the 19th of June, it
being the day on which Lady Cullum underwent
the operation, and the day of the death of Sir Jo-
seph Banks ; and the last time I saw him he parti-
cularly inquired how she did. I saw Sir Joseph at
his Sunday’s levée about three weeks before; and I
said to several friends I should never see him more!
I have been over most of the places you mention
in your Tour, particularly Haddon and Bakewell.

In my last I mentioned to you a Dianthus, the
seed of which was collected on the ruins of Catul-
lus’s villa at Sermione, on the Lago di Garda in
Italy : it grows upwards of three feet high, with a
profusion of blossoms. I take it to be the Dzan-
thus virgineus. There is a figure of it in Bot. Mag.
tab. 1740. In one of the plants, most of the flowers
have only four petals: in some flowers the stamina

268

are included in the faux corolle: in others, one,
two, or three, or more, are elongated.

The evening before Lady Cullum was couched I
was desired to put one drop of the infusion of the
leaves of Atropa Belladonna into each eye ; and the
next morning, an hour before the operation, the
same ;—the effect, to make the pupil of the eye di-
late, is wonderful. Some of the oculists use for
the same purpose the Datura Stramonium (and, if
I am not mistaken, the Hyoscyamus).

Ray seems to have confounded the Belladonna
and Datura, as to their effects in dilating the pupil
of the eye (see Syn. p. 226.). It is not clear by his
notes, which of the plants the lady used,—it may
be one or the other ; but it is now ascertained that
both have the same effect. Ray has given the hint,
and the modern oculists have profited by it.

I have many questions to ask you,—more than I
can put on paper. How much pleasure it would
give me and Lady Cullum, if you and Lady Smith
would come and see us in October! Our gaieties
begin about the 9th: come on that day, and stay
as long as you can, and fix no time for your leaving
us. Thanking you again and again most heartily
and sincerely for your kind and interesting letter, I
remain, with the truest regard,

Yours affectionately,

T. G. CuLuum.

Sir J. E. Smith to Sir T. G. Cullum.

My dear Sir Thomas, Norwich, Aug. 31, 1820.

I must thank you for your very kind letter, and
the good news it contained, which is beyond our
hopes. Pray tell Lady Cullum her little postscript
is worth more than its weight in gold, and we value
it accordingly.

The confusion about Belladonna exists in Ray’s
own second edition of his Synopsis, where three
lines relating to Solanum pomo spinoso &c. Datura
stand (in p. 150) between other paragraphs, which
all evidently belong to 4tropa Belladonna. There
are no berries (4acce) for children to eat in the
Datura. Dillenius has not corrected this error in
the third edition, p. 266; though he has there
printed what regards Datura in larger characters,
and marked it as a species with the §. But this
only increases the error, as he leaves the remarks
as they were.

“< Somniferum est et malignum,” though it may
be true of Datura, proves, by the word “ baccas”
and all that follows, to belong to the tropa.

I gathered Dranthus virgineus on Mount Cenis,
—exactly like Bot. Mag. t. 1740.

I was at Sir Joseph Banks’s on Sunday evening,
the 21st of May, and left the room with the same
melancholy forebodings that you did a fortnight
after. I was with him alone a few days before, and
he told me he was quite easy about the event, which

270

he knew could not be far distant, considering the
state of his stomach.

I received a letter from Sir Thomas Gage the
other day from Castel a Mare, near Naples, giving
a pretty good account of himself and his family.

Once more, my dear Sir, our most affectionate
regards attend you and Lady Cullum.

J. E. Smiru.

From Sir Thomas Frankland.

Dear Sir, Thirkleby, Nov. 5, 1820.

I would sooner have acknowledged your kind
letter from Holkham, but that I had no matter
worth writing in return. A letter to a sportsman
from Mr. Coke’s in the high season was a curiosity;
but I cannot wonder that your mind was more oc-
cupied by the business which has so long engaged
the house of lords. My politics on the subject
agree very much with Lord Harewood’s speech in
this day’s paper.

My son and daughter have been amusing them-
selves for some weeks in placing single trees and
shrubs on the lawn ; and so zealously that the lady
carries various articles, and even digs. All this of
course delights me more than the renounced fox-
hunting did; and the pretty intelligent children I
cannot keep my eyes from. My son takes a little
shooting; but I seldom go with him, preferring the
having his own way, and taking care that he is well
attended. ‘or my own part, though my vitals are

271

good, debility and rheumatism make me so helpless
at a hedge, that I am generally obliged to be pushed
over by two stout men, and sometimes a third lift-
ing my foot up! Still I cling to my “ ruling pas-
sion,” and shoot well till over-fatigued. That my
garden thrives, I will only say that we had aspara-
gus on the 3rd, and have pease this day. The for-
mer is raised in one of the pigeon heated frames
invented by M’Phail; and it seems that as no va-
pour of manure can affect the bed, what is raised in
it must be materially sweeter than by the common
process. I had a letter lately from a Radnorshire
man who has been visiting Mr. A. Knight, and re-
ports a fig-tree which has had nine crops in fifteen
months, and has now a tenth on it! This is ef-
fected by drenching the plant with a mixture of
pigeon’s dung and water many times every day.
We have so few woodcocks that I have a bad
opportunity for ascertaining whether my suggestion
that the ma/es only come over in the first flight, is
correct. We have had four, and I inclose the ex-
terior quill-feathers of one bird as a perfect example
of the male,—the female having a white line running
most of the way from the quill to the extremity.
As for tearing out likenesses in paper, there is
much chance in it; for if you get wrong in the sim-
ple outline, it is almost impossible to correct. I
have sometimes succeeded with strongly marked
features, at a concert or an assembly,—usually
tearing up the thin paper of the bill of fare. The
inclosed is the only one which I possess, but will
give you a perfect notion of the thing. It repre-

272

sents an old Mrs. Warburton, well known in the
society of York 30 or 40 years ago. Her daughter
was married to Mr. Burgh, who had formerly been
distinguished in theIrish parliament. All the three
parties died some time since at York. I should wish
to have the portrait again at your leisure; for it is
considered as strong a likeness as Lawrence’s art
could have produced.

I have just written into Scotland for a specimen
of Menztesia carulea*, and shall attempt the poly-
Jola, through my sister Lady Roche, who resides in
Dublin. My daughter harrowed up these destderata
in my herbarium.

I am, dear Sir,

Yours most faithfully,
Ta!

Viro perillustri atque generosissimo J. Edw. Smith,
Presidi Societ. Linnean. reliq.
6. DOP.
G. W. F. Panzer.

Ex quo literas tuas, calend. Januar. anni 1818,
humanissime ad me datas accepi, quibus me tibi

# “ We have more than usual satisfaction in announcing this as
a British plant, on account of its rarity and beauty, and of the
opportunity it affords of adding to our Flora a new genus, dedi-
cated, long ago, by the writer of this, to one of the worthiest men
that the native country of the plant ever produced. The original
Menziesia was gathered by Mr. Archibald Menzies on the west
coast of North America. The present species was discovered at
Aviemore in Strathspey, and in the western isles of Shiant.”—
Engl. Bot, fig. 2469.

273

summe obstrictum reddidisti, in dies ardor, denuo
humanitatem tuam literis adeundi, increbuit, adeo,
ut nisi veritus fuerim modestie et verecundiz le-
gibus adversari, vix me jam pridem temperare po-
tuissem, quin a tuo et in me ingenuo et liberali
animo, benevolentiz atque benignitatis tue, itera-
tum efflagitassem documentum. Verum vicit cu-
piditas, et ut aperte fateor, desiderium, super non-
nullas mihi dubias stirpes Linnzanas, abs te principe,
omnium consensu botanicorum, et a tuo, universi
orbis botanici oraculo, de meliori, informari. At-
que nunc eo usque processit audacia mea, ut tandem
apud me constituerim, collectionem variarum stir-
pium, tum regionibus nostris tum aliis familiarium,
ad te transmittere, simul ac summa animi obser-
vantia, abs te petere atque contendere, ut eas bene- *
vole accipere, et quas dubias inter illas deprehen-
deris, distinctione curatiore benignissime velis illus-
trare.

Obstrictissimum animum, pro tanto in me et
singulari favoris et benignitatis documento, per
omne vite spatium spondeo, ac simul me, ad que-
vis obsequii et observantiz summe officia, nunquam
non, paratissimum. Quod etiam alias, ob fugam
vacui, preter mihi dubias, stirpes, addidi, ignoscas
velim; quum facile fieri poterit, ut ez, plurime,
nisi omnes, jam pridem abs te collect fuerint ; tunc
rejicias, vel nihili habeas queso.

Cryptogamicarum stirpium, et inter has, mus-
corum frondosorum specimina, me nulla addidisse,
de industria factum est; quippe mecum reputans,
me lis, vix ac ne vix, ad collectionem tuam jam ab-

VOL. Il. T

274

solutam augendam, conferre potuisse: attamen in-
dicem muscorum frondosorum, presertim in Ger-
mania obviorum, et a nostro Funckio editum, eo fine
addidi, ut singulas mihi indicare velis species quas
forte desideras, quasque ad te lubentissime pervenire
jubeam. Felicissimum me habebo, si vel in qua-
cunque re, in Germania nostra, tibi officia mea pre-
stare possim, ad que peragenda, me semper offen-
deris paratissimum.

Rob. Brown Prodrom. Plantar. Flor. Nov. Hol-
landie, frustra hactenus, quamvis anxie, in Ger-
mania, tum et in Anglia quesivi; semper responsum
tuli, hunc egregium librum auctorem ipsum, fatali
modo, suppressisse.

Mihi et Dr. Trinio, auctori Fundam. Agrosto-
graph. Vienne, 1820, jam sepius, Aopecurus al-
pinus tuus fuerat species exoptatissima; quare, si
tibi adhuc specimina aliquot superflua restant,
unum ex illis, nobiscum benevolentissime commu-
nices queso.

Ratione mercedis cursus publici, opportunitate
nundinarum Lipsiensium, in presentia, usus sum,
ut iste fasciculus plantarum ad te perveniat, id quod
etiam aliquando, nisi recuses, faciam, et me tuis
jussis facile submittam.

Vale, vir generosissime, et me tuo favori, ali-
quando habeas commendatissimum.

Dabam Hersbrucci prope Norimbergam,
in Bavaria, d. Cal. Octobr. 1821.

275

From the Rev. James Yates.

Dear Sir James, Birmingham, Feb. 26, 1822.

I have been long wishing for an opportunity of
expressing to you and Lady Smith the pleasure and
obligation which I feel whenever I call to mind my
visit to you last autumn; and at the same time to
inform you that all I expected to find at Holkham
was even exceeded, both in the magnificence of the
place itself, and its richness in the various objects
of taste and curiosity, and also in the hospitality
and goodness of its noble-minded possessor,—and
of his daughter, of whom it is the highest praise to
say that she is worthy of her father. From Mr.
Odell, also, I received the most obliging attentions ;
and the kindness of Archdeacon Bathurst was quite
overwhelming. Indeed, I never took any journey
which afforded me so much of the pleasures and
advantages (and these I reckon among those which
are of the highest order,) of intercourse with the
truly great-and good. Among these I number not
only your venerable Bishop, but others of the in-
habitants of your classic and intellectual city, whom
I met in your company, and who, though in humbler
stations of life, are the real ornaments of society,—
the patterns and promoters of whatever is most es-
timable in human nature,—the enlightened and —
consistent friends of liberty, truth, and virtue.
I would beg you to give them my kind and re-
spectful remembrances, if it were not that, from the
number of the kind and good friends with whom

T2

276

you made me acquainted, the commission would be
too extensive to trouble you with. Iam sorry that
a fondness I have both for carrying and sending
letters by the hand of a friend, rather than by the
post, has occasioned so long a delay in the expres-
sions of my thanks to Lady Smith and yourself.
But my impressions of gratitude and of admiration
for what I saw and experienced in Norfolk, are still
as lively as if it were a thing of yesterday.
Your Friend and Servant,
James YATES.

Vireo praclaro doctissimoque
G. W. F. Panzer, M.D.
5. P. B.

J. E. Smith.

Gratias summas, vir optime, tibi ago, ob literas
tuas benevolas, mihi gratissimas, plantarum speci-
minibus comitatas, quarum dubia, ut potui, in char-
tula hic annexa, solvere conatus sum.

Doleo maxime quod Alopecurus alpinus mibi
non amplius in duplo est.

Amicissimus R. Brown exemplaria omnia Pro-
dromi Nove Hollandie, non adhuc emissa, donec
opus absolutum erit, arcte retinet.

Desiderata mea e muscorum catalogo ditissimo
Funckiano alia vice, te favente, mittam. Plurima
sane ibidem mihi nova sunt.

Cl. Reichenbach tibi proculdubio notus est. Li-
teras meas, hoc fasciculo inclusas, mittas queso, ut
tuis auspiciis me condonet vir optimus.

277

Salute minus valida adhuc in patria mea detentus,
a Londino et Societate Linneana diutius quam solet
abfui. Hebdomada proxima ineunte, ut spero, ur-
bem et amicos salutabo.

Mitto tibi, vir amicissime, libellos binos Lin-
neeanos, raritatis ergo forsitan non ingratos. Paucis
omnino innotuere. Accipias etiam Reliquias Rud-
beckianas meas, jam olim curiositatis causa, in ami-
corum usu impressas.

Vale, vir doctissime, mihique semper faveas !

Dabam Nordovici die 8 Maii 1822.

Sir J. E. Smith to Sir T. G. Cullum.

My dear Sir Thomas, Norwich, June 29, 1822.

I cannot neglect this opportunity of recalling
myself to your remembrance.

Mr. Denson has sent me 30 specimens to deter-
mine, and I have told him all I know about them.

I feel much improved in health and strength since
I came home. We had a pleasant walk to Mr.
Crowe’s, and back again, after tea on Thursday last.
The willows are all growing very finely.

I have placed all Lady Mary Ann Gage’s insects
in my cabinet, and return her box, which I beg the
favour of you to let her ladyship have at some
convenient opportunity.

I know not whether I ever gave you a copy of
Linneus’s Orbis eruditi Judicium, a little work in
justification of himself, and the only thing of the
kind he ever printed. I fancy he distributed it but

278

little; for few of his foreign biographers have ever
seen it, and it is generally reckoned his rarest work.
Such, also, is the case with his Odservationes in
ftegnum Lapideum, printed for his pupils, and which
I also send, as you may like to add it to the many
curiosities of your library.

I must next week return to my English Flora.
Edward Forster, who has been here a few days,
looked at it critically, and approved what he saw.
He is a good English botanist, and a sincere friend.
I understood you were to meet him at Mrs.Gould’s.

With my kindest and most grateful remembrances
to your excellent lady, whose benevolence is not
wasted on an insensible heart,

I remain, my dear Sir,
Most faithfully yours,
J. E. Smiru.

From Dawson Turner, Esq.

My dear Friend, Yarmouth, Nov. 1, 1823.

Mr. Roscoe is kind enough to promise to come
to us the latter end of the approaching week, and
if you and Lady Smith can be prevailed upon to
favour us at the same time with your company,—
not, however, bounding your stay by his,—you will
make Mrs. Turner and me extremely happy. Under
other circumstances I should scarcely have ventured
to propose to you a journey to Yarmouth at this
cold and dreary season of the year; but, happily,
I can offer you a warm room in a warm house, and

279

you are by no means in the number of those who
depend for their comfort or amusement upon things
without; and our opportunities of meeting are now
so rare, that I am but too glad-to catch you in any
time or place. In the course of my downward
journey through life, there are but few things have
vexed me more than the interruption to those an-
nual visits which used to pass between us, and which
were periods on whose recurrence, like a school-
boy for-his holidays, I used to reckon from year to
year. If possible, do let them be renewed : not
many more summers, in the course of nature, can
be allotted to either of us ; and our time of life is
not such when we can with prudence expect, or
wish, to form many new friends ; still less can we
be willing to part -with those we have: every year,
as it goes, necessarily diminishes their number.
Since 1823 more than ten of the persons with whom
I was then in correspondence are dead. I disco-
vered the fact accidentally in turning over my
letters, and I do not know when I have felt so
painful a chill. But the effect will be good, if it
leads me the more to value those who are left, and
among these there is assuredly no one to whom I
owe more, or for whom I feel a greater regard, than
yourself. Do, my excellent friend, let us endeavour,
as far as in us lies, to recall the times that are past,
when I used to mark the years by your visits, and
counted upon their recurrence from August to Au-
gust. As one advances in life, and sees the friends
of our youth gradually drop about us, the number
decreases of those to whom it is possible fully and

280

freely to open our minds: it is painful, therefore,
to lose any opportunity, when

** tibi, dulcis amice,
Excutienda darem precordia, quantaque nostre
Pars tua sit, mi care, anime, tibi
Ostendisse queam.”

Ever affectionately yours,
D. Turner.

From Mr. G. Sinclair.

Sir, Woburn Abbey, Jan. 7, 1824.

I have the honour of your letter of the 23rd De-
cember, and humbly beg leave to say, that I have no
words by which I can convey to you the deep sense
I have of your great condescension and kindness.
The approbation of your illustrious name is an ho-
nour and reward to me which I feel I cannot too
highly prize. Encouraged by your approbation of
my labours, I applied to the Duke of Bedford for
the honour of his signature to my certificate, which
His Grace, in the kindest manner, instantly granted,
and accompanied his consent with a mark of his
munificence, to render me a free member of the Lin-
nzan Society for life. The condescending and most
kind assurance of your support has alone induced
me to take steps for such a purpose. I humbly beg
leave to say, that my object in intruding on your
valuable time, at this moment, is solely to offer you
my grateful acknowledgements ; for without the
permission to do this, I should have felt unhappy.

281

The Duke of Bedford has of late devoted more
time than usual to botany and gardening. Within
the last twelve months he has formed a fine collec-
tion of Heaths,—the most extensive, I believe, that
is anywhere to be found: a compartment for the
growth of the more hardy species of Erica adjoins
the Heath-house. As soon as I have completed my
work on Grasses, I purpose to enter on an exami-
nation of this beautiful and interesting family of
plants,—in which attempt I shall hope for your as-
sistance. The Duke is very anxious to see your
new Flora. The important and novel improvements
in the generic characters of the Umbellifere will be
found productive of the greatest utility in practice ;
and in this I feel certain that I speak the sentiments
of every practical botanist. The generic characters
founded on the general and partial zxvolucra I have
ever found most difficult to profit by, or use in de-
termining with certainty the groups of this natural
and numerous order of plants ; and such a lessening
of labour and clearing away of difficulties will, I
feel certain, be received with gratitude by every stu-
dent in English botany.

I have the honour to be, &c.

G. SINCLAIR.

From Sir Thomas Cullum.
Bury, Feb. 26, 1824,
My dear Friend Sir James,

I had a letter about a fortnight ago from Mr.
Lambert, of whom I had not received a line since I

282

left Fonthill. His letter, I may say, cost me 1/. 5s.,
as he expressed himself all in raptures that De Can-
dolle had published Part I. of a new work, entitled
Prodromus Syst. Nat. Regni Vegetabilis. 1 sent
for it immediately ; and though I cannot but admire
the pains he has taken, yet I lament that he did not
go on with his Systema Vegetabile, which probably
now I shall never see, as, if I understand him right,
he intends to publish another volume, first, of his
Prodromus.

The chemical names of medicines are so much
altered, that I dare not send for a dose of Epsom
salts, or some calomel, without looking into the
Pharmacopeia Lond. to see by what name I am to
send a note to the druggist. The new London
Pharmacopeeia has just been put into my hands. I
could not help observing that they took the hint
that if that barbarous word Liettarta should be
abolished, that you would recommend Matonia to
be substituted for the Cardamom.

In the last Dispensatory, the Cantharides were
called Lytte, but now the old name is restored; how
far that is proper I must not pretend to question.
Three species of Cinchona, the cordifolia, lancifolia,
and oblongifolia, are still continued. Camphor is
still said to be the produce of Laurus Camphora, and
“ concretum sui generis sublimatione paratum.” Mr.
Miller always told me that all the best camphor was
from very large timber trees at Sumatra, sometimes
(according to the age of the trees) either in a fluid
or concrete state. The whole trade of making cam-
phor is in the hands of the Dutch. Do they make

283

it from the Laurus, or from the undescribed trees
growing in Sumatra or Borneo ?

A few weeks ago Lord Stradbroke sent mea
couple of insects, wishing to know their name, as he
was apprehensive he should lose all his Scotch firs,
as they were sickly and dying in great numbers
every year. I had no difficulty in acquainting him
that the insect was the Stvex Juvencus, which puts
me in mind, that many years ago I observed in Mr.
Port's garden plantations at Ilam, in Derbyshire,
several fine young oaks were lying on the ground ;
and inquiring of the gardener the reason of their
being hewn down, he told me the hornets had bored
into them and destroyed them. I now conclude that
they were not hornets, but the Serer Gigas, which
is more like a hornet than the Juvencus.

In Mr. Lambert’s splendid book I do not recol-
lect that the Szvexes are mentioned as the destroyers
of the Pinus sylvestris,—but Lord Stradbroke ha-
ving sent me some pieces of a pine-tree, I will send
them to the Linnean Society if you think it would
be acceptable to them.

Yours affectionately,
T. G. Cutium.

From Professor Hooker.
Glasgow, November 30, 1824.
My dear Sir James,
I received only the latter end of last week your
valued letter from Edward Rigby; and I take the

234

very earliest opportunity to return you my most
sincere thanks for it. You have given me a great
deal of botanical information, and some useful
hints, by which it will be my own fault if I do not
profit: but what I prize far more than them, is the
kind, friendly, and affectionate manner in which you
have throughout expressed yourself. I hope I shall
continue to deserve your good-will and your friend-
ship, with which I assure you I cannot but feel my-
self honoured.

I shall now go on to answer your kind inquiries
about my proposed Speczes Plantarum. It will
neither come under the denomination of a transla-
tion of De Candolle’s Prodromus, nor can the greater
portion of it pretend to the title of originality: the
very nature of the undertaking would forbid this.

I have De Candolle’s full permission to translate
and copy whatever I choose from him; and his
work (because it will be the most complete,) is what
I shall follow in the general arrangement and cha-
racter, especially of the orders and genera. Here,
however, I shall make alterations when I may see fit ;
and with regard to species, I shall, whenever I can
have access to a good specimen, draw up the cha-
racter myself ; when I cannot, I shall copy (but zever
without acknowledgement,) from others. Here,
again, I shall often be obliged to copy De Candolle’s
characters, because his are drawn up with reference
to all the other species of the genus. The species
(presumed ones, I mean,) I shall reduce whenever I
have materials to enable me to do so; and this is

285

really no light task, for I quite believe, in some ex-
tensive genera he has given twice the number of
species he ought to do: witness Thalictrum, Aco-
nitum, Helianthemum, &c. I have this moment re-
ceived a good many of his supposed species of the
latter genus from Montpellier, and these will enable
me to make some corrections. When I may ¢hink
him wrong without sufficient materials to prove him
so, I shall copy his characters and state my opinion.
I can make nothing of his Drabe ;—indeed I am
greatly puzzled with our Scotch species. What
varieties of Aérta we have from the Arctic regions !
These I think will throw some light on De Can-
dolle’s doubtful ones.

As to terminology, you cannot differ in opinion
from DeCandolle upon this subject more than Ido.
Much harm has, I think, been done to science by
the numerous newly invented terms, many of which
are worse than useless. I shall adhere as closely as
I can to your language, and I assure you, that one
great cause of my rejoicing at the appearance of
your English Flora, before my going to press
with the System of Plants, is, that I shall thus be
able to profit by your latest ideas upon the subject.
I think in general I have followed you pretty closely.
I would prefer, however, cordate to heartshaped, per-
haps from custom ; as I would lanceolate to lance-
shaped: neither is, perhaps, generally received En-
glish. The word even does not express to me what
smooth does—which I have been in the habit of
applying to a surface free from roughness; whilst
glabrous I have used to signify a surface free from

286

hairs. There appears to me an advantage in using
Latin words with an English termination, where
they are not otherwise objectionable; that is, in be-
ing able to unite with them, the little words 0d and
sub.—You can say oBcordate, but you must say zn-
versely heartshaped ;—you can say suBglabrous, but
you must say somewhat smooth. As to synonyms,
I must curtail them as much as possible. There will
be 50,000 species of phenogamous plants to be de-
scribed, and these the bookseller is most anxious
should be comprised in ten volumes. I shall give
the first author who named the plant ; De Candolle’s
as the most complete Flora; and refer to one or
more good figures, preferring always the most po-
pular of these: I shall also include those authors
who have particularly studied any genus or species.
This may perhaps give you some idea of the nature
of my book (about which I cannot help feeling very
anxious) ; and the specimen I inclose will give you
an idea of the type. I need hardly say how thank-
ful I shall be for anything you may suggest for the
improvement of my work;—as yet, I have consulted
nobody. For any specimens, too, that might come
into the earlier or later volumes, that you can well
spare, I should be very grateful. I set a great store
by those you have already given me, and find them
very useful. Your names of new species I should
of course hold as sacred, and be most proud to pub-
lish them, as well as any remarks you might think
proper to make. I never had Nepal plants from
Wallich, except our collection five years ago. I have
now understood that the India Company requie

287
that they should have the distribution of all the

specimens. Mosses, however, I continue to receive
from him, and some very good ones too.

I rejoice that the Company have sent you so fine
a parcel of Ferns, and I thank you for offering to
lay by some for me. The little Darea I am quite
delighted with ; I had previously picked a wretched
bit of a barren frond from among some mosses, and
admired its beauty. Your specimen I should like
to figure in my Exotic Flora, if you have no objec-
tion. I wish a fern-like plant I inclose for you may
please you half as much as the Darea has done me;
and pray give me your opinion of it: it is an aqua-
tic from Guiana, and is found in no other state than
what you see. It cannot, I think, according to your
character of the Order F%lices, really belong to it:
with the general aspect of the fructification of a
Preris, there is no ring to the capsules. It cannot
be one of the Aydropterides of Willd., because
they have the fructification among the roots. At
any rate, I think I cannot be wrong in forming a
new genus of it, which I am anxious to dedicate to
its discoverer Mr. Parker. Can the East Indian
Prteris thalictrovdes (whichI have never seen,) belong
to the same genus? or Beauvois’ Preris cornuta?
which you observe comes near the Preris thalic-
troides; but which again, if Beauvois has represented
the fruit correctly, must be widely different.

It would make me very happy if I could think
that I had other plants that would be worth your
acceptance. I am increasing my foreign correspon-
dence, and have one most excellent contributor in

288

Demarara, and another in the island of St. Vincent's.
I have more mosses too, which I think you might
like to have. I wish I could consult you about Or-
chidee : some fine specimens eyery now and then
flower in our garden ; but according to the present
characters every new species forms a new genus. I
am glad you think favourably of my Exotic Flora.
I have now by me some rare and interesting sub-
jects; such as the Marcgravia umbellata, Cassytha
Jiliformis, Cytinus hypocistus, and some remark-
able Orchidee, besides two new Tillandsia. I havehad
two plates engraved of the Nutmeg, and am about
to figure the 4rtocarpus incisa and integrifolia, from
very fine drawings made in the West tntiay aided
by specimens in spirits.

I have been lately much engaged with exotic
plants. I wish you would look at an original spe-
cimen of Lepraria iolithos, and see if it be not the
same as the red snow of the arctic people. I have
some from Captain Parry, and I have the same plant
from Captain Carmichael, found in Argyleshire ;
but it does not lose its deep red colour by keeping,
nor give out an agreeable odour. I have some rea-
son to think that it is only that filamentous plant
(young Conferva aurea?) which turns pale by keep-
ing, and smells like violets, and which has perhaps
by Linneus himself been confounded with the gra-
nulated kind. Agardh assures me the red snow is
common in Sweden.

We may now expect great things from the hi-
therto unexplored parts of North America. I have
been the means of sending out two very zealous

289

and able botanists to the N.W. coast,—Menzies’s
country. One of them will join Captain Franklin,
and return overland with him. The other will ex-
plore the vicinity of the Columbia. I have got an
appointment for a third to go out with Captain
Franklin and Dr. Richardson on their expedition.
He will go as far as the Saskatchawan with them,
and there remain two entire years, botanizing. He
will be within reach of the declivities of the Rocky
Mountains, and explore the head of that immense
basin or plain which opens towards Mexico, and
where he will, it is expected, meet with many of the
plants of Nuttall, James, and Bradbury. Franklin
and the officers who accompany him will have in-
structions to collect plants from the mouth of the
M‘Kenzie river, during their journey to Behring’s
Straits. Douglas will pass one season on the west
coast,and thencrossing the Rocky Mountains in lat.
55° (after passing through ten degrees of lat.), will
fall in with Captain Franklin at Isle de la Crosse.
Richardson will confine himself principally to the
country between the Coppermine river and the
M‘Kenzie river. Their various collections, together
with what is now doing in Canada, Labrador, and by
Captain Parry’s party, will form valuable materials
for a Flora of the British possessions in North
America. Dr. Hamilton of Leny often speaks of
you, and so did Dr. Boott, when he was in Scotland.
And now, my dear friend, I have reason to think
that long before you come to this part of my epistle
you will cry for mercy ; but be assured that I never
VOL. I. U

290

shall, let your letters be ever so long. Do write to
me when you have time, and never think of postage.
I am, my dear Sir James,
Your very grateful and affectionate Friend,
WILLIAM Jackson Hooker.

Viro Clarissimo J. E. Smith
C. A. Bergsma Ss. P. D.

Per aliquod tempus, in conscribenda disserta-
tione de Zhea occupato, multa obvenerunt adhuc
imcerta et minus rite explicata. Inter que impri-
mis illud est: quod nondum intelligo, quare clar.
Linneus duas species descripserit generis Thee.
Qua de re, suadente viro clar. Jos. Aug. Schultes,
audeo te, vir clarissime ! rogare, ut nota tua erudi-
tione me edoceas.

Linneus in primaeditione Specierum Plantarum
(Holmiz 1753, tom. i. p. 515.) et in Systemate
Nature (Holmie 1759, tom. ii. p. 1076.) unam
tantum speciem assumsit, nempe Zheam sinensem.
Doct. vero Joh. Hill primus fuisse videtur qui duas
species constituerit ; sed ipse fatetur, tum, se diu
incertum fuisse num quidem constituendz essent,
tum, species quas agnoverat ab aliis confirmandas
esse. (Zotic Botany, London 1759, tab. 21. & 22.)
Eum secutus esse videtur Linneus. Hill autem for-
sitan facilius ad duarum specierum constitutionem
conclusit, quia Linnzus in Specierum Plantarum
prima editione animadverterat, se flores in aliis hex-
apetalos, in aliis enneapetalos vidisse.

291

In dissertatione Tillzei, Linnzo preside defensa,
(dmen. Acad. vol. vii.) una tantum species cita-
tur, et in Linnei Materia Medica etiam, quantum
scio, de una tantum specie loquitur, quod et fecit
doct. Thunberg in Flora Japonica.

Plurimi recentiorum botanicorum, inter quos
clar. viri Loureiro, Aiton, Sims et De Candolle,
Theam Boheam et viridem tanquam varietates con-
siderant. Equidem non intelligo, quare duo postre-
mi, Zheam Boheam varietatem viridis esse putant :
potius vero contrariam sententiam defenderem ;
primo, quia Zhea a doct. Kaempfero delineata,
magis cum Bofhea convenit; deinde quia doct. du
Halde (Déscription de V’Empire de la Chine) refert
Theam viridem (Songlo) majori cum cura coli quam
Theam Boheam (vouy Tsia); imprimis autem quia
Thea in sua patria fere semper est hexapetala, quod
mihi affirmaverunt qui plantam szepe ibi crescen-
tem conspexerunt.

De hoc argumento litteris conscripseram viro ill.
Schultes, cum quo consuetudinem jungendi occasio
mihi fuit hac etate, quum per meam patriam, ad
tuas oras accederet; is suam sententiam mecum
communicavit, judicans definitionem a Linneo, in
Philosophia Botanica, ad speciem a varietate distin-
guendam, traditam, minime hodie nobis sufficere ;
verum enim vero mihi suadet, ut tandiu defenderem
species Linnzi quandiu hac de re dubius heream;
imprimis autem hortatus est ut te rogarem ut hec
dubia ex herbario in botanicis summi viri Linnei
explanares.

Tu ad me de istis rebus omnibus scribas velim

U 2

quam diligentissime, quod ut perficias vehementer
te etiam atque etiam rogo.

Vale.
Dabam Trajecti ad Rhenun, kal. Febr. 1825.

Viro clarissimo C, A. Bergsma

J. E. Smith.
Vir Clarissime,

Dubia certe et obscura in Thee historia botanica,
nec non ceconomica, ad nauseam usque invenies.

Thee Bohee exemplaria duo, floribus hexape-
talis, manu ipsius Linnei nominata, in herbario
Linnezano conservantur; ut et folia tantum duo
7. viridis, ex hortulano celebri Gordon missa, sed
nulle auctoritatis.

Forsitan plures, et inter se diverse species, sive
Thee generis, sive Camelliarum botanicis adhuc
ignotarum, in EKuropam mittunt Chinenses vafer-
rimi, sub nomine Thearum diversarum.

Omnia hec vero, de industria, obscura et con-
fusa reddunt.

De differentia specifica inter 7. viridem et Boheam
nihil certum unquam invenire potui—nec in hoc ne-
gotio ullo modo prodest herbarium Linnei.

Cultus tuus devotiss.

se PSS
Dabam Norvici, 3 id. Febr. 1825.

Festino calamo hee scribo, pluribus negotiis oc-
cupatus, que inquisitionem ulteriorem vetant.

From A. B. Lambert, Esq.

My dear Friend, Boyton House, July 22, 1825.

Perhaps you will hardly believe it when I tell you,
the whole of the drawings of natural history of the
celebrated Bruce are now all safe at Boyton ! ! !—
arrived about a fortnight ago direct from Kinnaird:
Mr. Cummings Bruce, who is now in possession of
the estates and museum, marrying the heiress of
Bruce, and whom I never saw. His brother, Sir W.
G. Cumming, married my cousin, Lady Charlotte
Bury’s eldest daughter.

The drawings, which are about three hundred,
consist of birds, fish, quadrupeds, and plants,—the
latter most interesting,—all drawn and described on
the spot where he found them, in Abyssinia, with
dissections of the parts of fructification, and which
would do honour to many of the botanists of the
present day, and most truly prove him to bea most
accurate, diligent observer, and perfectly do away all
those malicious aspersions which envy has brought
against him.

Yours sincerely,

A. B. LAMBERT.

From H. F. Talbot, Esq.*
Dear Sir, Island of Corfu, March 31, 1826.
I imagine it will be agreeable to you to have some

* Of Laycock Abbey, Wilts., nephew to the Marquis of Lans-
downe. This gentleman was introduced to Sir James in the
autumn of 1825 by A. B. Lambert, Esq. of Boyton House.

294

account of the botany of this island, which you may
compare with that of Sibthorp and others who have
visited it, probably at different seasons of the year.
The aspect of it is very mountainous, and clothed
with olive woods: near the city a fertile plain. I
have not yet extended my ramble to any distance
from the city. The orange-trees are magnificent,
and are now loaded with fruit. The olives are co-
vered with their black berries. Gigantic 4rundo
Donax, and Cactus Opuntia of considerable size, di-
versify the prospect. The extensive cultivation of
the Artichoke is curious; it serves for hedges, and
very pretty ones. There are hedges, too, of scarlet
Cape Geraniums, more I think for ornament than
protection. In fact, it is an open country,—a garden.

Here is a sort of calendar of Flora, which you
may compare with Norfolk on the same day, if you
have made similar notes :—

Corfu, March $1.

Elder-tree in flower; Brambles, ditto ; Pome-
granate in young leaf, having the appearance of a
red bush; Fig-tree in young leaf; Scrophularia
peregrina in flower; along with the following plants
in flower :—

Chrysanthemum segetum; Common Scarlet Poppy;
Lathyrus alatus ; Fumaria capreolata; Geranium,
unknown to me,—like mod/e, but five or six times
larger,—not pyrenaicum ; Thlaspi Bursa pastoris,
of a size little inferior to Cardamine amara ; Aspho-
delus ramosus and Phlomis fruticosa, very showy
plants ; Anemone hortensis ; Hyacinthus racemo-
sus; Ornithogalum exscapum (of Tenore), nanum

295

(Sibth. 2) which seems a mere variety of wmbellatum;
Helleborus viridis —this is not in Prodr. Fl. Gree.;
Lycopsis variegata, a charming plant, forming here
extensive fields of blue ;—Sibthorp says it is rare
in Peloponnesus and the Archipelago, so that I
suppose this island is its head-quarters; Muga
reptans, extremely large; Symphytum tuberosum ;
Linum usitatissimum ; Euphorbia dendroides ;
Chrysanthemum coronarium; Erodium malacoides
and moschatum ; Lotus ornithopodioides ; Echium
calycinum (not in Prodromus) ; Tordylium officinale,
—this is the commonest umbelliferous plant on the
island. At Ancona, in Italy, I saw the other day a
scarlet corn-field ;—arrived at the spot, I found it
owing to a profusion of Zulipa Oculus Solis.—The
weeds of the South of Europe are very handsome.
April 2.

I can add to the list two Ophryses which are not
in the Prodromus,—lutea and aranifera, besides
tenthredinifera. I observed today, in flower, dnagal-
hs arvensis and cerulea; Hippocrepis unisiliquosa ;
Saponaria ocymoides (notin Prodromus) ; Lunaria
rediwiva; Astragalus. monspessulanus; Galum
cruciatum ; Spartium villosum ; Cistus salvifolus ;
Anthylls vulneraria (flore rubro), and Vicia lutea ?
Veronica Buxbaumii; Bellis annua; Scorpiurus
subvillosa ; Phalaris utriculata, very abundant (not
in Prodr.); Trifol. resupinatum: Sherardia arvensis;
Geranium dissectum ; Lithosp. purpureo-ceruleum ;
and anoble Echzwm.

I am convinced the beautiful Geranium of this
island is distinct from pyrenaicum: the flowers are

256

a fine rose colour, of the size of a sixpence, orna-
menting all the road sides.

Hedysarum coronarium (not in Prodr.). I wonder
this showy flower did not fall in Sibthorp’s way.—I
have found a Senecio that may be new: it is like
vulgaris, wanting the ray florets, but much larger,
and pale sulphur yellow, with long slender florets
that are protruded and make a sort of bush.

April 4.

There are now in flower some plants not in the
Prodromus, viz.

Lotus maritimus ; Vicia grandiflora (sordida,
Willd.). Cerastium manticum (a curious species,
hitherto little understood, to which I would give the
following specific character: ‘“ Cerastium erectum
glaberrimum pedunculis longissimis erectis, calyce
membranaceo, petals fere integris.” A curious little
Euphorbia, (nova species ?) resembling £. Peplus a
little, but has a 5-rayed umbel, and echznate capsules :
the petals also are entire, not lunate or horned.
A species of Muscari with blue flowers of a large
size.—Besides these, which seem additions to the
Flora Greca, I see a beautiful Malvaceous plant,—a
Malope, with rosy flowers three inches in diameter ;
blue Lupins; Bartsia latifolia ; Serapias Lingua ;
Delphinium Staphisagria (not in flower) ; Coronilla
cretica; Medicago circinata ; Ornithopus compres-
sus; Trifol. subterraneum ; Picridium vulgare ;
Thelygonum Cynocrambe.

I remain, dear Sir, with the greatest regard,

H. F. Tavsor.

297

From the same.

Dear Sir, Corfu, April 10, 1826.

Trusting you have received a letter I sent you
some days ago, I will now give you some further °
account of the vegetation of this island. I have,
however, only examined the environs of the town.
In the remoter parts, if I may credit the director
of the botanic garden here, there are some very
extraordinary productions; as, Lchium giganteum ;
two species of Othonna, the pectinata and the other ;
two species of Osteospermum, pisiferum and moni-
liferum ; Nolana prostrata; Chrysocoma Coma
aurea; and a beautiful yellow climber, genus un-
known to me,—whether Dolichos or Crotalaria I
cannot tell ; but as I have not myself observed these
plants growing wild, I hesitate about them.

Now to come to my own observations.—I men-
tioned in my last that I had found a new? Euphorbia,
resembling &. Peplus :—on revisiting the spot, I
found (which is singular) another Euphorbia, grow-
ing with it, and very like it, but admirably distinct
in its characters, especially in its sharply hexagonal
capsule, which I have not seen in any species of
this genus. ‘The two plants are thusecharacterized :
(they both resemble £. Peplus or E. exigua.)

No. 1. No. 2.
Unmbelle radii 5, Umbelle radii 5.
Planta glaberrima, glaberrima.
Folia semiamplexicaulia, sessilia.
obtusa, acutiora.
apice obscure serrulata, ubique eleganter serrulata.
Petala minima, integra, idem.

Capsule triquetrae angulis echi- acute hexagone.
nate.

298

I should be glad to learn whether these plants are
described anywhere. I have found a large white-
flowered species of Lithospermum, with trailing
stems ; Stachys spinulosa ? with white flowers,—a
large plant; Veronica syriaca, an elegant little
plant with large flowers; Phleum felinum? Con-
volvulus tenuissimus; Crambe Corvini (not in Prodr.);
Lotus tetragonolobus ; Lathyrus setifolius ; Bunias
Erucago ; Ornithopus scorpioides ; Andropogon di-
stachyon ; Aristolochia rotunda ; Allium subhir-
sutum ; Urospermum picroides ; Hesperis verna ;
Rhagadiolus stellatus ; Polypodium leptophyllum ?
Anthyllis tetraphylla ; Euphorbia amygdaloides,
abundant (not in Prodr.); Geranium, with very large
flesh-coloured flowers,—petals entire; Vicia b-
thynica ;. Coronilla securidaca ; &c. &c. &c.

I am about to visit Santa Maura (the ancient
Leucadia), and hope to give you a good account —
from thence. The season is backward: there are
a yast number of plants springing up everywhere.

I remain, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
H. Es Taser

P.S. The Umbellifere of the Ionian Isles are
numerous and extraordinary. They seem little
known, and I cannot refer them even to their ge-
nera in some instances.

A copy of the Flora Greca, which I met with in
the Grand Duke’s library at Florence, was of great
service to me.

299
From Sir Thomas G. Cullum.

My dear Sir James, Bury, Aug. 22, 1827.

We have lost from our Society the Bishop of
Carlisle. I preserve one of his letters to me, bearing
date October 31, 1796, which I value much. At
one of the Linnean dinners in May we were com-
paring our ages, and it appeared that the Bishop
was nearly two years below me; he being born in
1743, and I in 1741. When I looked at him at the
Linnean Club at the Thatched House Tavern, I
was much concerned, thinking what an alteration
illness makes ina man whom I remember as strong
as Hercules. When I look at the private list of the
Linnean Society in 1788, and the printed one in
1789, I will not express how few are alive !

I feel the infirmities of age creep upon me; yet I
am thankful for the comforts I enjoy. That we may
soon meet in cheerful spirits and health, is the sin-
cere wish of your affectionate

T. G. Cuttum.*

J. Lh. Smith to Sir T. G. Cullum.

My dear Sir Thomas, Norwich, Sept. 4, 1827.
Your letters are always peculiarly welcome, and
I had long been wishing to hear from you. I need
not say how much I lament the good Bishop of
Carlisle. Dr. Latham and I are now the only sur-

* The venerable baronet himself paid the debt of nature on
the 8th of September 1831, aged 90 years.

300

viving original members of the Linnzan Society.
He writes to me that he is two years older than the
Bishop. I was prevented by the death of my wife’s
brother, and my own illness, from going to London
this year. I suffer severely from rheumatism, which
has for three weeks past affected my eye,—the same
which suffered from erysipelas twenty-five years ago,
and frequently since, becomes cloudy, weak, and
painful from cold: it is now very troublesome, so
as to hinder my usual pursuits.

I have lately received from Kent the true Swiss
Ophrys arachnitis figured in Haller,—a great ac-
quisition to our Flora.

Believe me, dear Sir, &c.

J. E. Smita.

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301

CHAPTER XIII.

Correspondence of Mr. Roscoe and Sir J. E. Smith.

A FEw letters of Mr. Coke of Norfolk are also in-
serted in this chapter,—a name which it is impos-
sible to mention without a wish to do some justice
to the feelings it inspires ; but this might seem like
adulation, vet fall short of the truth : it is not there-
fore sufficient, but it may be expedient, only to
remark, that Mr. Coke’s friendship for Sir James
began from the year in which the latter became an
inhabitant of the same county, and was perpetuated
in annual and perennial acts of kindness during the
remainder of Sir James’s life.

Of a character so well known as Mr. Roscoe, it
is unnecessary to say more than that Sir James’s
first acquaintance with this distinguished person
had its origin in a request imparted to the latter to
give a course of botanical lectures at Liverpool in
1803, upon which occasion a mutual esteem was
formed : it cannot be said to have grown between
them, for it arrived at its full strength and stature
in so short a period, that time was unnecessary to
the development of a friendship which proved as
durable as it was decided at the first acquaintance.

The following letter to Dawson Turner, Esq., de-

scribes the impression which this visit made upon
Sir James :—

302

My dear Friend, Allerton Hall, July 16, 1803.

At length I sit down to write you a letter,—/ite-
rally, but not, I fear, metaphorically, with the pen
of a Roscoe,—that very pen which has just been
correcting his manuscript Life of Leo X.

I am here at his charming villa, six miles from
Liverpool, looking over Cheshire and the Mersey
to the Welsh hills.

Our friend Hugh Davies travelled with Drake
and me in the mail to Chester ; our ride and voyage
thence were delightful *.

My lectures are numerously and brilliantly at-
tended, and seem to stir up a great taste and ardour
for botany. The botanic garden promises well,
though in its infancy, except the stove, which is
well filled, and in the first order. The curator, Mr.
Shepherd, is the properest man I ever saw for the
purpose. I hope to procure him some useful cor-
respondents, one of which shall be our friend Watts
of Ashill. ;

You are acquainted with Mr. Roscoe's taste and
genius ;—his manners, temper, and character are
equal to them. Iam surprised to find him so good

* In a letter written about the same time to his sister, Mrs
Martin, Sir James informs her “ that he had been to dine with
Mr. Roscoe at his country house, quite retired, in a most beau-
tiful situation, with fine views over

© Cheshire and Lancashire both,’
(Do you remember the old ballad of Childe Waters ?) Wales,
the Mersey, &c. I felt as if I were with Lorenzo de’ Medici
at his villa; for of all the men I ever knew, Mr. Roscoe most
surpasses my expectations.”

305

a practical botanist. His library is rich in botany,
and especially in Italian history and poetry. I
fancy myself at Lorenzo’s own villa. I expect my
friend Caldwell from Dublin every day, and have
some hopes of Mr. Griffiths coming to see me.
Two Miss Gleggs, very fine girls, his neighbours,
have lately been here : one of them is a botanist,
and we have had some rambles together.

The most interesting place I have seen, in itself,
is Mr. Blundell’s, of Ince,—rich in a profusion of
antique sculptures, pictures, and marbles. We had
much entertaining talk about Italy, as he has often
been there.

I just saw my old friend Broussonet for a few
days : he touched at London in his way from Tene-
riffe to France. He is going to be professor of
botany at Montpellier.

Yours most truly,

J. E. Smiru.

As a botanist, Mr. Roscoe is distinguished for
having thrown the best light upon the Scétaminea,
a splendid tribe of plants, previously but little un-
derstood,—* a very natural and important order, the
eighth among the /ragmenta of Linneus, and equi-
valent to the Canne of Jussieu. Its name alludes
to the aromatic qualities of most of the species, and
particularly to the use made of some of them in
cookery or in medicine,—scitamentum being ex-
pressive of anything rendered grateful to the palate
by seasoning or other preparation. Accordingly the
Ginger, Turmeric, Zedoary, and various sorts of

304

Cardamoms, belong to this order. It stands between
the Orchidee and Spathacee.

“The genera referred to this order by Linnzus
are Musa, Heliconia, Thalia, Maranta, Globba,
Costus, Alpinia, Amomum, Curcuma, Kempferia,
Canna, Renealmia, and Myrosma.

“The order of Scztaminee, including the Cannea,
coming at the very threshold of the Linnean arti-
ficial system, and being in themselves very attrac-
tive, curious, and rare, have particularly engaged
the attention of several distinguished botanists, but
with very unequal success. No plants have been
less understood by Linnzus and his immediate fol-
lowers, with regard to their genera, and the prin-
ciples upon which they ought to be founded.

“ Professor Swartz, who has so well illustrated the
Orchidee, and whose attention was called to the
Scitaminee by their near affinity to that tribe, has
not thrown any light on their generic distribution,
The French botanists have done absolutely nothing
to clear up this family, but have adopted the ideas
and all the mistakes of Linneus.

“The most unfortunate attempt relative to the ge-
nera of Scitaminee was made by Giseke, in his edi-
tion of the lectures of Linneus upon the natural
orders of plants, printed at Hamburgh in 1792.
This writer, working with other people’s materials,
and destitute of practical experience, boldly under-
took to new-model the whole order. But as Gul-
liver’s mathematical tailor of Laputa, having made
a mistake in the beginning of his calculation,
brought him home a whole waggon-load of clothes,

305

. 80 Giseke, setting out on erroneous principles, has
presented us with a rumbling waggon-load of new
hard-named genera, dismembering the old ones, not
only by insufficient characters, but by characters
that do not exist, and establishing new ones with as
little scruple or success.

“Mr. Roscoe first suggested a method of reducing
the genera of the Scitaminee to regular order, by
essential characters derived from the structure of
the stamen, particularly its filament.

“This principle is found to be the only one which,
while it is clear and precise in defining technical
essential characters, leads to the establishment of
natural genera.

“Tt must be observed, that the learned author of
the Prodr. Nov. Holl. (Mr. R. Brown,) follows the
hypothesis of Jussieu in not allowing a corolla to
these plants, inasmuch as they are monocotyle-
donous.

“ Mr. Roscoe’s ideas of a Sctéaminean flower are
exactly consonant with Mr. Brown’s, except that
he considers the inner perianth of the Thalia as a
corolla with a double limb, which is the most obvi-
ously natural mode of considering it, and in which
I without hesitation concur.

“The Scztaminee as well as the Cannee are pro-
perly placed in the Monandria Monogynia of the
Linnzan sexual system.” (See Sir J. E. Smith’s ar-
ticle Scttaminee in Rees’s Cyclopedia.)

In one of the latest letters addressed to Mr. Roscoe
by Sir James, in 1827, he congratulates him on the

VOL, II. x

306

approaching conclusion of this ‘ highly valuable
and honourable work on Scztaminea@, one of the few
really original valuable and learned works in botany
that this age has seen.”

The following imitation of the style of Ossian, by
Sir James, may not be considered misplaced here :
it is recalled to recollection by its title of “Allerton,”
though it was written many years before the author
had any knowledge of Mr. Roscoe, or of the spot
where their friendship was begun and so happily
matured ; and the scenery it describes applies, al-
most as aptly as the name, to the residence of him
who, in every place and situation, was the individual
round whom Sir James’s pride and his affection
equally rallied, and who, to express his esteem for
the subject of this memoir, had called him by the
flattering appellation “ the friend of my early days
but lately found.”

“ Fair art thou, O Allerton! Lovely are thy
green places and thy pleasant groves. The forests
of Gleddow are spread out as a carpet before thee,
and thou numberest the cattle upon a thousand hills.
The great and the wealthy daily offer up incense at
thy feet.

‘‘The north wind maketh unto himself bowers
of thy myrtles, and slumbereth on the velvet of thy
lawn. Thy fair plants bow before him at his
awakening, and thy saplings are uursed in the
storin.

“ Terrible art thou, O Allerton, when the tem-

307

pests of heaven surround thee, when the sweet-
smelling herb is swept from the face of the field,
and the torrent stayeth not; when the Thunderer
establisheth his throne on thy mountain’s brow, and
the forests shiver before him. Or, when the north
wind rusheth forth in his fury, and fixeth his seal on
the streams of the valley, then thou dealest out the
snowy whirlwind, and the fruitful field becomes a
trackless wasie.

‘“* Yet even then thy tender mercies are over thine
adopted children; and while thy more hardy off-
spring sport in the whirlwind, and brave the unre-
lenting storm, thou shelterest in thy warm bosom
full many a tender nursling, and sufferest not even
thy summer zephyrs to visit their face too roughly:
they are grateful for thy kindness, and offer their
flowery tribute to thee in peace.

“ Yea, truly glorious art thou, O Allerton, in
thy summer attire, when thou, kind stepmother!
sendest forth the children of Flora to sport on the
lawn, where they drink health and beauty from the
nectar of the evening, and give their fragrance to
the morning gale: then exultest thou in their well-
being, as they open their pure bosoms to the sun.
He smileth on them, and they are glad.

“ Yet even most lovely art thou, when the length-
ened shadows of the mountains obscure the valley ;
when the declining sun gildeth the tufted forests of
Gleddow, and empurpleth the little hills on every
side ; when thy clear eye seeth new mountains afar
off that the noontide splendour had eclipsed. Then

x 2

308

a little while, and the moon cometh forth in the
east ; the shades of Gleddow acknowledge her silver
footsteps. Is the fair moon thine handmaid, O
Allerton! that she watcheth thy children as they
sleep? Or doth she delight in the music of the
nymphs of Gleddow, as their light hands touch the
harp of many silver strings? Sweet are the wood-
notes of the nymphs of Gleddow. Methinks their
imperfect sounds now vibrate in mine ear; or do I
hear the drowsy tinkling of the flocks, as they wind
slowly along the distant mountain’s brow? Now
the rising zephyr swells the lengthened notes,—
even now—Hark !—they are still!”

J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Sir, Norwich, Aug. 25, 1803.

Finding myself at length settled at home, and a
little composed, I sit down to converse a few mi-
nutes with you, and to transport myself in thought
at least into your society. How many times shall I
wish that I could do so in reality! I could not at
parting say anything that I wished to say. My
young companion, as well as myself, thought every-
thing during our ride the rest of the day uninter-
esting, and Manchester the most comfortless place
we had ever seen. We stopped there merely to
take my favourite refreshment, tea, and then pro-
ceeded to Disley. Here we found ourselves in quiet,
and could talk of Allerton and you. The next

309

morning at seven we mounted the top of a coach,
and had a delightful ride over the highest parts of
Derbyshire, through Buxton and Ashbourne,—a
beautiful spot. We stepped into the church, while
the organ played the Hundredth Psalm, to see the
tomb of poor Sir B. Boothby’s Penelope. The sta-
tue was covered, but I had seen it in London. You
know the lines from Petrarch which are on the base:
* Le crespe chiome, I’ angelico riso, &c.
Poco polvere son che nulla sente.” *
There is also a passage,—I think from Rousseau, but
am not certain,—something to this effect : “Son cer-
cueil ne la contient pas toute enticre. Ll attend le
reste de sa proye; mais iu ne lattendra pas long
tems.”

We arrived at Matlock by dinner-time on Sun-
day, and spent the two following days in that sweet
spot. We saw Burleigh House in our way. I had
seen it twice before, but did not remember that it
contained so many very fine pictures.

My heart sinks as I now see before me plants
and books, the relics of my beloved friend Davall,
who languished to see me in Switzerland,—as I do to
have you here,—and never had his wishes gratified:
yet I will hope; as Allerton is nearer than Orbe,

* The lines from Petrarch quoted in this letter were great
favourites of the writer of it; and he attempted to give them an
English dress, retaining their peculiar expression :

“‘ The crisped locks of pure refulgent gold,
The lambent lightning of the angelic smile,
That made on earth a paradise e’erwhile,
Are now: but senseless dust, beneath this marble cold,”

310

and you have promised. In the meantime, I am
eager to welcome Lorenzo to my library.
Allow me to subscribe myself
Your most obliged and affectionate Friend,

J. E. SMituH.

From Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Sir, Allerton, Aug. 28, 1803.

Amidst our frequent recollections of you at Al-
lerton, we had begun to feel some anxiety on your
account, which would by no means have been di-
minished, had we known that you had been career-
ing over the hills of Derbyshire on the top of a
coach. Your letter has arrived just in time to al-
leviate our apprehensions, and to add to the cheer-
fulness of our Sunday’s dinner, where you have as
many friends as we number individuals. In rejoic-
ing with you, as I most truly do, on your restoration
to domestic happiness, I feel however a selfish hope
that it may encourage you at no distant period to
pay another visit to Liverpool, and that you will
prevail on Mrs. Smith to accompany you. I had
almost begun to suspect that the cares of the world
or the lapse of years had blunted in me those feel-
ings and diminished that capacity of attachment
which in youth is so ardently experienced: but the
fortunate incident which introduced me to your ac-
quaintance has restored me toa better opinion of
myself; and however I may regret that we did not
meet sooner, I gratify myself in regarding you as a
friend of my early days but lately found; if indeed

311

I can be said lately to have found one whom I have
known so long in his writings, and to whom I have
been indebted for much pleasure and some improve-
ment.

Towards the beginning of October, our curator
Mr. Shepherd will, I presume, make his excursion to
look through the nurseries of London, and is highly
pleased with the thoughts of seeing you at Norwich
on his return. I believe no person living will re-
gard the sacred relics of Linneus with greater ve-
neration than this uneducated son of the art. We
have lately devoted a day to the examination of the
Pancratiums, Crinums, and Amaryllises, and have
found it a subject not without difficulty. I shall
only observe, that the plant which we saw at Lord
Derby’s, which is now in flower with me, and which
I called the Crinum americanum, is, 1 believe, the
C. latifolium of Linnzeus,—the Amaryllis latifolia
of L’Héritier,—which I mention only for the pur-
pose of correcting my own mistake.

Whilst debarred of your society, I shall enjoy the
prospect and possibility of seeing you for a few
days at Norwich, and extending still further those
attachments of which I find myself yet susceptible,
among those connexions and friends whom you
have already taught me to esteem.

And now, my dear Sir, I have only at present to
say, that if I thought our epistolary intercourse
were to close with the interchange of a letter, I
should be highly mortified. I well know the mul-
tiplicity of your avocations, and should be truly
sorry to intrude on them: nor am I in general a very

312

vigilant correspondent; yet I shall occasionally take
up my pen, if for no other purpose, to give you
some account of our proceedings here, and to ar-
range with you many things which we talked about
but left unfinished.
Believe me at all times
Your very affectionate and faithful Friend,
W. Roscoe.

Sir J. EB. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Sir, Norwich, September 23, 1803.

I am afraid you will begin to think me unworthy
of your wish that “ our correspondence should not
be limited to two letters.” If, however, you imagine
that this wish or any other kind expression in your
truly acceptable letter is not deeply and gratefully felt
by me, you do me injustice. Let me explain what
has prevented my writing sooner. Early in this
month we went to Yarmouth, and spent five days
with my friend Dawson Turner; he and I had
enough to do with our Mosses and Lichens, and I
had much to learn from him about German corre-
spondence; for he is so good as to relieve me from
the burthen of dealing with those indefatigable
writers and questioners, the German naturalists. He
is about printing a neat little book on the Mosses
of Ireland. We then visited my wife’s relations
at Lowestofft and Saxmundham, twenty-four miles
further in a very pleasant country, tame compared
with your noble scenes, but rich, woody, highly cul-
tivated, and in most seasons verdant,—though the

313

present summer has almost burnt up this whole
eastern country. Here was scarcely any rain from
April till the middle of September.

I could like, one day, to show you this very tour
we took; it would be new at least to you, and I
think you would find objects of amusement and cu-
riosity. The printer’s devil summoned me home,
and I am not yet out of his clutches with regard to
Flora Britannica,a sheet or two of which stands still
till I have made up my mind about some knotty
points respecting Mosses. You can hardly be aware
how much labour these little plants cost me, nor
what” obscurity there is among them; yet, when
carefully studied, they amply repay our care by their
beauty, the precision of most of their characters,
and the admirable exercise they afford to a syste-
matic mind. The difficulties are chiefly caused by
the inaccuracy of preceding writers. The Junger-
manme and Lichens, which I must next take in hand,
are in some instances more variable and uncertain ;
but I must get through them,—and then I think
all other botanical labours will comparatively be
repose. The sulphur-coloured Lichen I found on
your house is, as I thought, L. orostheus of Acharius,
never before noticed amongst us. I am particularly
pleased at having to quote Allerton for a new plant.

I shall soon begin eagerly to expect my friend
Shepherd. How welcome willa Liverpool face be to
me! Of Salices you know I promise him a harvest.
Is not your plant Crznwm erubescens ? C. latifolium
as figured in Rudbeck (copied, I believe, from Hort,
Malabar.) seems broader in leaves and _ petals.

314

Yours seems C\ erubescens of Redouté’s Plantes Li-
hacées,fasc. 5. Are not your flowers tinged exter-
nally with purple ? and sessile?

How gladly shall I cherish the hope of seeing you
and Mrs. Roscoe here! Drake is much flattered
by your mention of him. He is now reading your
Lorenzo, having just read Tenhove. He enters fully
into the subject, and reads with as much profit as
most young people: I perceive your character has
made a deep impression on his mind. You did not
perhaps observe that he was in tears almost all the
way to Prescot. I know not whether to regret that
age when éears of the mind so easily find vent at the
eyes; but I love to contemplate it in others. I am
anxious to hear how Mr. W. Roscoe’s health is : we
have just been admiring his “lily by moonlight.” I
think his youthful spirit aims at removing by exer-
tion what would most easily yield to repose and
care. Inflammatory disorders are never to be rubbed
off by neglect; they are the reverse of nervous or
low diseases, and much more rare.

Your ever affectionate Friend,

J. E. Smit.

Sir J. EF. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, October 6, 1803.
I did not think of writing to you just now; but
a melancholy event has just reached my knowledge
which you no doubt have heard already ; and on the
subject of which my first feelings seem inclined to
relieve themselves by having recourse to you.

315

My good and kind host, my oldest friend out of
my own family, is no more !* We were children to-
gether; and, in all our childish amusements, he,
being a year older than I, was always my instructor
and example. When he went to boarding-school, it
was the first real trial of my fortitude; and he was
my first correspondent. I used to dream night after
night that he was come home for the holidays; and
then a more impressive dream would tell me that
though the former were delusions, he was then cer-
tainly come. He then went to Liverpool ;—time,
new connexions and pursuits, made us less interested
in each other; but we had no other cause of estrange-
ment; we met occasionally in London with mutual
pleasure, though we had not so many ideas in com-
mon as heretofore. At length my fortunate visit to
Liverpool,—in the planning of which I found all the
original friendship and benevolence of his heart ex-
erted themselves as warmly for meas ever,—promised
the revival of our old attachment during our lives,
and I little expected that period would be so very
short. He was literally to me the “‘ recovered friend
of youth,” which you in so flattering and engaging
a manner imagine me to be to you. Is it not evi-
dent how warmly I accede to the adoption, when in
my present anxiety I recur to you for comfort, and
trust to you to bear with my tedious complainings,
as is the duty and pleasure of an o/d friend? We
parted for the last time at your door; you had wit-

* Mr. Thomas Taylor of Liverpool, brother to Mr. John
Taylor of Norwich (see above, page 100), and youngest grandson
of Dr. John Taylor, author of the Paraphrase on the Epistle to
the Romans, &c.

316

nessed his eagerness and anxiety to serve me; nor
can I ever forget his benevolent, unobtrusive, and
unostentatious hospitality,—his hearty welcome, the
freedom with which he told me all his concerns, and
the pleasure he took in recalling the events of our
youth. Even on subjects of mere amusement or
taste we had much to say, and he had a peculiarly
obliging attention to pursuits that were more exclu-
sively my own, because they were mine. His heart
was in no degree worse for living in the world, but
in some points I have thought it improved; this
might be owing to a slight cloud of ill success which
had but too often accompanied his path. He was
always more successful in serving others than him-
self. But I sincerely believe he had nothing to re-
gret on his death-bed. He never gave his friends a
pang while he lived; but many a tear of the purest,
most disinterested affection will be shed over his
grave. Excuse me, my good friend, for writing you
so unentertaining a letter; it is really for my own
pleasure rather than yours, and yet I will not con-
clude it without a piece of business, about which
I had it in contemplation to give you a line in a few
days. I forgot in my last to mention some direc-
tions for Mr. Shepherd your curator, when he gets
to London. If he will call at Sir Abraham Hume’s
in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, I will previously
give Lady Hume a letter, and I doubt not she will
show him her plants at Wormleybury, fifteen miles
north of London. He will find her extremely ready
to give or exchange plants. He ought also to see
Mr. George Hibbert’s garden at Clapham, and may

go and introduce himself there as my friend. He

317

is very rich in Cape plants, and you could help him
to West Indian ones. Mr. Woodford’s garden at
Vauxhall he ought by all means to see, and he will
need no introduction except telling who he is :—he
may make any use of my name.

Adieu, my dear friend! I shall think it long till I
see your handwriting. Remember me most kindly to
Mrs. Roscoe and all your family.

Believe me ever most truly yours,

J. E. Smitru.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

Primo giorno dell’ anno 1804.

Buon capo @ anno, Signore mio stimatissmo, ed
a vor e alla vostra carissima Signora Sposa !

How can I begin the present year better than by
addressing myself to you, from whose society and
friendship I have derived so much pleasure during
the past! The day is fine with us; a great part of
my young family are visiting their aunt in Liver-
pool. I have thrown aside my ponderous volumes
about the ambition of princes and the intrigues of
popes, to take a momentary retrospect of the past
year, in the most pleasant part of which I find you
occupy the principal station: you will therefore re-
gard this letter as wn pegno d’ amicizia, to be annu-
ally renewed. ‘To promise for our whole lives at
once would be improvident ; as it would deprive us
of that repetition which the ordinary course of Pro-
vidence may yet allow, and which I trust we shall
many times have occasion to employ.

318

A most violent effort to free myself from the
heavy task in which I am engaged, and the continual
pressure of business, with my journeys between Al-
lerton and Liverpool, have so devoured every mo-
ment of my time, that day by day has passed on till
the conclusion of the year, without my being able
to fulfill my wishes. I am now, however, deter-
mined to be somewhat more my own master. Since
you left Liverpool, I have copied and prepared for
the press as much as will compose my two first vo-
lumes. The remainder is in great forwardness, and if
I enjoy my health for a few months, will I hope be
completed. M’Creery begins to print with the new
year, and promises to proceed with great rapidity.
My arrangements are all made to my satisfaction,
and some time in the ensuing year I expect to make
my appearance before the public in the pompous
shape of four ample quartos. The labour of cor-
recting I consider as nothing in comparison with
that which I have had in the composition of this
work; and hence, though much remains to be done,
T find my mind lighter than it has been in the sur-
vey of the long and tedious road that lay before me.
You, who haveso often engaged in important literary
undertakings, will know how to sympathize with a
brother author in the enthusiasm of his pursuit, the
apprehensions of disappointment, the lassitude of
fatigue, and the cheering prospect of success, and
will easily perceive that as the barometer rises or
falls through these degrees, it constitutes the foul
or fair weather of human life.

If you will take the trouble to desire any friend of

319

yours in London to call on Messrs. Cadell and Da-
vies in your name, they will have directions to deliver
him a copy of a poem called “ The Press,” written
by my printer here, and published as a specimen of
typography, which for the excellence of its mecha-
nical execution, and the beauty of the engravings on
wood, will certainly gratify the eye, whatever may
be its effect on the understanding, about which I
-really believe the author himself is less anxious than
about the sharpness of his letter and the blackness
of his ink.

It would be heretical to conclude without a single
word about botanical pursuits. Two of our new
houses are completed and filled with plants, and the
other five will now soon be finished. Shepherd says
we may challenge all the kingdom in point both of
elegance and convenience. He desired that when I
wrote I would inform you that the Willows are
safely arrived, for which, in the name of my brethren
and myself, I beg to return you our best acknow-
ledgements.

We join in every kind wish to Mrs. Smith and
yourself.

Your very faithful Friend,
W. Roscoe.

I am highly delighted with your song: the two lines,
** Yon speck in night’s retiring veil,
None but a lover’s eyes could spy,”
are not excelled in poetry, feeling, and picturesque
truth, by any passage I know. If this be your first
attempt, you ought to exclaim, in the words of a

320

wicked Italian, in allusion to a very different sub-
ject,—

«‘ Piango perche di cio tardi un’ accorsi
- A cui dovea pit di buon ora attendere;”

and I hope you will endeavour to make up for your
lost time by producing other pieces of equal merit.*

* The editor is here tempted to give the entire song which
was thus mentioned by a partial friend.

SONG.

The morning o’er the ocean breaks,
The orient waves are liquid fire,

While William from the topmast seeks
All that his fondest hopes desire.

Yon speck in night’s retiring veil
None but a lover’s eyes could spy—

* Tis land! *tis England! messmates, hail!”
“Tis land!” the joyful crew reply.

“Oh Mary! is thy tender breast
Still to thy William fond and true,
As when we first our love confest ?
- As when with tears we bade adieu? ”

Propitious gales and swelling waves
To William faint and tardy seem—
But now the lab’ring ocean heaves,
And thunders roll and lightnings gleam.

And now the shatter’d bark no more
Resists the sweeping whirlwind’s sway ;
It shivers on its native shore,
And death and horror close the day.

But love survives the wasting storm ;
O’er William harmless thunders roll;

His Mary clasps his clay-cold form,
Her breath recalls his fleeting soul.

321
The following translation after Martial, from the
same hand, and in a different style, may possibly
not displease the reader.
Go mingle Arabia’s gums
With the spices all India yields ;

Go crop each young flower as it blooms;
Go ransack the gardens and fields.

Let Pzestum, so fragrant and gay,
Its roses profusely bestow;
Go catch the light breezes that play
Where the wild thyme and marjoram grow.

Let every pale night-scented flower,
Sad emblem of passion forlorn,
Resign its appropriate hour,
To enhance the rich breath of the morn.

All that art or that nature can find
Not half so delightful would prove,
Nor their sweets all together combined,
Half so sweet as the breath of my love.

Sir J. EF. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Sir, Norwich, January 16, 1804.

I congratulate you sincerely on beginning to
print your great work ; but I must not yet begin to
think of reading it,—that will serve to make me an-
ticipate zext winter with pleasure. I hope very soon
to bring out the third volume of my Flora; it is
small compared to your work, but the labour of the
Mosses was very great. I can scarcely hope that you
will find a moment to look at that part; I must be
content with the quiet approbation of half a score
hard-working Germans, and they will Iam sure see

VOL. II. Y

322

much to correct, even if they approve my congenial
plodding. As to systematic niceties, I scarcely know
any one that is competent, who will take the pains
to follow me. As to Columna, the Phytobasanos
is a mere curiosity, it being the first botanical book
ever printed with copper-plates ; but there is a mo-
dern edition of it nearly as useful. It is excessively
rare. The Eephrasis is inestimable for use, and
daily in my hands. It has never been republished.
I am, my dear Sir, yours, &c.
J. E. SMirH.

From the same.

My dear Friend, Norwich, November 5, 1804.

What a long time it is since I wrote to you! Your
letter is dated July 25th. Since that time we have
spent a month at Lowestofft with my wife’s relations,
and returned to enjoy the company of our amiable
friends and relations the Kindersleys. My mother
and all of us are looking forward to next summer.
May nothing happen to disappoint us! I am pre-
paring an entirely new course of lectures for London
and you. My Exotic Botany is to appear Dec. Ist.
I shall have the pleasure of dedicating it to you, if
you will allow me by that means tocommemorate our
friendship : though short, its growth has been vigo-
rous; and if there be some vanity in the wish that my
name may be associated with yours in some corner
of fame’s records, I hope it is a pardonable vanity.
Those more private ties which have bound us toge-

323

ther will at the last day atone for it. How does your
Leo go on? Mr. Johnes writes to me that his se-
cond volume of Froissart is already in London, the
third will be done by Christmas, and the fourth in
June: it is very entertaining. Pray do you take
the Annals of Botany, by Sims and Koenig? I think
it a useful and amusing publication, and mean to
send a paper to it, for the next number, (if it can be
admitted,) on the decandrous papilionaceous plants
of New Holland, which want clearing up, and I
flatter myself I have found a clue to them.
Believe me, my dear Sir,
Ever yours most affectionately,
J. E. Smita.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. EF. Smith.

My dear Sir, Liverpool, November 22, 1804.

A letter from a friend after a long silence affects
me with a feeling somewhat like returning home
after a long absence. Yours came, too, at such a time
that, if anything could have increased its value, cer-
tainly did so; as I received it from the hands of
Mrs. Martin on Thursday last, just after enjoying a
cheerful dinner with her and a family party of friends.
To have buried it coolly in my pocket for two or
three hours would have been a proof of more sto-
icism than I possess, and I therefore quitted the tea-
party to converse with you for a few minutes ¢é¢e-d-
téte, which I concluded by. resolving that I would
instantly thank you for the additional instances of
your remembrance and friendship which it contains.

Yeo

324

Such, however, is the rapid flight of time with me
at present, that some days have elapsed before I
could find ‘an opportunity of performing my rash
vow. I shall now, however, hold him by the fore-
lock till my engagement is performed.

Iam sure I need not tell you that all our Liver-
pool friends who have seen Mrs. Martin are charmed
with her. How, indeed, should it be otherwise? My
wife is delighted beyond measure, and I really be-
lieve will contrive to get her good opinion in return.
Surely no chemical affinity is stronger than that of
similar hearts; distance itself forms no bar to it,
as I fee] at this moment.

The honour which you so kindly propose to con-
fer on me on the publication of your Exotic Botany
ought to give me unqualified pleasure ;—to see our
names united must always do so. Yet I cannot
help feeling as if the world were turned upside-
down, and am sure that my name, instead of occu-
pying the top of the page, should be placed at the
bottom. I cannot, however, find in my heart to say
that if you can put a face upon it, I shall not be
highly gratified, and shall endeavour to hold up my
head as well as I can during the remainder of my
days.

_ Mr. Shepherd sent Lady Hume a few plants about
two months ago. I have since heard from her, with
a specimen of the wmea, which I think well de-
serves the name of e/egans, in reference both to the
plant and its patroness. You will, I am sure, rejoice
with me, when I tell you that Leo is now in the
latter part of the fourth volume, and will yet, I hope,

z 325

be nearly finished by the time I proposed,—the end
of the year; such anexertion has seldom been made
by a printer, as you will say when you sce these pon-
derous tomes.

You will begin to think that when I once told you
that I was a bad correspondent, I was acting the
part of a coquette, who pretends to be shy of her
favours only that they may be more highly valued ;
but however bountiful you may think I have been
of late, I must beg you to present my love to Mrs.
Smith, and tell her in return I transmit my wife’s
love to you. And now, my dear friend, let me se-
riously tell you that I love you both better than I
once thought it would ever have been my lot to have
loved again; and that the friendship which I have
been so happy as to form with you (for I will not
call it acquaintance,) will always be numbered
among the most fortunate events in the life of

Your ever affectionate and faithful Servant,

W. Roscoe.

From the same.

My dear Sir, Allerton, May 26, 1805.

I have long intended to write to you, but have
been prevented by a continual succession of un-
avoidable occupation and bodily indisposition, and
sometimes by the junction of both.

Leo’s reckoning is now made, and he must be
sent to his account with all his imperfections. In
the course of a few days after this comes to hand,
you will receive a copy, which from its size would

326

terrify a man of much less occupation than your-
self, and which you will naturally lay aside till you
can muster courage and find time to make so for-
midable an attack. Of the reception of this work,
I am in many respects doubtful ; but I do not suffer
my apprehensions to render me miserable. I have
taken all the pains in my power to make it desery-
ing of the public notice, and have endeavoured to
express the peculiar opinions which it may contain
with decency, though with freedom. If all this will
not do, I cannot help it ; nor would I alter or sup-
press those opinions to obviate censure or obtain
applause. In one place or another I have found an
opportunity of expressing my sentiments on the
great subjects of politics, morals, religion, and taste,
as well as on a variety of inferior topics, which I
hope are not impertinently introduced ; and by these
sentiments I am content to be judged of as long as
my book may continue to be read.

Be assured, my dear friend, that I look forward
to our meeting again at Allerton with a satisfaction
that I should find it difficult to express. Let me
hear from you soon, and believe me ever affection-

ately and truly yours,
W. Roscoe.

Sin OE Wisi les (UA Re ere).

My dear Friend, Norwich, October 12, 1805.
I send you a budget about the Plante Scitaminee,
which will, I hope, be of some use and amusement
to you. May you feel as much pleasure in studying

327

it for my sake, as I have had in preparing it for
yours !

We had a good journey ; and at Cambridge saw
the famous Ceres. Ely and its fine cathedral de-
tained us two or three hours. The tower is noble,
and the west front as sharp and perfect as if just
now finished. The chapels are beyond any thing
for rich carving.

Inclosed are two pods of Vanilla, picked up in
some shop when I was in Italy ;—you will find their
perfume still very powerful.

We saw Raphael's picture at Okeover ; ’tis an un-
doubted original ;—the countenances fine, colour-
ing dark (perhaps changed), some parts incorrect
in drawing. What I most wondered at is the exqui-
site effect of the bed-clothes and pillow of the cra-
dle, equal to any Dutch picture, yet not laboured in
the same way. It is one of those Holy Families of
which Raphael at one time painted many, before he
arrived at his last historical perfection.

My Exotic Botany has been much more fortu-
nate in Baldwin’s Literary Journal than your Leo ;
you know the fable of the Oak and the Bramble.

Pray remember us most kindly to Mrs. Roscoe
and all your beloved children. I flatter myself I shall
always have an interest in their hearts.

I know not how to finish my letter, for it seems
like taking leave again. Let us lessen the distance
between us as much as possible by correspondence.

Colonel Hardwicke comes to us on Tuesday for
three or four days.

I am always, my dear Sir, with the truest esteem,

Yours, J. E. Situ.

328

Dr. Bostock to Sir J. £. Smith.

Dear Sir, Liverpool, January 26, 1806.

I thank you for your letter containing the speci-
mens of native Camphor. At present the nature of
the substance appears to me quite incomprehensi-
ble. I have not yet performed all the experiments
upon it that I propose to do. You will be happy
to hear that our worthy friend Shepherd is well, and
continues his exertions, with his usual success, in
the garden. Even since you left us we have got
some considerable additions to our collection. It
would, I am confident, give you great concern to
observe the unprincipled attack which is made upon
Leo X. in the Critical Review,—not that it will af-
fect the equanimity, or perhaps the reputation of
the author; but it is painful to observe that such a
spirit of illiberality can be sanctioned, by being ad-
mitted into the pages of one of our most popular
periodical works. Surely the writer must be a
stranger to our friend; it would be impossible for
any one who knew him to treat him so ungene-
rously.

Believe me your faithful Friend,
J. Bostock.

Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Sir, Norwich, April 2, 1806.
I hope you have not been uneasy for the fate of
your Essay on Monandrian Plants. I now sit down
to thank you for your letter of the Ist of March,

329

and to tell you what I have done to your paper. I
should not be worthy of your friendship if I did not
execute my trust faithfully. First, then, you may be
assured, as far as I have any judgement, (and I have
been privy to. many a consultation with Dryander
about these plants,) that your paper, both in its aim
and execution, will do you great honouras a botanist,
and render a material piece of service to the science.
No one before you has given any plausible account of
these genera, as you well know. Your treatise is a
plain, clear, unaffected discourse. Perhaps I was, at
first reading it, disappointed that yow had not made
something more of it in the way of composition, with
respect to ornament or episode, because I know that
you are one of the few, who, with real science, could
have done so. But this might have been “ soaring
above the path of true simplicity,” and the more I
read your paper, the less I feel any want of such
adventitious merits :—I only mention all that has
occurred to my mind. The leading qualities of
these plants, their beauty, their fragrance, their
affinity or resemblance to Palms or Orchidee,
whether real or supposed, the hot and moist climates
which they ide a things might have been
alluded to. should ayy however, regret that
scarcely any ae pen than yours had passed them
over.

You and I may congratulate one another on our
good-humoured critics. I have composed a new
introductory lecture for the Royai Institution. It
will refute Salisbury, and yet not honour him with
apparent notice. I think your critic an angel (or at

330

least only a ¢awny devil,) compared with mine ; yet
I have been so forgiving as to make a motto for his
Paradisus.

What malice lurks beneath this fair disguise !

The devil again in paradise tells lies !

But now, how plausible soe’er his tale is,

We always take his words cum grano salis.

So, my dear friend, as we are both got to the devil,
we can be no worse, and may as well enjoy all that
this world still affords us; which that we may long
do is the prayer of your affectionate Friend,

J. E. Smiru.

From the same.

My dear Friend, Blackheath, June 2, 1806.

Your paper was highly approved by everybody.
Dryander (no complimenter,) was excited by it to
take up the subject afresh; and he and I went care-
fully over your whole paper, turning to references,
specimens, &c. J have already received the highest
compliment possible from Aiton and Lambert, who,
on hearing your paper, conceived that you could
scarcely have had knowledge or materials to com-
pose it, and that J must have written it !—See what
it is to havea name! I certainly could not have
written it. I have satisfied them with the real truth,
and Dryander also. With this view I purposely let
him read over your original MS., and see all my
scratches and alterations, which being so few, and
chiefly about technical matters, could do you no
discredit. I wish you, therefore, carefully to pre-

331

serve this original manuscript as it is; it had best be
printed from this present copy, which must then be
preserved in the archives of our Linnzan Society.

J. E. Smiru.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Friend, Allerton, October 5, 1806.

By an omission of the bookseller’s it was not till
yesterday that I got a sight of the Exotic Botany for
September, and had the pleasure of seeing the fine
plant figured, to which you have done me the great
and unmerited honour of annexing my name.

I have accurately examined your delineation and
description, and certainly think it a good genus. It
is most nearly allied to Hedychium ; and if, accord-
ing to the system which I have attempted to lay
down, I cannot admit that the irregularity of the
exterior limb of the corolla affords a genuine distinc-
tion, yet the very singularly curved anthera, with its
two appendages, is amply sufficient to establish it as
a genus; which the irregularity of the corolla may
be allowed toconfirm. To AKempferia its affinity is
merely in its exterior appearance ; in its botanical
characters it is wholly distinct. I therefore flatter
myself that this nymph of the Asiatic mountains
will, like a faithful spouse, retain the name which
you have imposed upon her; and not, like too
many of her sisterhood, elope to some more fa-

voured admirer.
W. Roscoe.

332

Stir J. EF. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, Oct. 16, 1806.

* * * * * * * *
I am glad you assent to the character of Roscoea ;
but please to observe the irregularity of the corolla
is no less essential than the form of the filament,
&c. We must never confine our essential characters
to one part of the fructification, though one part
may give the leading mark. Corréa has an idea
that in every natural order there are one or more
genera with an irregular flower, and one or more
with a regular one. Since I heard this I have kept
it in view, and have seen much to confirm it; yet I
cannot think of a regular flower among the Legu-
minosé, nor of an irregular one in the Caryophyllee;
but some may occur.

Sazxifraga sarmentosa is the irregular flower in
its natural order, and surely a distinct genus from
Sarifraga. So Celsia differs from Verbascum, I
think essentially. derzs is the irregular flower in
its order, where one would least expect to find any.

I have got a copy of Sir Joseph Banks’s sketch,
made in his voyage, of the HuraSzamensium, which,
with the description in Retzius, are all we have to
know that plant by. It is a Globba, with two lobes
of the corolla hoisted up half way of the filament !

So parliament is dissolved! I hope we shall have

no opposition for Norwich.
J. E. Smiru.

333

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. EF. Smith.

My dear Friend, Nov. 8, 1806.

As it will cost you nothing, I write you a line to
say that I have this day been returned as one of the
members for Liverpool, by a majority over both the
other candidates. A fortnight ago I should as soon
have thought of being the Great Mogul.

Present my kind remembrances to Mrs. Smith,
who will rejoice with me on this occasion ; and
believe me, my dear Friend, at all times most truly
yours,

W. Roscoe.

Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, Nov. 11, 1806.

You are beforehand with me; for it was my in-
tention to have written by this post to congratulate
you on the event of which the newspaper today
gave us the first certain intelligence ; but the hopes
and fears belonging to it have occupied our minds
ever since the first mention of your nomination.
After a long and very pleasant country walk this
fine day, I found your letter on my table. How
kind and flattering was it of you to write to me the
very day, when you must have been so busy, so agi-
tated, and fatigued! Your letter, and especially
your first frank, will be kept by me as relics. My
, brother and sister Martin have been very good in
writing frequently concerning the state of the poll,

334

and all the circumstances of this “ almost painfully
interesting event,” as she justly termed it while it
was in suspense; and this day brought my wife a
most delightful letter from her*. Yet I assure you
all this intelligence was by no means equal to our
anxiety. What with telling and inquiring, and
seeking every day and almost every hour for the
most probable, authentic newspapers, where we
might find the poll or any mention of you, my house
has been turned topsy-turvy. Now we have enough
to do to give and receive congratulations. No -
other event than this could have consoled us in any
degree for the loss of Mr. Wm. Smith. He, good
man! bears it with the equanimity and dignity
worthy of himself.

But, my dear Friend, your election seems like a
dream. I say frequently to myself, “ Can this be ?”
and during the contest I have endeavoured to think

* Inclosing the following lines, written by Mrs. Martin,

On the Election of Mr. Roscoe for Liverpool.

Unstain’d is the glory of him, who, elected
By the voice of the people, with honour is crown’d ;
The oak shall wave o’er him, the rose shall bedeck him,
And the loudest applauses be echoed around.

From Arno’s sweet vale with the Muses retiring,
Where Painting and Poetry hail’d him their son ;

Now greater his glory, midst senates haranguing,
To plead for humanity’s cause as his own,

Give the shout, O his townsmen! o’er France let it echo;
Through the valleys of Tuscany loud let it roll ;

But soft let it float o’er the far-spreading waters,
And whisper sweet peace to the 4frican’s soul.

335

I should be satisfied if you had but a respectable
poll, and merely by the influence of what I scarcely
thought this bad world could feel and value in any
just degree :—this is beyond all hope! Yet all my
joy, and even my affectionate feelings towards you
personally, are absorbed in one consideration, too
awful and transcendently important to be mixed
with any other,—I mean the effect of this blessed
event upon the fate of thousands, nay millions of
happy Africans! Generations will succeed one
another in peace and tranquillity, who will never
know your name, indeed, but it will be treasured in

‘The bosom of their Father and their God.”

I feel that nothing could give so decisive a blow to
the slave-trade,—such a public avowal that even
Liverpool can do better without it, as the choice of
you, the open and powerful enemy of that trade, to
be the guardian of the interests of the town which
is supposed to live by it! If ten righteous persons
could have saved a town from destruction, surely
1157 will wipe away all reproach; and the rest of
the nation will be ashamed to countenance this
national sin any longer.

How deeply do we enter into the sensations of
all your family on this occasion! I trust the sacri-
fices which must in some degree be made of domes-
tic tranquillity, will be compensated by the unli-
mited increase of genuine honour and respect with
which you will be surrounded, and the extended
value of even your existence. I look far beyond
the present moment, and I see one or more of your

336

sons trained up to be your colleagues and succes-
sors. if Shenstone could see in a village school,

* A little bench of heedless bishops here,—
And there a chancellor in embryo,”

so can I see in my friend Mr. Henry, chaired (as
doubtless he now is,) round the gardens at Aller-
ton, the embryo of what his father is now be-
come.

I know not whether your chairing is like ours
at Norwich,—but when the poles of the chair are
tossed, as they often are, out of the bearers’ hands,
and the candidate, with his limbs sprawling and coat
flying, gives somewhat of the idea of a frog or a
kitten thrown from one unlucky hoy to another, I
have been reminded of what Sir Thomas Brown
says on another occasion; “ There is nothing that
will more deject a man’s cooled imagination, when
he shall consider what an odd and unworthy piece
of folly he hath committed.” But it seems your
triumphant progress was majestic and graceful in
the highest degree,—at least so I hear from an eye-
witness.

Among all my selfish joys on this occasion, one,
not the least, is the hope of meeting you, and per-
haps Mrs. Roscoe, &c. in London in the spring.
Forgive me for intruding so long on your time, but
really I want to say much more. ‘This free postage
will cost you many a minute; but your friends
must learn discretion by degrees. .

All who know you here join in most heartfelt
congratulations. Present them for us to Mrs. Ros-

337
coe and all your family; and believe me ever, my
dear Sir,
Your affectionate and devoted Friend,
J. E. Smiru.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Friend, Allerton, June 25, 1807.

I have for some time past rejoiced in the thought
that I am likely to see you in Lancashire in the
course of the present summer. I already anticipate
the happiness I shall have in your society at Aller-
ton, where I must at least claim some portion of
your time, and where I shall be delighted to stroll
and saunter with you through the fields in an even-
ing, instead of being locked up balloting for com-
mittees in St. Stephen’s. In truth, my dear friend,
it requires but little of the efforts of others to drive
me from public life. The only wonder is, that I
was ever brought into it; and I sink back with such
a rapidity of gravitation into my natural inclination
for quiet and retirement, that I totally despair of
ever being roused again to a similar exertion. Add
to this, that the one great object which was con-
tinually before my eyes is now attained, andI shall
have the perpetual gratification of thinking that I
gave my vote in the assembly of the nation for
abolishing the slave-trade to Africa. Though not
insensible to the state of the country, yet I see no
question of equal magnitude; and am fully aware
how little my efforts could avail in the political

VOL. If. Z

338

struggles of the times. Come then, my friend, and
let us again open the book of Nature, and wander
through the fields of Science. Your presence will
increase my reviving relish for botanical pursuits ;
and when we are tired with those subjects, we will
call in the aid of the poets and philosophers to vary
our entertainment. .

Pray have you seen Mr. Wordsworth’s new poems ?
Whatever things are whimsical, whatever things
are childish, whatever things are odd,—these, and
many other things, are to be found in these vo-
lumes: but after all I like them, and listen to him
with a pleasure something like that of an infant to
the prattle of an old nurse. They are to be read
in listlessness and leisure, like that in which they
seem to have been written; and if you can bring
your mind to the proper tone, depend upon it you
will not find an hour or two misemployed in their
perusal.

Let me have the pleasure of hearing from you as
soon as possible, and believe me ever most truly
and affectionately

Yours,
W. Roscoe.

Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscce.

My dear Friend, Norwich, July 4, 1807.
After all the agitation and anxiety of mind which
I have felt for some weeks past on your account,
how delightful is it to find, by your most welcome

339

and interesting letter of the 25th of June, that you
still possess yourself in undisturbed tranquillity ;
not like a reed that has bent before the storm, but
like a palm-tree, around whose polished and up-
right stem the winds have whistled, without ruf-
fling the lofty honours of its head! Such a plant
can no more be nursed in St. Stephen’s chapel,
than the Norfolk Island pine, 250 feet high, in
any of our stoves. You are now in your proper
element, and very long may you continue so! The
world is not worthy of you, “ nor the world’s law.”
The line of conduct you have pursued secures you
from regret, and I trust you will soon look back
on all that is past with no less satisfaction, on every
account, than self-approbation. I wished it rather
for your triumph than your happiness; and really
triumphs of any kind are worth but little :—“ One
self-approving hour,” &c.—you know the rest,
and that a good man has, independent of tri-
umphs founded on the accidental justice of the
world.
Believe me ever, my dear Sir,
Most affectionately,
Your faithful Friend and Servant,
J. E. Smiru.

Sip Ee Sihith té Mr. Bosese:

My dear Friend, Norwich, Nov. 2, 1807.

What a long while I have been without acknow-
ledging your kind and very interesting letter of
z2

340

invitation! IT want to talk to you about many
things. Lmprimis, I want to know your Canne ;
for I wish to write a paper on the species of Sci-
taminee, following you as your humble squire,
‘“‘haud passibus zquis ;” and it is highly desirable
I should not be distanced out of sight of my leader
at the very first steps of my course. If you cannot
help me to specimens, figures, or synonyms of your
species of Canneé made out of C. indica, I must
leave that section, and write only on true Scttami-
nee, Which I should not much regret, as I have
some difficult new plants of the Canna section.

I this day sent a botanico-physiological paper to
the Linnean Society, on the germination of seeds,
disproving the vitedlus of Gzertner, which seems to
me only a subterraneous cotyledon, and correcting
many things respecting monocotyledonous plants,
so called, asthe quakers say. I like it better than
many things I have done; but whether the half-
dozen people who can judge of it will like it as
well, may be doubtful. Do you agree with my rule
about shall and will in the Atheneum for Octo-
ber*? :

I hope very soon to send you my Introduction to
Botany, on which I shall most earnestly request

* In reply to the inquiry in this letter concerning the use of
shall and nill, Mr. Roscoe tells Sir James that he has read with
great pleasure his grammatical paper, and is much inclined to
agree with him. ‘ Of this,” he says, ‘‘I am sure that it has thrown
more light on the subject than anything I have before met with ;
and till a greater prophet arises, you may reckon on me as one
of your disciples.”

BA,

your friendly opinion, corrections, and advice. Many
parts of it are but sketches, and many perhaps
wrong ; but I hope it will promote the study. Some
parts are new and original. I am about the Pro-
dromus Flore Grece. You would hardly think that
I can scarcely do more than ten or twelve species in
that work in a whole morning from ten o’clock till
three.

I heard a curious anecdote today from indubi-
table authority. At the conference at Tilsit, the
King of Prussia, who, it seems, is a beau, had a pair
of long pantaloons. Buonaparte said, “If your
majesty puts on those yourself, it must be very
troublesome. Pray do you begin buttoning them
at the top or bottom?” He told the Queen, “ he
was too old to be influenced by her beaux yeux ;”
which, it seems, the Emperor of Russia does not
find so innocent. Adieu, my dear Sir.

Believe me ever your affectionate

J. E. Smiru.

Sar J. EL. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

Hall Place, near Maidenhead, June 12, 1810.
My dear Friend,

Tired with the bustle of town,—suffocated and
sleepless with the smoke and east wind,—I am come
here for a few days to breathe and sleep, and to
enjoy the society of some valuable old friends in
their antique spacious mansion, amid vast avenues

72
of limes, beech woods, abounding with rare Or-
chidee, and a most beautiful surrounding country.
How can I bestow some of my leisure better than
in chatting with you, in reply to your kind letter of
the 2I1st of April? I wish you could know Sir
William* and Lady East, with whom I now am. I
think we have mentioned them to you before; at
least we have made ¢hem well acquainted with yoz
by report. I am going with Lady East in search
of Monotropa Hypopitys, which I never yet saw
growing, but which I hear grows in the woods at
Bisham Abbey hard by, where the unfortunate Plan-
tagenets lie buried. Among them are the famous
Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, and the last Earl,
who died young in the Tower. There are no mo-
numents of them. The Abbey is now a house, in-
habited by Mr. Vansittart, whose charming daughter
married Mr. Augustus East, a son of my friend's.
They are now here, and we all botanize together in
the fields or gardens.

I rejoice to hear of your intended botanical paper,
which I presume relates to natural systems, and to
Jussieu’s especially. You threw out some excellent
hints once, which I have often regretted I did not
put down at the time. I am very anxious you
should pursue the subject: you will no doubt treat
Jussieu with the candour and respect he so highly
deserves. I hada letter from him lately, and an-
swered it. He is a very worthy, amiable character,
and I would not hurt him, though he in conversa-

* A letter from this estimable friend is inserted page 108.

343

tion calls the Linnzan system /ése nature. I hope
you agree with me as to the name of Linnzus,—see
two or three last Monthly Magazines*. Jussieu in
his French letter writes Linneus ; so do all the
French now.

Believe me, with best respects -to Mrs. Roscoe
and all your family, very affectionately yours,

J. E. Smita.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Friend, Allerton, Jan. 2, 1811.

I have been so long without hearing from you,
that I have at length brought down my obstinate
hand to the paper, from an irresistible desire of
knowing how you are, what you are doing, and
when I may hope for the pleasure of seeing you
once more in this part of England. For my own
part, I have been kept in the house nearly three
weeks by indisposition, from which I am now pretty
well recovered. This twilight of convalescence is
an excellent season for turning one’s mind to fa-
vourite studies and amusements; and when these
happen to be intermixed with sentiments of affec-
tion and friendship, they afford a better restorative
than most that the pharmacopeeia can supply. Since
I last wrote to you (I believe) we have made a pur-
chase of the late Col. Velley’s most beautiful col-
lection of plants, including not only his marine
specimens, but many others, all of which are pre-

* For the letter here mentioned see Appendix.

344

served in the most exquisite and perfect manner.
I mention this, that it may be an additional induce-
ment to you to hasten your visit, though I fear that
if the living claims we have upon you be insufficient,
we shall have little chance from any inanimate at-
tractions.

Be so good as to tell me whether you have yet
fired off my Congreve rocket against the French
botanists. I hope not, as I think I could put some
more combustibles into it. In particular, I think
the distinction between a natural and an artificial
system might be more fully explained. In other
respects I have no objection to give them a broad-
side, and wish you could prevail upon both nations
to confine their animosities within such harmless
limits ; but the business of cutting throats must go
on, and seems even to be considered not as an ac-
cidental, but as a permanent state of society.

I presume you have seen the fine numbers of the
Flore Portugaise of Count Hoftmansegg, in which
I find honourable mention of you, and your works
generally quoted. The Count’s system affords an-
other instance of the necessity of adhering to some
established plan of arrangement, otherwise it will
soon be impossible for those who cultivate the sci-
ence to understand each other. His system is
founded on that of Jussieu, but with such altera-
tions as render it even worse for common use, or
rather wholly impracticable, the primary distinctions
being founded on the dessa cellulaire of the plant.
Such of them as are formed upon the plan he ap-
proves of, he calls perfect plants ; and such as have

345

their cellular membranes diferent or indistinct, he
calls imperfect plants; and his perfect plants are
again subdivided by their cotyledons, but somewhat
different from Jussieu, as he calls the dicotyledonous
plants of Jussieu plantes cotyledonées; and the mo-
nocotyledonous, plantes acoty yledonées. This is al-
together so new, and so microscopic, and so difficult,
that I doubt not but it will be very gencrally adopted,
and that instead of quoting Linn. or Juss. we shall
shortly cite Hoffm., unless some great reformer
should start up and pu him out of fashion.

Ihave not been idle of late, having been employed
in devising a mode of putting an effectual end to the
African slave trade, as at present

** We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it.”

Tam also looking into the state of the arts during
the middle ages, for a memoir of which I have good
materials.

-W. Roscoe.

Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, Sept. 7, 1812.

Be not alarmed at seeing a letter from me so
soon after my last. We have been spending ten
days at Holkham, and I write now at the earnest
desire of Mr. Coke, to try to persuade you to come
and see him and us. He says you have given him
some hopes, but have as yet only disappointed him.
Now I can conceive nothing more delightful than

\)

346

spending a fortnight with you under his roof, and
have promised him to do so whenever you come.
To contemplate his pictures and statues, to rum-
mage among his books, drawings, manuscripts, and
prints, (where we every day find treasures unknown
before,) is extremely agreeable, and he kindly en-
trusts all his keys to me in full confidence. I found
a case of the earliest printed books, which no one
had examined since the time of his great-uncle Lord
Leicester. Such MSS. of Dante, drawings of the
old Italian masters, treasures of European history,
—you have no idea! The house is one of the finest
in Europe, and its riches are inexhaustible. But
of all things its owner is the best worth your seeing
and knowing. He is so amiable, with all the jst
gloss of human affection and feeling upon his heart;
so devoid of all selfishness that, with the early and
constant prosperity he has experienced, his cha-
racter is next toa miracle; and he has such an
agreeable liveliness and playfulness of manners, that
nobody is more entertaining. You would exactly
suit in all your ideas of men and things. Do give
me some hopes that you will come over this autumn
with Mrs. Roscoe or some of your family. We
will meet at Holkham; and if you can descend
(without breaking your neck) to our “low estate,”
we will strive to rival even Holkham in the hearti-
ness of our welcome. I shall show you the Lin-
nean reliques, and we shall consult you about a
new botanic garden now projecting. Do, my dear
friend, think of all this;—but do not let it be in

347

frost and snow. I was laid up there last December
by a cold caught in going.
Ever most affectionately yours,
J. E. Smirn.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Friend, Allerton, Sept. 13, 1812.

I ordered a Liverpool Mercury to be sent you
yesterday, by which you will see we have been
giving a splendid dinner to Mr. Brougham, at which
several of your friends took an active part. The
lords present all spoke with great spirit, and the
reading of the letters from the principal members
of both houses went off extremely well. On the
whole this meeting will do some good, and tend to
draw closer that connexion between the commercial
and manufacturing interests and the nobility and
great proprietors of land, which is become essential
not only to the prosperity, but the safety of the
country.

And now, my dear friend, for your last letter.

*‘ So cunning was the apparatus,
The powerful pothooks did so move him,

That, will he, nill he, to the great house
He went as if the devil drove him.”

It would not, however, be so much for the sake of
the great house, nor for all it contains, though no-
thing in its way could be more attractive, that I
should wish to visit Holkham. It would be with
the view of paying my respects to its excellent and

348

distinguished owner, and of meeting you under his
roof,—temptations which I feel I shall hardly be
able to resist. At present, however, I cannot speak
very decisively. Neither my wife nor myself are at
present very well; and when I shall be able to ven-
ture abroad so far before winter I really dare not
say. Mrs. R. and I ought to have gone to Hafod
this year; but the same causes rendered it impos-
sible. In the mean time be assured, my dear friend,
that nothing upon earth could afford me a greater
treat, and I shall consider it as a misfortune if I
should not be able to meet you.
Your ever affectionate Friend,

W. Roscoe.

Sir J. EF. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

Norwich, Oct. 26, 1812.
Ah! my dear friend, the vision which I ventured
to contemplate was too bright to be realized! Yet
your letter almost tempts me to hope,

* Though hope were lost.”

As to this disappointment, yow may well bear it,
because you know not what it is. "Tis not the
enjoyments of taste, literature, luxury, and novelty
that I lament,—it is the losing the pleasure of see-
ing you beloved by so excellent a creature, so con-
genial to you. You would each find a mime of hap-
piness of which you know scarcely anything. Mr.
Coke is out of the sight and conception of the
world in general; and I can give you no higher

349

proof of my esteem and affection for yourself than
by speaking of him to you without reserve.-—How
well did he express his own character the other day
when he said he “dreaded nothing so much as
self. Self is the worst tyrant in the world.” Mr.
Coke is, I think, one of the most gracefully kind
and benevolent men, to all in their proper places,
that I ever saw.

As to politics, mankind, farming, pictures, you
and he would never fail of conversation ; but these
are smaller matters.

My friend Mr. Fountaine of Narford, (another
fine house,) has numerous Italian manuscripts,
copied at Florence for his ancestor Sir Andrew
Fountaine, by permission of Cosmo III. These he
offers to your entire “use and behoof.” We are
also to look over his Raphael ware, the finest except
at Loretto. See my Tour,—Loretto.

You see hope will revive in my breast ;—do not
blast it again. Our Bishop you must come and
admire: I fear he goes to town before the spring :
he is here zow, alas! You will smile at this letter,
and some would think me stark mad;—if so, God
grant I may never be cured! Let me hear from
you. I have fifty things more to say; but for the
present, Adieu. ™

Yours ever and ever,

J. E. SmMiru.

350

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

Allerton, February 27, 1813.
My ever dear Friend,

* * * * * * *

I have lately done something towards a catalogue
of my pictures, drawings, prints, &c., which are be-
come much more numerous since you saw them,
and which I promise myself great pleasure in sub-
mitting at no distant period to your examination
and criticism. Amongst the pictures is the portrait
of Leo X. with the Cardinals de Rossi and Giulio di
Medici, which I have been assured by many per-
sons is the celebrated copy of Andrea del Sarto
which was sent as the original of Raffaelle to the
Duke of Mantua. From Mantua it went to Parma,
and was thence transferred with the rest of the col-
lection to Capo di Monte near Naples *. You may
probably have seen it there in the year 1787, al-
though you do not mention it in your Travels ; and
when you see it again, will perhaps be able to clear
up my conjectures. That the picture was carried off
from Capo di Monte several years since is certain;
and as I can hear no account of it from any quarter,
and have been told by several persons that mine
appears to be in every respect a perfect resemblance
of the picture of Raffaelle now in the Louvre, I flatter
myself with the probability of its being the copy of
Andrea, at the sight of which Giulio Romano was

* This picture was purchased by Mr. Coke, and is now at
Holkham.

351

deceived; and on being assured it was a copy, de-
clared that he did not value it less than the work of
Raffaelle himself.

Throughout the whole of my troublesome com-
plaint I have had many sleepless hours by night, in
some of which I strung verses together, which I
wrote down in the morning,—of these I senda spe-
cimen, which I beg you to present to Mrs. Smith,
with my kind remembrances :—should she approve
of them, she will perhaps do me the favour of send-
ing a copy to Miss Coke. I long to hear from you
again, and am at all times, my dear Friend, most af-

fectionately yours,
W. Roscoe.

SONG

On the Ball given by the Friends of Mr. Brougham and Mr.
Creevey. Liverpool, November 1812.

The fair face of morning when sudden clouds cover,
And tempests and darkness envelope the day,
Shall the gloom of the moment deter the true lover
Who hastes to the home of his mistress away ?

When heaved from its base proudly swells the vext ocean,
And danger rides high on the crest of the wave,
Undaunted the mariner views the commotion,
And bares his bold bosom the sea-storm to brave.

Then say, shall the Patriot e’er prove a recoiler ?

Shall the champion of freedom e’er stoop to despair ?
Shall he basely resign to the hands of the spoiler

The prize that high Heaven has consign’d to his care ?

No! still to his task with fresh vigour returning,
He shall wage the bold war with corruption again,

As the lion, that, roused by the beam of the morning,
Shakes off the slight dew-drops that hang on his mane.

352

If he falls—like the warrior he falls on his duty,
Whilst his country shall hail him and angels approve;
If he conquers—he wins from the bright hand of beauty
The wreath wove by Liberty, Friendship, and Love.

Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, March 21, 1813.

I heartily wish I could see your pictures or any
thing that belongs to you; but this year you must
be Mahomet, and J the mountain,—another year
we will try to reverse the matter. I have no recol-
lection of the picture you mention at Capo di
Monte: that collection was in such dirt and confu-
sion (all on the floor) that we saw it to disadvantage.
Pray is the white speck (indicating light) on the
pupil of the eyes? Andrea del Sarto I think never
put it;—but he might, perhaps, iz copying. Lady
Rockingham had a fine Cornelius Jansen without
that speck. Is it usually omitted by him ?

My wife answers for Miss Coke, and sends you
in return what, I think, is not unworthy even of your
verses; because, like them, it is an effusion of a
good heart. I subjoin an epigram on Holkham,
which was sure of pleasing my fair young friend,
who is worthy of her father,—I need say no more
for her.

Leicester, high priest of fortune and of taste,
Raised fairy scenes amid the desert waste :—

Holkham’s chief grace owns not his magic rod ;
“ An honest man’s the noblest work of God.”

J. E. Smiru.

353

Sigh. Seaith to Mr. Boscoe:

My dear Friend, Norwich, October 3, 1814.

I had intended writing to you a few days since,
but many things have prevented me. I hope I am
still time enough for the main purpose of my letter,
which is to make another attempt, at the desire of
Mr. Coke, to induce you to visit Holkham. We
have spent a delightful fortnight there lately, and
two hours almost every day were devoted to an
examination of the manuscripts. I am going there
on Monday with our good Bishop, for a few days,
for the express purpose of looking further into
these treasures, and if you could join us, you would
complete the joy of the whole party.

I must tell you a part of our discoveries :—besides
beautifully illuminated MSS. on vellum, of many of
the Latin classics; a most exquisite Boccaccio; a
very old and fine Dante ; a Chronique d’Hénault, in
two immense folios, richly illuminated; and other
things of that kind ;—there is a very valuable col-
lection of historical Italian MSS., fairly copied at
Florence, Venice, &c., for Lord Leicester; they are
partial or local chronicles, memoirs, &c., very curious.
Among others is a complete copy of Burchard’s
Diary. This delectable treasure will surely tempt
you of itself. I think you knew nothing of it but
what Gordon has printed:—am I right in this?
There is one ovtginal monastic chronicle, itself of
the date of 1300 or 1400. There are also many
things which we want you to tell us the value of.

VOL. Il. 2A

354

The printed books are inestimable in value and
number.

How many things have I to talk over with you,
and not a few to show you, before we go to Holk-
ham! You must contrive not to limit your time ;
you have found it difficult to get to that charming
place, but you have no idea how difficult it is to get
away. Yours, &c.,

J. E. Smiru.

Soon after this letter was written, Mr. Roscoe
paid his first visit to Norfolk, as will appear by the
succeeding letters from Mr. Coke and the Bishop
of Norwich, to whom Sir James had the satisfac-
tion of introducing his friend.

Mr. Coke to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Sir, Holkham, December 15, 1814.

I cannot forward the inclosed, which reached
me by yesterday’s post, without acknowledging all
your friendly assistance, and expressing the great
pleasure afforded me by your own and Mr. Ros-
coe’s visit.

The more I saw of him, the more I was de-
lighted with the benevolence of his mind, the rec-
titude and liberality of his principles, as well as with
his superior acquirements.

Believe me, with our united kind regards to Lady
Smith, ever, my dear Sir, very faithfully

Yours,

Tuos. Wn. Coxe.

355

The Bishop of Norwich to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Sir James,

I feel, if possible, more proud of being indebted to
your friendly partiality for the favourable opinion
which Mr. Roscoe is so good as to entertain of me,
than I do even of his approbation ; and yet the es-
teem of such a man is a source of higher gratifica-
tion than any which it is in the power of kings or
ministers to bestow. Many thanks for your kind
invitation. To wait upon you, and to meet Mr.
Roscoe, are certainly very great temptations; for
men like him are rare beings—

** Numero vix sunt totidem quot
Thebarum porte vel divitis ostia Nili.”

Old as I am, I cannot therefore but feel anxious to
say, before I die, “ Virgilium vidi.” Adieu!
Yours sincerely and affectionately,
H. Norwicu.

Mr. Coke to Sir J. FE. Smith.

My dear Sir James, Holkham, Feb. 9, 1815.

Leo X., most magnificently bound, made his ap-
pearance yesterday, and will be more highly prized
than any manuscript in my possession. To you, I
may fairly say, I am more particularly indebted for
this most inestimable gift ; I should probably never
have known Mr. Roscoe, if it had not been for your
kindness in bringing us together ; it has established
a mutual regard between us, which I am satisfied

2a2

356

will be pleasing to us both during the remainder
of our respective lives. To say the truth, he is a
most extraordinary personage ;—such a head, such
a heart, such suavity of disposition, such courage in
the pursuit of what is right, such pure philanthropy,
are seldom combined in one individual ;—imagine
then, my dear Sir, the store I shall set by the pre-
sent of his book. How preferable such a testimony
of esteem from such a man, to the baubles which
may be derived to a cringeing sycophant from a pro-
fligate court! If I live and have my health, I will
do myself the pleasure of passing a few days with
him at Allerton in September or October next.
Could you not accompany me ? I will not keep you
from home more than five or six weeks.

You will be pleased to hear that I have consigned
to Roscoe’s care four dozen of my MSS. to be
bound.

Eliza and the ladies unite with me in kind re-
gards to yourself and Lady Smith ; and believe me,
my dear Sir, with great esteem,

Yours most sincerely,

Tuos. Wn. Coke.

From the same.

My dear Sir, Holkham, August 8, 1815.
You must be here one whole day at least, before
our departure, to look over the manuscripts our
friend Roscoe has had bound, and his remarks,
which are very interesting. I need not say with

357

what delight I look forward, in having so cheerful
a companion and inestimable a friend to accom-
pany me in my travels, for they will be nothing
short of a moderate tour upon the Continent.
Remember me in the kindest manner to Lady
Smith; and, with great regard and esteem,
I remain yours most faithfully,

Tuos. Wn. Coke.

From the same.

Dear Sir, Holkham, Jan. 17, 1816.

I have within these few days received a most de-
lightful and gratifying letter from our worthy friend,
who writes as under, after having mentioned his
having sent a large parcel of MSS. “ In particular
I must beg your attention to a most beautiful ma-
nuscript of Cesar’s Commentaries, and a small
thick volume lettered Preses fid.,—two of the finest
L ever saw. The Livy, in the chest just mentioned,
is beyond all estzmation, being, as I can clearly de-
monstrate, the zdividual book sent by Cosmo de’
Medici to Alfonso king of Naples, as a peace of-
fering on the termination of hostilities between
them,” and which is mentioned in his Life of Lo-
renzo de’ Medici. “ That I should have had” (he
says,) “the good fortune of seeing and turning over
at my leisure such a book, is almost incredible.”

He mentions Mr. Jones having got into a regular
system,—three binders besides himself constantly
employed; so that you see, my good friend, your

358

hint was not thrown away; and the satisfaction
which Mr. Roscoe over and over again assures
me he takes in looking over and arranging these
various MSS., and in noting the collection, removes
from my mind the great trouble I was once fearful
I had imposed upon him.—He has sat for his por-
trait to Shee, and I am told it is very like *.

I have been blessed with all my grandchildren
and three daughters for some time, who are all well,
and unite in kind regards with, dear Sir,

Yours,
Tuos. Wn. Coke.

From the same.

My dear Sir, Holkham, Oct. 5, 1816.

I know you will feel interested to hear of my
purchases at Mr. Roscoe’s sale of pictures, which I
rejoice to tell you went off at much higher prices
than had been expected. I have the Leo, the Head
of Christ, the chiaroscuro by Michael Angelo ;
the portrait of a Venetian Lady and her Son by
Giorgione, and a Holy Family by Vinci; which
were all favourites of our inestimable friend’s, and
he expresses much satisfaction in the thoughts of
seeing them here.

I shall have the pleasure of seeing you and Lady
Smith at the sessions. With our united kindest re-
gards to both, I remain, my dear Sir,

Ever most faithfully,
Tuos. Wn. Coxe.

* This portrait of Mr. Roscoe hangs in the manuscript li-
brary at Holkham.

359

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. EF. Smith.

My dear Friend, June 10, 1817.

I have now to speak to you on a subject which
I flatter myself may eventually lead to my enjoying
somewhat more of your society than I had promised
myself. We are establishing an institution here
for education and lectures on a large scale, em-
bracing the whole circle of literature, science, and
the arts. Our proposed capital is 30,000/., towards
which upwards of 22,000/. is already subscribed.
We have prepared a capital building, with lecture-
rooms, school-rooms, exhibition-rooms, &c., upon
a commodious and extensive scale; the whole of
which are now ready for use. I have promised
to give an introductory lecture, which I believe
will be followed by a regular course by Dr. Traill,
our very worthy and scientific townsman, and Dr.
Vose, an excellent physiologist. But our committee
are desirous, in publishing their first report, to be
able to state to the proprietors the names of such
celebrated scientific characters in other parts of the
kingdom, as they think may be induced to favour
them with their assistance; and it is with great
pleasure I have undertaken to solicit you on the
occasion.

Our buildings have cost 10,0007.

I trust you will allow us to say in our report that
we have hopes of your assistance.

You will receive another letter from this post, so

360

that you will have a double assurance that I am,
my dear Friend, ever truly yours,
W. Roscoe.

Sir J. FE. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, Sept. 28, 1818.

I have not much to say, except to express the
pleasure I have had so lately in your society, and
my happiness at seeing you so well. On Sunday
the treacherous weather just permitted me to climb
from Matlock to the high rocks on Cromford Moor,
often celebrated in English Botany: I had not
been up to them since 1792. I was quite enchanted
with the wide extended view; and the balmy air
among heath, bilberries, ferns, mosses, &c. seemed

*“ Redolent of joy and youth,
To breathe a second spring.”
I met with all my old friends among the Lichens,
&c.; but the long dry summer seems to have kept
back their fructification.

I have written to Mr. Coke about your intended
visit.

The worthy Bishop of Winchester writes that he
is “exceedingly delighted” with my Cambridge
pamphlet. ’Tis curious that four Oxford bishops
should decidedly approve of my pretensions.

I have just got a work of Sprengel’s on Umbelli-
Jere,—which I think he has reformed almost as
successfully as you have the Scitamznee. In it lam
called—“ peya Kudog Bpitavvwr ”_ev aicoosg !

J. E. Smiru.

361

Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

Norwich, March 27, 1820.
My dear and very kind Friend, °

I blame myself for not having sooner replied to
your welcome and consolatory letter, received above
a month since.

I am truly thankful on my dear mother’s account
that she “fell asleep” so happily, as really never
to have known what death was,—nor did she ever
know the fear of it: her religion was of the most
cheerful kind,—no gloom, no uncharitableness
had any share in it. She was quite prepared, and
had talked to me about every thing connected with
her departure, long ago. I had been in the habit
of almost daily calls, to chat a minute or two with
her, and I miss her with a degree of sadness I did
not expect. I vainly thought I had fortified my-
self beforehand: my only resource is the reflexion
that I have nothing to regret for her sake, and I
am thankful she did not survive me, which her
unimpaired health and the probability of her living
as long as anybody ever does, made me often dread
for her. She also sometimes dreaded it,—not from
any alarms about my health, but because of her
own probable long life. |

March 28.—I have just learnt by a letter from
my wife, who is at Lowestofft, that her excellent
mother is no more ;—such are the ravages of such
a severe winter !

I would add a word of literature. I send today

362

a great budget of Linnean correspondence to
“Master John Nichols” to print,—very curious
and interesting. Have you seen the letters he has
printed of Dr. Richardson, Sloane, Lord Petre, and
the great Sherard? The originals are now in my
hands, with many others ;—a mine of botanical
anecdote. .
Your ever affectionate

J. E. SMITH.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

My ever dear Friend, April 15, 1820.

I need not say how truly I sympathize with Lady
Smith and yourself in the grief and anxiety you
have lately had to sustain, from the loss of your
very near and dear relatives.

The crown of a happy life is a peaceful death ;
and if we could take our departure with the com-
posure of your late excellent mother, it would seem
almost desirable for us to escape from this “ sea of
troubles.” But though we may have sufficient
causes to induce us to wish to lay down our bur-
then, yet something still occurs to provide us either
with a reason or a pretext for wishing to remain
a little longer; and I fear, if put to the test, we
should be like our poor friend Fraser, who, after
having been seventeen times across the Atlantic,
and brought more plants into this kingdom than
any other person, complained to my son, when he
called on him in his last illness, that “ Providence

363

had cut him off in the midst of his labours.” Yet
as such things will.occur, I see with pleasure you
still continue to add to the great mass of know-
ledge and information on scientific, and particu-
larly on botanical subjects, for which the world is
already so highly indebted to you; and ¢hat not
merely by your own valuable labours, but by giving
to the public the productions of your eminent pre-
decessors, and rendering them immortal in the
offspring of their own mind.

Almost the only relaxation which I have for
some time past been enabled to take, has been in
extending and examining my collection of Scza-
minee, which are now so numerous as to form an
important class, capable of as correct an arrange-
ment as any in the system. In the course of this,
I have diligently studied and copied your excellent
remarks in Rees’s new Cyclopedia.

By the liberality of Dr. Carey of Serampore, and
Dr. Wallich of Calcutta, we have for some time
past been furnished with all the living plants of this
tribe that India can afford ; many of them from the
remotest parts of Napal, and a splendid collection
of seeds chiefly from Napal and Subhatoo.

My present arrangement of Curcuma is the
finest and most numerous of the whole order. Of
Hedychium Ihave 15 or 16 species ; 5 of Roscoea,
&c., which wait for your sanction and name.

I beg my most affectionate respects and condo-
lence to Lady Smith, and am, dear Sir James,

Yours,

W. Roscoe.

364

From the same.

My dear Friend, Liverpool, July 14, 1821.

You will probably have seen by the public pa-
pers that I have undertaken to give my assistance
to Mr. Valpy, in publishing a collection of the
Italian poets in 48 volumes ; in which it is intended
that the works of each author should be intro-
duced by biographical and critical dissertations,
extracted from the best literary historians and
critics of Italy,—a mode which I proposed. You
will perhaps be more surprised to hear that I have
also acceded to a proposal made to me to write a
new life of Pope, and publish a new edition of his
works,—an undertaking of much more labour than
the other, and at the present time, in which a sharp
contest is carrying on both as to his moral and
poetical character, attended with some peculiar dif-
ficulties. From a pretty close examination of the
later editions of his works, I am not, however,
greatly discouraged; nor can I help thinking that,
however deficient I may be found in some respects,
I shall be able to give an edition more just to the
character of the author, and more accommodated to
the use of the general reader, than any of those
hat have been published since the time of War-
burton.

When to these I add my additional volume to
the Life of Lorenzo, you will have great reason to
accuse me of presumption, and perhaps of folly :
but I know not how it is,—I never can accomplish

365

any thing unless I have a great many other things
that call for my attention at the same time, when I
amas diligent in what I am about as obstinacy
and perseverance can make me. Whether this
arises from an attachment one acquires for a par-
ticular subject, or to a perversity of disposition that
delights to be employed in any thing but what it
ought to be, I shall not venture to determine.

With respect to our botanical concerns, the
Hedychium excelsum has flowered with us this year
in grand style; and several others are going into
flower, some of which we expect to be new. We
have also been greatly surprised by the appearance,
a few days since, of a flower of a new and beautiful
species of Hoscoea, from a plant sent us as a species
of Orchis from Sillet? ‘This plant is entirely dif-
ferent as well from the purpurea as from the four
others of which I have dried specimens. I shall
send you a slight figure of it, in order that you may
add it to your list of species, and give it a specific
appellation. What do you think of either speciosa,
orlucida ? The first it deserves, as being, I conceive,
the largest and finest flower known of the genus ;
but the second would perhaps be more appropriate,
as alluding to the extreme delicacy and transpa-
rency of the petals, which no drawing can express.
_ The whole flower is of a pale purple, changing in
some parts to a clear watery white. The flowers
arise in succession as in Kempferia, to which and
to Hedychium it appears to have the nearest af-
finity.

Since my return home I have been enabled to

366

make some important additions to the genus Canna,
and have drawn up a synoptical table of twenty
species, of which I printed a few copies for the
correction of my friends, but which Iam unwilling
to part with till I know your opinion upon it. The
tables of Hedychium and Curcuma, which I have
also nearly finished, will each of them amount to
about the same number, and most of the plants are
now growing with us.

Accept, my dear friend, my best thanks for the
additional memorial of your friendship in the pre-
sent of your two valuable volumes of the “ Cor-
respondence of Linneus and other Naturalists,” a
work highly worthy of you, and which will always
be grateful to every true lover of science, and to
every pious and candid mind. Your anecdote of
the identity of the peach and nectarine, reminds
me of a circumstance equally extraordinary which
has occurred to us here respecting Hedychiwm.—
Happening to meet a friend in the botanic garden,
he informed me he hada plant in flower in his
hot-house, about five miles from Liverpool, which
he did not know, but which from his description I
concluded must be a scitaminean. With his per-
mission, Henry Shepherd and I immediately went
and brought it to Liverpool; when it appeared to
us all to be quite a new species, wholly different
from any of those growing with us, and from my
dried specimens from India. The plant was not
more than three feet high,—the flower a dull yel-
low. As it increased freely by the roots, the plant
was afterwards divided, and several specimens were

367

distributed under the name of Hedychium flavum,
when to our great astonishment in the following
year it grew to twice its former height, and turned
out to be no other than our old acquaintance H.
coronarium with a white flower at least three times
the size it had before produced,—a result which I
assure you will render me very diffident in future
in deciding on the species of this beautiful genus.

And now, my dear friend, I think it is high time
I should inquire after your health and present
avocations; and particularly how Lady Smith and
yourself intend to dispose of your time during the
ensuing summer (for in Lancashire it is not yet
begun).

Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me, with the
most affectionate respectand kindest remembrances
to Lady Smith and yourself,

Your ever faithful

W. Roscoe.

Mr. Coke to Sir J. E. Smith.

Holkham, August 10, 1825.

Shame would justly, my dear Sir, attend me, if I
delayed answering your kind letter the first moment
I could snatch from the whirl in which I have been .
writing.

Lady Anne accompanied me to Norwich assizes
on Monday. We took up our residence at the Pa-
lace, where we were most hospitably and kindly in-
vited; and I am sure it will give you and Lady Smith

368

pleasure to hear that I never saw the Bishop in bet-
ter health or spirits, though I had been told he was
not. In our way back we stopped two nights with
the Mr. Ansons, at Lyng.

I have now all hands at work with my harvest:
within a fortnight or thereabouts I hope to be for-
ward enough to enable me to leave home with a
contented mind for Cannon Hall, having promised
my dear Eliza that I would spend a fortnight with
her this autumn. It was our intention to have
gone into Scotland, had we not been prevented by
Lord Hastings, who is coming to us with all his
family the very beginning of September.

Happy should I be if you and Lady Smith would
give him the meeting, as Lady Loudon is very fond
of botany, and Lady Anne having now a gardener
to her liking. I think you would be pleased with
the improvements that have taken place since we
had the pleasure of seeing you. I will frank your
letter to Roscoe, and accompany it with a line which
will give both him and you much gratification, to
hear that within this fortnight Blaikie has found
in his office some highly valuable MSS. of Lord
Chief Justice Coke’s. When Chantrey has fixed
his time of coming to Holkham, I will not fail to
let you know.

Yours most faithfully,
Tuos. Wm. Coke.

369

Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

Henbury Hill, near Bristol, August 6, 1825.

Yes, my good friend, Henbury Hill, near Bristol !
The latter place I know you have heard of, for I
find your name inscribed on the roll of a Society,
to which mine has also been added ; but of the little
village of Henbury, however worthy of celebration
by your classical pen, you perchance may not have
heard. Perhaps, nevertheless, you may reply,

‘“‘ The place itself is neither new nor rare ;
I wonder how the devil you came there :”—

so I will proceed with my narrative. I left my own
home April 30th, and passed a fortnight with my
worthy friend T. Forster, at Walthamstow, and as
much with his brother Edward at Hale End. I then
passed two weeks in Chapel Place, near Cavendish
Square. Meanwhile I gave a course of ten bota-
nical lectures at the London Institution, attended
to much business of the Linnzan Society, visited
several friends, and enjoyed myself sufficiently, “ be-
ing in sound health of mind and body.” I passed
a morning at Paddington with Mr. Coke, Lady
Anne, and their two fine boys,—Dr. Davy of Caius
accompanying me. There could not be a more de-
lightful sight. I dined one day with our friend
Lady Anson,—Mr. Coke, Mr. W. Coke, and Lord
Suffolk being of the party. I never was better in
my life than during this visit to London: but on
coming to Bristol by a day coach, June 12th, in

great heat, and after giving my first lecture next
VOL, II. 2B

370

day, my old inflammatory complaint, with an affec-
tion of the lungs, attacked me; and after giving
three lectures I was obliged to resign myself to
bleeding, James’s powders, and starvation ; all which
being vigorously used, under the inspection of. my
most excellent and skilful friend Mr. Estlin, I was
enabled to finish my course. We remained nearly
a month at the Hotwells, enjoying the fine air and
water, and amused by the numerous passing vessels,
steam-boats, &c.; the noble views of wood and
river, accompanied by music on board the boats,
and often in the woods,—all close to our windows.
Here I rapidly regained my health, sleep, and
strength, insomuch that I took walks of three or
four miles in the day.

Last Wednesday we removed to a very smart cot-
tage, completely furnished, even with a library, in
which, among other first-rate books of the present
age, is the quarto edition of your Lorenzo.

This cottage was recommended to me by Mr.
and Mrs. Brooke, who inhabit a very pleasant house
near it and Blaize Castle, and from whose garden
and grounds, open to us, we enjoy delightful views
of the Welsh Hills, the Severn, &c., and on all sides
a most beautiful country. Our cottage, with a field
and garden, looks over a rich and beautifully wooded
valley, extending to the Avon, on whose opposite
bank Mr. Bright has a noble house and grounds.
In October we mean to prosecute our journey lei-
surely homeward, visiting some friends in our way.

I am sorry to hear of your having suffered much
by the rheumatism ; but hope the warm weather has

371

removed it. To the excessive heat I perhaps owe
my illness.
Your ever affectionate Friend,

J. E. Smira.

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Friend, Toxteth Park, Sept. 3, 1825.

Your most kind and welcome letter from Hen-
bury Hill should have been sooner acknowledged,
had not continual interruptions, combined with a
state of unaccountable indolence and debility, pre-
vented me from turning my thoughts to any subject
but such as had irresistible claims upon me, and
from which I extricated myself the first moment it
was in my power. If, in return for the narrative
you have so kindly given me of your peregrinations
and transactions since you left home, I should fur-
nish you with mine for the same period, they would
appear like the track of a snail compared to the
flight of an eagle, or the journal of a pedlar to the
history of some mighty traveller. You pass from
county to county, visit your friends, and take up
your abode where you please; whilst I remain on
the same spot, without emigrating even from the
blue bed to the brown, and whenever I am disturbed
only exclaim,

: “ Let me, let me rest.”
The only object that excited my exertion was the
publication of my Monandrian Plants.

I need not say there are many things in these on

2B2

372

which I long for your opinion ; but I will not in-
trude on you till you have seen and examined them,
further than to say, that I am in hopes of clearing
up the difficulties that have existed in ascertaining
the precise limits of the genera Maranta, Phry-
nium, and Thalia, and of settling some other im-
portant points that have occurred in the course of
the work, especially as to Costus, of which four
fine species have flowered with us this summer, all
of which will shortly appear in my work.

When shall we meet again? For my own part
I can only repeat my own words, that

“« .,..Hope strives in vain through futurity’s gloom
To descry one bright moment in seasons to come.”
Yet I will not despair. In the uncertainty that at-
tends this earthly state, in which we cannot foresee
the consequence of our placing one leg before
another, I would gladly flatter myself that some-
thing may occur to draw us together again, and
enable us to enjoy each other’s society—if not with
all the life and vivacity, with all the warmth and af-
fection we ever experienced; which good wish I
hope Lady Smith will not refuse to share: at all
events present to her my kindest remembrances,
and believe me always, my dear Friend, most faith-
fully yours,
W. Roscoe.

373

Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. FE. Smith.

My dear Friend, Toxteth Park, Dec. 14, 1826.

It was with great pleasure I received your letter
giving me so satisfactory an account of your health
and of the progress you are making in your great
work, which will fill up a destderatum in the botany
of this country that no other hand could have sup-
plied. I rejoice also in the disposition you feel for
the continuation of your labours, it being a strong
impression on my mind that nothing is more con-
ducive to life and health than some employment
that calls for our continued attention, and prevents
a moment from being irksome on our hands. For
my own part, I feel as if my existence were twined
round my employments, and when those have fi-
nished I shall have finished too.

* * * * % *

I thank you also, my dear friend, for your kind
information respecting 4momum ; but since I last
wrote to youl have had the good fortune to suc-
ceed beyond my utmost expectations, in having had
specimens of one of the largest and finest of the
tribe sent me from Demerara,—the flowers preserved
in spirits, and the fruit in an air-tight bottle.

This I conceive to be the true Malaguetta Pepper,
or Grains of Paradise, respecting which I expect to
know more when I can obtain a sight of your ar-
ticle on Malaguetta in the Cyclopedia. :

The capsule somewhat resembles that of Gertner,
but is upwards of six inches in length, of a deep
orange colour, covering a pulpy rind, inclosing the

374

receptacle of the seed, of the thickness of a man’s
finger, on which the seeds are beautifully arranged,
and imbedded in a tomentose substance.

Frequently do I lament my distance from you;
and severely do I feel, on numerous occasions, the
loss of your able and friendly advice.

I follow your example, “‘ and comfort myself with
the bright spots in my horizon.” Above all, I delight
to preserve and cultivate those feelings of friendship
and affection which have been the charm and hap-
piness of my life, and few of which have returned
me so ample a harvest as those on which I am at
present employed. Adieu, my dear Friend !

Iam most faithfully,

W. Roscoe.

Sir J. EL. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, Jan. 8, 1827.

I have received lately your 9th and 10th num-
bers, and need not tell you with what interest I have
looked them over. What a treasure is your plate
and account of the original Thala !

Your intended Matonia is, I presume, distinct
from £/ettarza, which last name may as well remain,
as the French school will doubtless retain it. I
should be highly gratified by the perusal of your
manuscript materials.

Surely the true Malaguetta Pepper is from Africa,
about Sierra Leone, and is the Grains of Paradise.

375

See 4Amomum in Rees’s Suppl. ; also Mellegetéa in
the body of the work.

The plant I mean must be altogether different
from what you have lately got from Demerara. Is
not the “tomentose substance,” in which the seeds
of your Demerara plant are imbedded, dried pulp?

Very truly yours,
J. E. Smiru.

Sir J. FE. Smith to Mr. Roscoe.

My dear Friend, Norwich, Dec. 29, 1827.

Having a small corner in a frank allowed me, I
cannot refrain from writing a word or two, though
I have but little to say, but that I have done my
fourth volume of English Flora, except printing the
index, and am now getting on with Flora Greca,
of which I hope to get towards the conclusion in
the course of this winter ; so that, whatever happens
to me, I shall have done my part of the work.

My eyes are much recovered, so that I find no
impediment from them in bright weather : all pain
and inflammation are gone. I suffer from rheu-
matism and great consequent weakness in my legs :
my stomach, too, is dyspeptic ; but I totter on. Our
excellent friend at Holkham is counting upon our
visiting him in the spring. Whenever you can go,
we will, if possible, meet you.

Yours,

J. E. SMITH.

376

Mr. Coke to Sir J. E. Smith.

My dear Sir James, Holkham, Oct. 2, 1827.

I cannot think of sending you the inclosed letter
without accompanying it with one line to say that
our friend, in his letter to me, writes in excellent
spirits, and holds out hopes of my seeing him in the
spring. Pray God his health may be sufficiently
restored to enable him to do so, is my sincere
wish.

With our tour into Scotland Lady Anne was de-
lighted: but not being able to leave home so early
by a fortnight as we had intended, owing to Lady
de Clifford’s kind and unexpected visit, we did not
go beyond Blair Athol. We visited all the principal
manufactories in our way through England,—Man-
chester, Bolton, &c. &c. In our way to Glasgow
I saw the establishment at Lanark, and returned by
Lord Rosebery’s, which was by far the most pic-
turesque and beautiful place we visited in Scotland ;
and upon our return home had the happiness to find
our children in perfect health.

The sporting season having now commenced, I
have taken the liberty of sending you a little game.
Lady Anne unites with me in all kind remembrances
to yourself and Lady Smith.

Ever, my dear Sir James,
Faithfully yours,
THos. Wm. Coxe.

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377

CHAPTER XIV.
Of the religious, social, and scientific Character of Sir J. E. Smith.

Wuen the religious opinions and principles of a
man have been such as to support him through the
trials of life and in the hour of death, they form a
part of his history deserving our notice: this me-
moir therefore would be imperfect without giving
such a statement of Sir James’s as may be relied
upon for containing the most essential points.

His principles were these,—“ That a man can be no
Christian, as to faith, who does not judge for him-
self; nor as to practice, who dees not allow others
to do so without presuming to censure or to hinder
them.”

His opinions were formed from the same source
whence many, with equal sincerity, derive very dif-
ferent ones. His creed was the New Testament, and
he read it as a celebrated divine * recommends; that
_ 1s, “ as a man would read a letter from a friend, in
the which he doth only seek after what was his
friend’s mind and meaning, not what he can put
upon his words.” |

He was a firm believer in the divine mission of
Jesus Christ; and in maintaining the doctrine of the
strict unity of God, as one of the truths our great
Master was commissioned to teach, he considered
his opinion truly apostolical.

* Whickcot.

378

“ I Jook up,” he says in a letter to a friend, “ to
one God, and delight in referring all my hopes and
wishes to him; I consider the doctrine and example
of Christ as the greatest blessing God has given us,
and that his character is the most perfect and lovely
we ever knew, except that of God himself. This is
my religion; I hope it is not unsound.” *

He considered opinions and principles very di-
stinct, though often confounded. The latter he
looked upon as very important; the former no other-
wise so, than as conducing to good principles,—and
he esteemed one virtuous act, one honest determi-
nation, to be more worthy in the sight of God than
any notion or discovery concerning the essence of
that Great Being who is raised far above all human
comprehension.

The writer has often heard him observe, that what-
ever in the sacred writings is not clear to the capa-
city of the humblest, most unlettered rustic, cannot
be essential to salvation; and he was of the same
opinion as our immortal Wickliffe, the morning-
star of the Reformation, who contended “ that wise
men should leave that as unimportant which is not
plainly expressed in Scripture.”

With regard to opinions, he also agreed with the
amiable Lindsey, “that Christians have yet to learn
the znnocency of error, from which none can plead
exemption, and to bear with each other in their dif-
fering apprehensions concerning the nature of the
First Great Cause and Father of all, and the person
of Christ, and the manner and date of his deriving his

* Letter to Davall, April 25, 1790.

379

being and high perfections from God; and surely
it must also be owned to have been left in some ob-
scurity by God himself in the writings of the Apo-
stles, (otherwise so many men, wise and good,
would not have differed, and still continue to differ
concerning it,) and so left, it should seem, on pur-
pose to whet human industry and the spirit of in-
quiry in the things of God, and to give scope for the
exercise of men’s charity and mutual forbearance of
one another, and to be one great means of cultiva-
ting the moral dispositions, which is plainly the de-
sign of the holy spirit of God in the Christian Re-
velation, and not any high perfection in knowledge,
which so few can attain.” *

Let it not be supposed that Sir James was indif-
ferent to opinions, and considered all systems
equally good; on the contrary, he preserved his
own through good report and evil report, and no
temptation of interest ever made him swerve one
moment from the maintenance and vindication of
those he had adopted: but among these, the first
was charity; exclusiveness he considered as the
very characteristic of Antichrist and pride. There
was no sect of Christians, among the good and sin-

* “Tn matters of eternal concern,” says the biographer of Sir
William Jones, ‘‘ the authority of the highest human opinions has
no claim to be admitted as a ground of belief; but it may with
the strictest propriety be opposed to that of men of inferior learn-
ing and penetration: and whilst the pious derive satisfaction from
the perusal of sentiments according with their own, those who
doubt or disbelieve should be induced to weigh, with candour
and impartiality, arguments which have produced conviction in
the minds of the best, the wisest, and most learned of mankind.”

380

cere, with whom he could not worship the Great
Spirit to whom all look up, enter into their views,
excuse what he might consider as their prejudices,
and respect their piety; and whether it were in the
pope’s chapel, or the parish church, he felt the so-
cial glow, |
* To gang together to the kirk,
And all together pray ;
Where each to his great Father bends,

Old men, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay.”

The affection he thus felt for others, he in general
had the happiness of finding reciprocal, “for love
must owe its origin to love.” No one had less of a
sectarian spirit; nor did he ever attempt to make
converts, except to christian charity.

Where speaking, in his Tour, of some customs
in the catholic church, ‘‘ The stocks and stones,” he
observes, “‘ which the people are taught to worship,
are dressed out to their imagination with attributes
of rectitude and benignity, borrowed from the pure
idea of an intellectual Deity; for so congenial are
virtue and benevolence to the human mind, that no
system of worship could support itself without their
semblance ; and even those most corrupt in prin-
ciple could have little success in practice, without
a constant appeal to the eternal law written in our
hearts :—as to forms, the mind will associate its
conceptions with visible objects. The devotion of
some persons is best excited in a choir, of others in
a conventicle, and of others in the holy house of

999

Loretto; but ‘one is their Father, even God’.

381

He was adverse to such a view of the Supreme
Being as is injurious to the perfect goodness of his
character, which, because his power is unbounded,
has supposed it might please him to exercise that
power to the subversion of his no less immutable
attributes, justice and mercy. Such ideas of our
Creator appeared to him dishonourable to that pa-
rental character which makes our adoration spring
from the heart, and delight in obeying his com-
mands: such a view of God is to invest him in the
evil passions, the imperfection and weakness of
humanity. He believed that “in no being is the
sense of right so strong, so omnipotent, as in God ;
and that his almighty power is entirely submitted
to his perception of rectitude. He ascribed to him
not only the name, but the disposition and princi-
ples of a father; that he has a father’s concern for
his creatures, a father’s desire for their improve-
ment, a father’s equity in proportioning his com-
mands to their powers, a father’s joy in their pro-
gress, a father’s readiness to receive the penitent,
and a father’s justice for the incorrigible ;—that
God’s justice has for its end the highest virtue of
the creation, and punishes for this end alone; and
thus it coincides with benevolence, for virtue and
happiness, though not the same, are inseparably
conjoined. He looked upon this world as a place
of education, in which God is training men, by mer-
cies and sufferings, by aids and temptations, by
means and opportunities of various virtues, by trials
of prineiple, by the conflicts of reason and passion,

382

by a discipline suited to free and moral beings, for
union with himself, and for a sublime and ever-
growing virtue in heaven.”

“It is not,” continues Dr. Channing, “ because
he is our Creator merely, but because he created us
for good and holy purposes; it is not because his
will is irresistible, but because his will is the per-
fection of virtue, that we pay him allegiance. We
venerate not the loftiness of God’s throne, but the
equity of goodness in which it is established.”

A sentiment resembling the last may be found in
Mason’s Memoirs of Gray, in a paper which con-
tains some very pertinent strictures on the writings
of Lord Bolingbroke. In speaking of the Deity,
Gray remarks :

“His eternity, infinity, omnipresence, and al-
mighty power, are not what connect him, if I may
so speak, with us his creatures. We adore him,
not because he always did, in every place, and al-
ways will, exist, but because he gave and still pre-
serves to ws our existence by an extension of his
goodness. We adore him, not because he knows
and can do all things, but because he made ws capa-
ble of knowing and of doimg what may conduct us
to happiness. It is therefore his benevolence which
we adore, and not his greatness or power ; and if we
are only to bear our part in a system, without any
regard to our own particular happiness, we can no
longer worship him as our all-bounteous parent,—
there is no meaning in the term.”

“ This unlimited power,” says Mr. Locke, “ can-

383

not be an excellency without it be regulated by wis-
dom and goodness; and therefore, looking on God
as a being infinite in goodness as well as power, we
cannot imagine he hath made anything with a de-
sign it should be miserable. His justice is nothing
but a branch of his goodness.”

“Je ne vais pas si loin que St. Augustin, qui se
fat consolé d’étre damné si telle eit été la volonté
de Dieu. Ma resignation vient d'une source moins
désintéressée, il est vrai, mais zon moins pure, et
plus digne i mon gré de l'Etre parfait que j'adore.
Dieu est juste: il veut que je souffre, et il sait que
je suis innocent. Voila la motif de ma confiance,
mon ceeur et ma raison me crienf quelle ne me
trompera pas. Laissons donc faire les hommes et
la destinée, apprenons a souffrir sans murmure, tout
doit 4 la fin rentrer dans ‘ordre, et mon tour vien-
dra tot ou tard!”

It is delightful thus to find enlightened and dis-
interested men, who have no object but ¢rwth, con-
curring in their hopes and views from the sponta-
neous deductions of their own individual minds, and,
in that perfect love which casteth out fear, reposing
on their “ Father and their God.”

The subject of the present memoir cherished a
perfect faith in the goodness of God. The good-
ness of God “was the reason of the hope that was
in him.” Believing that he framed the human soul
for eternal duration and for happiness, he never
troubled himself about the ¢zme or manner of his
future existence, or what was to constitute it; con-
sidering himself incapable of forming any judgement,

384

he relied implicitly on the benevolence of that pa-
rental Being who had “ vouchsafed to call him
hither to this great assembly and entertainment, and
had permitted him to contemplate his works, to
admire and adore his providence, and to compre-
hend the wisdom of his conduct.”

The apparent evil, the partiality, the injustice, in
our present life, were to him assurances, combined
with revelation, of a more perfect state hereafter.

He believed virtue not to be communicated with-
out effort; that the great object of our probation
here is to acquire it, and that to possess ourselves
of it we must cultivate and cherish it by our own
unremitting endeavours, by the rules prescribed by
him who was himself “ the way, the truth, and the
life.”

The following paragraph was found after Sir
James’s death, among other papers, on his library
table. It seems to be a memorandum of opinions
which, had his life been prolonged, he had a design
to use and enlarge upon.

“The attributes of God are,

Power,
Wisdom, \ All infinite and eternal.
Goodness.

“Power and wisdom are communicable to his
creatures in any degree he pleases. Goodness is
in the very nature of things incommunicable, and
must be acquired, else it is a nonentity.

“Man has the power of acquiring goodness. He
must therefore be fully capable of comprehending
or of knowing what it is. But man is manifestly

385

incapable of comprehending the wisdom or power
of God; nor is it of any use to him to attempt it.

“ Hence all our reasonings respecting a future
state, founded on the wisdom or power of God, or
on natural principles, have always proved vain.”

«Those only are conclusive which are deduced
from lis goodness ; of which, as we are formed and
commanded to imitate it, we are necessarily able to
judge.—J. E. Smiru.”

His devotional feelings were ardent, retired, con-
fiding : like the pious Fenelon, he felt that “God
is the true friend of the heart, and that there is
no comforter like him.” ‘To say he was accus-
tomed to the duty of prayer, seems needless after
this,—none was less restricted to a set of words,
none expressed “the soul’s sincere desire” more
frequently or fervently. Devotion and benevolence
were the marked characters of his gifted mind. His

love of nature was the love of God.

The subject of the few foregoing pages naturally
recalls to mind the events of the spring of 1813.

The public has already been in possession of the
motives which induced Sir James to offer himself
as a candidate for the botanical chair at Cam-
bridge*, being neither a member of the university,
nor of the church of England.

Among a great variety of letters from the vene-

* Published in two pamphlets entitled, ‘Considerations re-
specting Cambridge,” (1818); and ‘‘ A Defence of the Church and
Universities of England,” (1819).

VOL. 11: 2c

386

rable Professor Martyn, beginning so early as 1813,
and all tending to the same point, one only shall be
selected, to remind the reader of the ground upon
which he concluded he might safely stand.

One motive, which at least had as much influ-
ence with Sir James as any prospect of pecuniary
advantage, was the anticipation of associating with
a learned and polite body of gentlemen and scholars,
among whom he had several personal friends and
warm supporters ; and with these he continued the
same friendly intercourse as before, though with
fewer opportunities, and ina different manner, from
what would have been the case in a nearer connexion
with the university. On this account, chiefly, the
disappointment of his views hurt his affectionate
and social feelings more than it wounded his pride.

My dear Sir, Pertenhall, March 14, 1818.

The season approaches when I feel an annual
regret, that in consequence of my age and infirmities
Tam unable to fulfill my duty as Dr. Walker’s reader,
in giving acourse of botanical lectures. If you
could, consistently with your other engagements,
undertake to read a course next term, I should
esteem it a great favour done to me personally; and
I have no doubt of its being well received by the
university.

You are aware that you must have the sanction
of the vice-chancellor, who, I am _ persuaded, will
be ready to give the university an opportunity of
profiting by your instructions, as he doubtless
knows that you take the lead in the science of bo-

387

tany in this country, and that your reputation 1s
too well established to need any recommendation
from me. As far as my power extends, Iam happy
in giving you full authority to take such specimens
of plants and flowers as you think requisite for
your lectures, together with the use of the lecture-
room, at any time or times that may be convenient,
—always under the controul of the vice-chancellor,
and with a complete reliance on your discretion in
the use of the garden.

Sincerely wishing it may suit your convenience
to comply with this my request,

I remain, dear Sir,
Your ever faithful Friend,
Tuos. Martyn.

In a subsequent letter the Professor makes the
following observations : 12th April.

Bradley was never of any university, and had
no education : my father admitted only with a view
to the professorship, and never took any degree.
Vigani, the first professor of chemistry, was an
Italian; Dillenius, as you know, was a German.
What was Erasmus and many others who were in-
vited to give lectures merely from their learning,
independent of any consideration of their opinions

in religion, or of their having been educated on the
spot. T. Marryy.

For Professor Martyn Sir James entertained the
warmest regard, and their friendship was uninter-
rupted through life: mutual good will and good

2c2

aod

388

offices subsisted between two men, who equally ex-
perienced that “7/ y a dans la botanique un charme
quon ne sent que dans le plein calme des passions,
mais qui suffit seul alors pour rendre la vie heureux
et douce.”

Sir James’s sentiments towards the clergy of the
Establishment cannot be better shown than in a
letter he addressed, some years ago, to a dignitary
of the church, upon his tendering his resignation
as Fellow of the Linnzan Society :—

Dear Sir,

I found your letter on the table of the Linnean
Society at our anniversary meeting, and read your
resignation with much regret, while I felt obliged
by your having so largely stated your reasons. Had
I been previously informed of your intention, I
should have been anxious to have altered it, and
might therefore have presumed to controvert some
of those reasons. I have always been particularly
happy to see my favourite study cultivated by per-
sons eminent in character or station, and especially
by the clergy, who, whether of dignified rank, or
in the humble, not less venerable, walk of country
pastors, may, in following this pursuit, be eminently
useful to those around them; while they relax their
own minds from severer studies, and derive health
of body, with tranquillity of mind, from one of the
purest of allsources. Indeed they are but following
one precept of Ham who, as I have always thought,
conferred the highest honour on our study that it
ever received, and exalted a pleasure into almost a

389

duty, when he said, “ Consider the lilies of the field
how they grow.”

Forgive me for citing this authority, so familiar
to you; for I hold it as high as you can possibly
do, though we may differ on some points connected
therewith. I have always been no less pleased to
see the study of nature lead good people to lay
aside noxious prejudices and antipathies. I love to
see the controversialist, like a cultivated plant, dis-
miss his thorns or his acrimony, and make an Eden
of the garden of science. But I encroach too much
on that province whose duties you so highly adorn.
Iam not ignorant of your high clerical character,
nor of the very extensive calls you must have upon
you; nor do I mean to interfere: I only contend,
like Ray, that the study of the book of nature is in-
ferior to none in dignity or utility.

I remain, with every sentiment of respect,
. Dear Sir,
Your very faithful and obedient Servant,
J. E. Smita.

A philosophical consideration of a future state of
existence beyond death and the grave, was a fre-
quent topic of discourse with Sir James ; not for
the purpose of expelling doubts, for he entertained
none, but for the enjoyment of recurring to the
first, the last, and most unconquerable desire im-
planted in the human heart.

“T grieve,” he says ina letter to Davall, “to see
how much imbecility clouded the latter days of
Haller; yet even ¢hat is an argument for the im-

390

mortality of the soul, had we no other light ; for
what kind of deity must govern the world, if beings
capable of what Haller was were only, as it were, a
flash of existence, and all their acquirements turned
to no account, and their hopes and powers were ex-
cited only to be disappointed ?”

“ Design,” he observes elsewhere, “ is evident
throughout nature. Some who unhappily doubt
every thing else, allow this; but it is sufficient to
build every thing upon. We see wisdom employed
for beneficent ends. If we are indulged with powers
to catch even a glimpse of the Divine Wisdom, is it
not enough to prove we are something more than
the clod of the valley? But is there no design in
this permission ?—is it intended to call forth our
powers and hopes, only to destroy them? Where
would be the wisdom or the beneficence of this ?
If natural religion goes thus far, is there no des7gn
in the further sources of information with which
our Maker has favoured us? Is it not as evident in
these as in the other? Nature plans the happiness,
the beauty, the perfection of material beings ;—the
revealed will of God considers the interests of im-
mortal creatures; starving amid the richest treasures
of nature, if they have no hope beyond !”

Such were the ideas it gave him pleasure to
cherish, and to impart to others,—to build up their
hopes by every aid, and persuade to the practice of
virtue. His introductory lectures are imbued with
such sentiments, and express them in terms which
bring their author before the mental eye of those
who recollect his conversation, as a portrait reminds

391

us of those we knew. His solemn thoughts were
such as gave him freer spirits, and while they ele-
vated the tone of expression enlivened it also.

* Qne advantage” which Sir James mentions as
having found in the study of nature is, “ that it is
inexhaustible ; but” (he continues) “it boasts a
still greater,—that, as far as I have been able to ob-
serve, it never loses its relish at the decline of life.
Several botanists have continued the pursuit with
undiminished fondness after the loss of sight, a
misfortune one would think the most fatal to all
their enjoyments. Many more have derived from
this soothing study the best alleviation they could
find for the bitterest domestic losses and calamities.
With what delight did Linneus in his last illness
turn over and over the acquisitions of his pupil
Thunberg in Africa!—and how have I seen the
countenance of Scopoli, suffering under the imme-
diate pressure of an unmerited attack upon his ho-
nour and all his means of support, resume all its
wonted animation and pleasure in talking on the
subject of botany! Asa taste for the beauties of
nature, or in other words, an admiration of the
works of God, raises the mind and character above
the troubles and cares of this world, may we not
hope that such a temper of mind may be far more
highly gratified and exalted in a future state? Sucha
hope is in harmony with all our best feelings, and
may surely be humbly indulged without mischief or
blame; so far at least as it does not interfere with
that absolute reference of every thing connected with
futurity to the wisdom and goodness of our Creator,

392

which ought to be not only our duty, but our con-
solation and delight. In this I conceive the very
essence of faith and piety to consist. But under
the controul of this disposition every enjoyment
and every hope is enhanced; and He who has pre-
sented us with a garden as the seat of primeval in-
nocence and delight, cannot be offended by our as-
sociating the admiration of his works with any
ideas or hopes concerning the happiness in store for
us hereafter.”

“ Another great recommendation of natural hi-
story is the habit it necessarily gives of arranging
our ideas and exercising our powers of discrimina-
tion. In this it vies with the study of grammar and
the mathematics. It is the pursuit of truth,—a love
of which is as inherent in every sound mind as the
love of life. It is a science of facts; and the only
way by which it can of itself be advanced, or con-
tribute to the improvement of our understandings
and powers, is by practical observation and inquiry.
It teaches us to see and discriminate, and then to
reason. The worm that crawls on the ground can
perceive, the bird that flies in the air and builds its
curious nest can contrive; but man only is allowed
to contemplate, compare, and weigh the designs of
Infinite Wisdom.

“The exercise of this high privilege soon brings
its own reward. We cannot long ‘ walk with God
in the garden of creation,’ without admiring the
beauty and partaking of the felicity which the Cre-
ator delights to bestow and to display.

“A superficial observation of either, however,

393

will afford but imperfect enjoyment or instruction.
This privilege, so consoling to our nature, so en-
couraging to our hopes, and so improving to our
intellects, may of itself be said to whisper immor-
tality. Nor is it restrained to the eminently wise
or profoundly learned. Like all manifestations of
the divine goodness and mercy, it is plain and open
to all. Who does not at once perceive that the
Author of nature must be wise and good? Has he
not then evidently intended that we should perceive
it,—that we should attend to and cultivate this
knowledge, and derive wisdom and happiness from
so rich a source’ The further we proceed with a
right mind to prosecute our inquiries, the more are
all these suggestions confirmed. This I trust is so
obvious, that I shall consider it as a tacit sentiment

between us, more easily perceived than expressed ;
for all

. our highest notes the theme debase,
And silence is our least injurious praise.’

«‘ As we discover the admirable fitness of every
part for its destined purpose, we become far more
sensible of its beauty ; and as we learn how partial
evil mercifully operates for the prevention of more
extensive ills, and even for the production of general
good, we bow in adoration to the wisdom we can-
not fathom, but in which we soon see we may safely
and cheerfully confide. As soon as we enter upon
the deliberate contemplation of the works of nature,
we feel the necessity of classing and arranging them
for our convenience.

“Natural history conducts us to a knowledge of

394

the manners and ceconomy of different animals, and
their places and dependencies on each other in the
great scheme of creation. Here the most insensible
mind cannot fail to be struck with the infinite va-
riety of means by which similar ends are accom-
plished; while amid the richest profusion of variety
and beauty nothing is superfluous, nor any end at-
tained but by the most advantageous and compen-
dious means.

“We are told that ‘God formed man of the dust
of the ground, —and there is much more contained
in that text than we usually perceive. In the cre-
ation of the animal kingdom, and of man at its
head, the production of intellect was undoubtedly
the primary object of our Maker.

« An ingenious writer has said of the sublimest
statue in the world, the Apollo Belvidere, that ‘ the
artist has made so much use of matter only as was
necessary to execute and give a body to his thought.’
This is literally true of the creation of animated
beings. Their corporeal part is manifestly but the
vehicle, the instrument, the subordinate agent of
that sentient existence in which their individual
being consists, and which, in the /owest link of this
living chain, acts and enjoys, and in the highest,
reasons, adores, and is even permitted to love and
imitate, its divine Creator. ‘ What can be a greater
example of infinite power, says the celebrated Lin-
neus, whose piety was equal to his knowledge,
‘than a little portion of inactive earth rendered ca-
pable of contemplating itself as the work of infinite
wisdom ; and of considering the innumerable ef-

395

fects of that wisdom displayed in the surrounding
creation ?’

“The exertions of the intellectual part of all
living beings are spontaneously and invariably di-
rected to the pursuit of happiness;—it may mistake
the means, but never loses sight of the end. It is
in its turn made subservient to the preservation of
its material organs, by a dread of pain, an inherent
' love of life, and fear of destruction. It is obliged
to attend to the calls of hunger and thirst, and is
most bountifully rewarded for all such attention, not
only by the gratification of the senses, but by the
endearments of social affection, the ties of parental
love, and of individual attachment; in all which the
brutes are allowed to share, and thus to partake of
some of the best enjoyments of wman nature ; as
we, by the cultivation of our higher powers, and
especially of our benevolent affections, raise our-
selves towards the divine.

“Kiven the exertions necessary in the animal
world for self-preservation and self-defence, which
at first sight seem an evil in the creation, will be
found greatly overbalanced by good in the pleasures
derived from exertion, activity, and contrivance,
and the happiness which results from success. The
apparent cruelty by which some animals tyrannize
over their own species, or prey upon others, keeps
up the perfection of nature by removing the weak
and the sickly, and prevents the brute creation in
general from ever knowing the miseries of pro-
tracted sickness or old age. When they can no lon-
ger defend themselves, they are quickly removed.

396

“Tt is only we who have higher aims that can
turn such evils to advantage ; and were it not so,
we also should most assuredly have been spared all
similar sufferings.

“If we experience the severest of evils from which
the brutes are exempt, must it not be for purposes
which do not concern them? Else we should be
‘ of all creatures the most miserable. Thus Nature
confirms truths which she is not of herself compe-
tent to teach. Even we ourselves are made subser-
vient to the good of the animals below us. Whole
tribes of them, in their own nature gentle and de-
fenceless, are brought up in ease and security to
serve us for food or for clothing, and never know
want, or age, or infirmity. Itis our duty that they
should never know pain, and I wish we fulfilled it.
Much is required from the legislature, even in this
country, to guard and favour these helpless beings,
to whom we are so much indebted. It is no part of
the plan of Providence that they should be uselessly
tortured. He who endowed the horse and the dog
with obedience and affection, such as may often put
their masters to shame, designed they should be
happy, not miserable, in our service. ‘A merciful
man regardeth the life of his beast, and not only
its life, but its ease and comfort. I wish the thought-
less to consider this, and that the cruel might be
made to feel it.”

Speaking, in another place, of the characteristic
properties of animals, vegetables, and minerais, Sir
James observes, “If it be asked what is this vital
principle so essential to animals and vegetables, and

397

of which fossils are destitute, we must own our com-
plete ignorance. We know it, as we know its om-
nipotent Author, by its effects. The effects of this
vital energy are continually going on in every or-
ganized body, from our own elaborate frame to the
humblest moss or fungus. Those different fluids,
so fine and transparent, separated from each other
by membranes as fine, which compose the eye,—all
retain their proper situations (though each indivi-
dually perpetually removed and renewed,) for sixty,
eighty, or a hundred years, or more, while “fe re-
mains. So do the infinitely small vessels of an al-
most invisible insect, the fine and pellucid tubes of
a plant,—all hold their destined fluids, conveying or
changing them according to fixed laws, but never
letting them run into confusion so long as the vital
principle animates their various forms. But no
sooner does death happen, than, without any alter-
ation of structure, any apparent change in their
material configuration, all is reversed. The eye
loses its form and brightness, its membranes let go
their contents, which mix in confusion, and yield to
the laws of chemistry alone. Just so it happens,
sooner or later, to the other parts of the animal as
well as vegetable frame :—chemical changes, putre-
faction, and destruction immediately follow the total
loss of life; the importance of which becomes in-
stantly evident when it is no more. I humbly con-
ceive therefore, that if the human understanding
ean in any case flatter itself with obtaining (in the
natural world) anything like a glimpse of the zmme-
diate agency of the Deity, it is in the contemplation

398

of this wtal principle, which seems independent of
material organization, and an impulse of his own
divine energy.”

In another introductory lecture, recurring again
to his own more particular study, Sir James men-
tions that “ A gentleman * of the first rank in ta-
lents, as well as in society, lately suggested to me a
lively illustration of the advantages of scientific bo-
tany as a mere amusement. ‘Suppose,’ said he, ‘a
person were possessed of a secret by which he could
in the busy throng of this great town, on the sight
of every one he meets, immediately recognise their
name, their residence, their occupation, their con-
nexions, without trouble or uncertainty, it would
be thought an enviable talent ; but if to this were
added a power of learning, at the same time, their
characters, dispositions, and powers, there are few
who would despise the acquisition of such an advan-
tage. Just such is systematic botany with regard
to plants. But we may take a far higher ground
for the recommendation of all natural science: a
taste for the beauties of nature, or in other words
an admiration of the works of God, waiving the con-
sideration of all worldly profit and advantage, co-
operates with the highest means of divine instruc-
tion in elevating and improving the mind.

“ The christian philosopher, the more deeply he
studies nature, the more certainly finds every thing
in harmony with his best hopes and dependencies.
He well perceives that the same power which raises
a plant from its seed, can abundantly perform its

* Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart.

399

promises to him. The caterpillar that resigns itself
to its temporary tomb, should be a model of his own
glad submission to the natural and moral laws of
his Maker; and if in his inquiries and pursuits he is
sometimes bafHed, sometimes shocked or distressed
by apparent unintelligible evil, amid a profusion of
good, let him.conceive as addressed to him those
words which his Saviour addressed to his disciples
on an extraordinary manifestation of his person,
‘It is /, be not afraid!”

The concluding passage of the Preface to his En-
glish Flora breathes the same sublime spirit, and
may be referred to as the latest expression of those
cheering hopes he was permitted to utter.

*“ H[e who feeds the sparrows, and clothes the
golden lily of the fields in a splendour beyond that
of Solomon himself, invites us his rational crea-
tures to confide in his promises of eternal life. The
simplest blade of grass, and the grain of corn to
which he gives ‘ its own body,’ are sufficient to con-
vince us that our trust cannot be vain. Let those
who hope to inherit these promises, and those who
love science for its own sake, cherish the same be-
nevolent dispositions. Envy and rivalship in one
case are no less censurable, than bigotry and un-
charitableness in the other. The former are as in-
compatible with the love of nature, as the latter
with the love of God; and they altogether unfit us
for the enjoyment of happiness here or hereafter.”

Sir James composed at different times several
Hymns; and these, in like manner with what has

, -"

400

gone before, express his feelings and ideas. On such
occasions they were warmed and elevated by a devo-
tional fervour which those alone can know, who feel
that at the approach of death,

** They sink into a Father’s arms,
Nor dread the coming day.”

From nine that are extant, the three which follow
are inserted as specimens of his talent in this spe-
cies of composition.

HYMN.

How shall my mortal powers aspire
To soar above this barren clod ?

How join on earth the heavenly quire,
And hymn my Saviour and my God?

Can his transcendent grandeur bow

To hear a feeble creature’s praise ?

Can I propitiate, with my vow,
“The Ancient of Eternal Days?”

Yet what, but his almighty power,

Could first from dust and ashes bring

My humblest longings to adore

The heaven and earth’s all-glorious King?

Would his supreme perfections shine,
Though veil’d, yet radiant, to my sight,
Were nought but sin and sorrow mine,
And my last refuge endless night ‘

Stretch then, my soul, th’ advent’rous wing;
And dare to hope, and love, and praise:
The God who prompts thy voice to sing
Confirms thy hopes, and claims thy lays.

Thy love, a spark of heavenly fire,
His grace will raise and still refine,
Till certainty absorbs desire,

And heaven’s eternal year is thine.

401

HYMN.
It is I, be not afraid.—Matthew xiv. 27.

When power divine in mortal form
Hush'd with a word the raging storm ;
In soothing accents Jesus said,

‘Lo, it is I! be not afraid.”

So, when in silence nature sleeps,

And his lone watch the mourner keeps,
One thought shall every pang remove ;—
Trust, feeble man, thy Maker’s love.

Blest be the voice that breathes from heaven
To every heart in sunder riven,
When love and joy and hope are fled ;

‘‘ Lo, itis 1! be not afraid.”
When men with fiend-like passions rage,
And foes yet fiercer foes engage ;
Blest be the voice, though still and small,
That whispers—‘ God is over all.”
God calms the tumult and the storm ;
He rules the seraph and the worm ;
No creature is by him forgot,
Of those who know, or know him not.
And when the last dread hour shall come ;
While shuddering nature waits her doom ;
This voice shall call the pious dead ;

‘* Lo, itis 1! be not afraid.”

The next, written after the loss of a mother he
tenderly loved, and, in the course of a few weeks
after, that of another relative, no less dear to the
present writer, cannot be inappropriate in this
place. Filial affection was one of the strongest
which Sir James possessed, and it extended to them
both in no common degree.

VOL. II. 2D

402

HYMN.
Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.—2 Samuel vii. 12.

As o’er the closing urn we bend

Of each beloved and honour’d friend,
What tears of anguish roll!

In vain in death’s unconscious face

The living smile we seek to trace
That spoke from soul to soul.

But shall not memory still supply

The kindly glance, the beaming eye,
That oft our converse blest ;

That brighten’d many a prospect drear,

Revived our virtue, soothed our care,
And lull’d each pain to rest ?

And when these frail remains are gone,

Our hearts the impression still shall own,
Our mortal path to cheer :

O God! to point the way to heaven

These angel-guides by thee were given ;
How blest to meet them there !

Had the strength of Sir James Smith’s bodily
frame been commensurate with the powers of his
mind, his friends might have anticipated length of
days as his portion: but his health, which had never
been unbroken, visibly declined for the last five or
six years, and on the 17th of March 1828, after
the illness of a single day, it pleased God to remove
him from the world.

The quality which rendered the social character
of the revered subject of these pages so engaging,
arose not less from the benevolence of his heart
than from the stores of his understanding. He shed

403

a joy around him, springing from the pure sympa-
thy he felt for those he knew to be his friends.

Absolutely free from the vanity of display, he
sought rather to relax his overwrought mind in the
company of such as cast aside their wisdom for a
while, or in the presence of the young and inno-
cent to study nature in another form.

As a naturalist he had a benevolent delight in
infancy itself, and interpreted the mute language of
smiles and struggles, the rudiments of expression
and intelligence which met his own, and gave him
the happy sensation of looking upon beauty and
innocence in creatures destined to act a part ina
new existence, claiming compassion and direction,
and as the fairest semblance of the kingdom of
heaven.

This temperament has been obvious to notice in
the foregoing letters. However different the pro-
fession, age, character, or situation, of those who
corresponded with him, we perceive that each ad-
dresses him as a friend upon whose fidelity he can
rely ;—upon various occasions we have observed
these men of science appealing to the heart of their
friend for sympathy in distress, or participation of
prosperity, as if he were the intimate and sole depo-
sitory of their affections and confidence.

Towards the young and friendless especially these
feelings were directed; and in every instance it may
with truth be asserted that Sir James was no re-
pecter of persons, but quite unbiassed by the station,
whether high or low, of the individual towards whom
his kindly feelings were attracted. As might be

2Dd2

404

expected, this strength of attachment in his dispo-
sition was productive of a corresponding one in the
objects of his esteem. In later life more particu-
larly, his love for the young was productive of much
benefit to their moral character. He did not pre-
sent virtue before their eyes, a stern forbidding
form; but never omitted an opportunity which of-
fered, to display the force of some moral precept,
some religious truth, which his own experience had
confirmed; and his own indulgent temper rooted —
such precepts more deeply in the heart.

Of selfish gratifications he had none; “his mind
was formed for friendship, and could not exist with-
out it.”

But there is no point wherein he appears more
amiable, than in the pleasure it gave him to pro-
mote or hear of the happiness of others; envy and
jealousy were passions unknown to him, and he al-
ways considered them effects of conscious unwor-
thiness. If he was in any respect wanting in cha-
rity, it was towards the malignant dispositions of
the world.

Of the poor and humble, it gave him heartfelt de-
light to observe and enter into their scanty pleasures,
their little vanity, or even weakness ; but the know-
ledge of the sacrifices they make to humanity and
duty, their kindness to each other, their fortitude in
distress, melted his heart, and willingly would he have
have wiped all tears from their eyes. He truly felt
that “ God hath made of one blood all the families
of the earth,” and his benevolent sympathies ex-
tended to the whole human race.

405

“ A man of a kinder heart,” observes his friend
Dr. Davy, Master of Caius College, “ more amiable
dispositions, and purer moral habits, cannot exist ;
and it was his-elicity to have his mental abilities
proportioned to his moral qualities. In his own
science he had from his youth stood at the head of
the botanists of this kingdom, and I believe equal
to those of any other; (but on this subject I must
leave to those of his friends who are more skilful
in that department, the office of making a more
appropriate panegyric;) but of him it may be truly
said, that none could enjoy the world possessing
or deserving more friends, and none could quit it
with better hopes.”

“This great and irreparable loss,” says Mr. Ros-
coe, “I too much remember as one of the weightiest
misfortunes of my life; for though I was sensible
that the health of my dear friend was precarious,
yet I had flattered myself that, being younger by so
many years than myself, I should have left him my
survivor. I cannot however but rejoice in his calm
and happy departure, his great worth fully under-
stood, his fame established, and his most valuable
work just finished. When I consider these circum-
stances, together with his pure and pious mind, I
cannot repine at the result; and if it were not pre-
sumptuous, I would express an earnest wish that
my latter day might be like his.”

“To express,” says Dr. Maton, “the sincere and
deep concern which the melancholy intelligence
created in my mind, and in that of every one who
knew our departed friend; seems to be almost su-

406

perfluous ; for I am sure that you cannot imagine
how it should be otherwise than that I should to
my heart lament suchaloss. The lovers of science
will join in lamenting it throughout the civilized
world, and our Society must feel it to be irreparable.
They have lost their corporate parent, as well as
one of their greatest ornaments. My friendship
with the late excellent Sir James Smith was of al-
most forty years’ standing,—it was cordial, it was
constant. I shall never cease to reflect on it with
peculiar pride and satisfaction.”

The nobleman who has succeeded to the presi-
dent’s chair in the Linnzan Society, expresses a re-
gard which could only be the consequence of the
same friendly feelings and high esteem which Sir
James entertained for his lordship.

“TI cannot,” writes Lord Stanley, “allow a single
moment to pass without expressing my sincere
thanks for the very flattering attention shown me
in communicating the loss we have sustained by
the removal of our valued friend Sir James Smith,
—an attention the more flattering as I cannot
but consider it a sort of testamentary addition to
the many acts of kindness I have received from him
in life, and asa proof that his surviving connexions
do me the justice to consider me as one of those
friends who truly regarded, and now as sincerely
regret him.

«« His loss, indeed, in the friendly and social circles
in which he so much delighted, must be long and
deservedly felt ; nor will the place he filled in the
estimation of the public and literary world, with so

407

much advantage to their objects and such high
credit to himself, be soon or easily supplied.

“JT cannot but fear the effect which this shock
may produce upon the health, already too much
shaken, of another valuable friend,—I mean Mr.
Roscoe, who, I believe, is at this moment at Holk-
ham. It will indeed be singular if the lives of both
these men, amiable and worthy, as well as able
supporters of the great principle of religious free-
dom, should be fated to close just at the moment
when that great point, as far as regarded at least
all Protestant dissent, appears to be achieving its
last final victory.”

This misfortune did not follow immediately,—
Mr. Roscoe survived his friend more than three
years. He survived to add another testimony to
those already adduced of the value he attached to
the scientific attainments of his friend. In the
preface to his splendid work upon the Monandrian
plants, while speaking of the recent loss, Mr. Roscoe
adds the consolatory reflection, “that it did not
happen till Sir James had been enabled to terminate
his great work, the English Flera, a work which
perfected the system of English botany as far as
present discoveries admit; and has, together with
his other learned writings, conferred upon its author
a name and station which will remain pre-eminent
as long as the science itself exists.” .

“Tf,” as we are told by the Rev. E. B. Ramsay,
* much of the secret of human happiness consists,
as Paley observes, in the formation of habits of
observation, a knowledge of botany largely contri-

408

™“

butes to that happiness: for in a solitary walk, in mS

journey, or in the absence of those with whom we
can converse, objects are constantly occurring to
interest oramuse. Thus botany has sources of en-
joyment similar to those so well described by Cicero
when speaking of the happiness arising from the
study of letters. ‘Hec studia adolescentiam agunt,
senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis
perfugium ac solatium prebent, delectant domi,
peregrinantur, rusticantur.

“It is a noble and delightful office of the man of
science to spread around him the happiness of
knowledge, and to put into the power of others the
gratifications which science can so liberally afford.
But this is a power not granted to all who are in
possession of knowledge; for the communication
and the possession of wisdom are by no means al-
ways united; and surely the value of any man’s
knowledge is to be estimated very much according
to the happiness he diffuses around him. The cha-
racter of the late illustrious President of the Lin-
neean Society will thus live in connexion with science
and its pleasures, and his name be repeated with
gratitude by thousands, who will consider him as a
benefactor, for having given them habits of obser-
vation and attention to the natural objects around
them, by which their sources of enjoyment were
multiplied and pleasures made to spring up at every
step.”

“To his extensive botanical acquirements,” ob-
serves Professor Hooker, “ he added the high at-
tainments of an elegant scholar, and a talent of

“NG

409

composition which has rendered his writings uni-
versally popular, and has been the means of throw-
ing a charm over his botanical writings scarcely
known to the science before.”

A writer in the Philosophical Magazine * thus
concludes his Obituary: “In summing up the sci-
entific character of Sir James Edward Smith, it
may be comprised in a few words. As a naturalist
he contributed greatly to the advancement of the
science, and stood pre-eminent for judgement, ac-
curacy, candour, and industry. He was disposed
to pay due respect to the great authorities that
had preceded him, but without suffering his de-
ference for them to impede the exercise of his own
judgement. He was equally open to real improve-
ment, and opposed to the affectation of needless
innovation. He found the science of botany, when
he approached it, locked up in a dead language ;
—he set it free by transfusing into it his own.
He found it a severe study, fitted only for the re-
cluse ;—he left it of easy acquisition to all. In the
hands of his predecessors, with the exception of his
immortal master, it was dry, technical and scho-
lastic ;—in his, it was adorned with grace and ele-
gance, and might attract the poet as well as the
philosopher.”

* May 1828. Vol. iii. p. 397.

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APPEN DIX.

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,

Read at the London Institution, May 2nd, 1825.

THE history of botany asa science has often been given
in various forms and languages. It makes a principal
part of an Introductory Discourse which I had the honour
of delivering at the opening of the Linnean Society in
1788, and which is published in the Linnean Transac-
tions and elsewhere. The subject, under a rather different
point of view, is continued in the article ‘‘ Botany” of the
Supplement to the Edinburgh Cyclopedia. It would ill
become me to take up your time with what is detailed in
those essays, though I have heard much of the former in-
troduced into the lectures of other teachers; and if it
tended to entertain or inform their hearers, my principal
ends in the original composition were answered. I con-
ceive that a writer on scientific subjects is most honoured,
when his observations and discoveries are used, without
mistrust or particular acknowledgement, as current coin,
whose value is undisputed, and whose stamp and date are
easily ascertained by those who are curious in such parti-

412

eulars. But an author himself ought to be the last per-
son in the world to look for such authority or to repose
upon it. The more he has done, the more he will find to
do, and, if the world should be disposed to give him cre-
dit for any thing, the more he will be aware of the duty
and the difficulty of not misleading its confidence or dis-
appointing its expectations. When science has been long
and extensively cultivated, and is become an object of
great popular attention, it assumes a very different cha-
racter from the abstruse pursuits of the cloister or the
schools, or the speculations ofa few recluse and abstracted
proficients. No study has undergone a more remarkable
change in this respect than botany. From its earliest dawn
as a science, in the writings of the Greeks and Arabians,
almost to our own time, it has been considered in no other
light than as a branch of medical study; and even the
highest praise bestowed upon this, his favourite pursuit,
by the great Haller, is, that “‘it equals every branch of
medical science in utility, and surpasses every one in
agreeableness.”” The chief object of the earliest and most
learned botanists, after the revival of literature, was to
ascertain the plants used in medicine by the ancients; and
however imperfectly described in their works, the vege-
table kingdom was to these botanical physicians a great
storehouse of remedies, whose recorded qualities were
scarcely to be contested or examined, provided the indi-
vidual plants could be settled beyond dispute. This in-
deed was the great difficulty,—to the more or less com-
plete removal of which we are indebted for the existence
of botany as a learned pursuit; which having engaged,
and often baffled, the powers of many a first-rate genius,
has taken its rank among the more distinguished studies
of philosophers. The attention of many following ages was
devoted to the mere discrimination of one kind of plant
from another, before any ideas of the necessity or the
principles of arrangement, much less of the constitution
and ceconomy of vegetable bodies, or of sound principles

413

of inquiry into their natures and properties, had ever en-
tered into the mind of man. Such objects are comparatively
of recent date. Some of them have arisen almost under
our own observation. They are now become the most im-
portant and instructive part of botanical science; and
when united to an elegant and disinterested love of the
beauty of nature, as the work of God and an emblem of
his own boundless perfection, they constitute, in all their
branches, one of the most refined, improving, and unex-
ceptionable pursuits, that can claim the notice or employ
the leisure of persons of either sex, or of any age or condi-
tion. Can it be necessary for me, before I go any further,
to expatiate on the recommendations and advantages
of my favourite study, to which I have devoted my life?
I take it for granted that none of you would take the
trouble to come here without some prepossession in its
favour; and if your partiality be not increased by the
views, however limited, which I shall have time and op-
portunity to lay before you, I might now raise your ex-
pectations only to disappoint them.

We cannot proceed far in even the most general and
comprehensive views of the physiology of plants, without
a perception that such inquiries are eminently useful in
teaching us fo think, to consider the most common objects
in a perfectly new light, and with the help, as it were, of
new senses. How many of the more intelligent and im-
proved of rational beings have enjoyed, and daily do enjoy,
the beauty and perfume of flowers, the verdure and grate-
ful shade of trees, in all their luxuriancy of foliage,—with-
out considering by what means or for what purpose those
lovely forms and colours are so infinitely varied! How
many taste the delicious variety of fruits, and even see them
grow gradually to perfection, without bestowing a thought
on the possible means by which these various exquisite
scents and flavours are extracted from the same common
soil; or how the air, the warmth, or the light of heaven, lend
their respective assistance to the production of such won-

414

ders ! To these contemplations the young mind may most
beneficially be directed; but there is no mind above being
improved by reflection, and the requisite exertion soon
brings its own reward. But if the inquiries to which I
have just alluded, rarely enter into the contemplation of a
common observer, how much more seldom do the most
reflecting minds spontaneously notice, with due attention,
those almost infinitely varied circumstances of form, situ-
ation, or colour, by which individuals of the vegetable as
well as of the animal creation, and their several parts, are
distinguished ; observing, at the same time, those delicate
and intricate combinations and coincidences by which the
whole of nature is harmonized, and her manifold irregu-
larities and luxuriances reduced to the most perfect order!
Here indeed our limited faculties fail us, as we attempt to
measure them against the operations of Omniscience ; but
we may derive abundant consolation from the reflection,
that we are allowed and enabled to consider those opera-
tions at all, and to converse, at the most humble distance,
with Him, who in perfect wisdom has made them all, and
who, in condescending to render his laws in any measure
intelligible to us, has manifestly designed that we should
at least ¢ry to understand them. If he has not made the
study of these natural laws, like those of his moral govern-
ment, our indispensable duty, he has reserved no ordinary
reward for such of his children as raise their thoughts to
him even among these his lowest works. What he has
made beautiful to us, he doubtless intended we should ad-
mire; and in whatever form we are allowed to trace the
footsteps of his wisdom and beneficence, it must be, in
every instance, for the great ends of our own moral and
intellectual improvement.

Such considerations as these cannot but suggest them-
selves to every mind directed to the observation of nature.
They stimulate us to exertion, and they reward our perse-
verance. They furnish us also with a ready answer to all
who doubt the importance or the utility of our pursuit, and

415

who think it a degradation of their own sublime talents or
characters, to submit either to the guidance or the admo-
nition of infinite wisdom, however manifested to us.

How far the attentive study, or even the slightest ob-
servation of nature, is delightful and salutary to the mind,
let those say who have, by a natural taste or an acquired
habit, given themselves to such contemplations. Is it
better to walk abroad with the eyes open or shut? Is the
interchange of ideas in human society delightful and in-
structive ? Are the imitations of nature in the finest works
of art admirable? And shall it not be thought a privilege
to hold converse with the source of all thought and wis-
dom and perfection? Do not the changes of seasons, and
the endless variations in the aspect of nature and her pro-
ductions, excite perpetual attention, and entertain us with
never-ceasing variety? If our deepest inquiries lead us so
far as to understand why a bud unfolds itself in the spring,
and a leaf falls in autumn, we shall have learned enough
to convince us of the existence of design in nature, and of
the application of the most wise and compendious laws to
the most decided and satisfactory ends. One fact, thus
established and understood, may serve the philosopher as
a basis, not by his machinery to overturn the world, but
to raise a structure that shall truly reach from this world
to another. The study of nature is undoubtedly, above all
others, a science of practical observation ; but to with-
hold the exercise of our reasoning faculties as we pursue it,
would be a strange example of intellectual blindness. The
old physicians indeed, to whom I have alluded, were often
content to adopt the opinions and follow the practice of
men who had lived a few centuries before them ; and some
have declared they would rather be in the wrong with an
ancient than in the right with a modern. But such an ab-
ject prostration of the best faculties and duties of man has
never long existed, except where the most sordid interest
has acquired an exclusive dominion. In medicine and na-
tural science such a tyranny must soon work its own cure;

416

for the physician or the philosopher who will not think for
himself, is not likely to be long trusted or respected by
others.

Systematic botany, as a branch of natural history, is
conversant with the external forms of things; but even
this is advanced by the study of their internal nature and
ceconomy. So the qualities of plants are better understood,
the more attentively we scrutinize the laws of their exte-
rior configuration. These various inquiries, therefore, may
go hand in hand with great advantage ; though they have
seldom done so,—as will appear to any one who pays a
little attention to the history and progress of each.

The discrimination of the species of plants, which so
long occupied the earlier botanists, whose labours are re-
corded for our use in the numerous descriptions and often
excellent figures of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
could scarcely be pursued without leading to some ideas of
arrangement or classification. And yet it is a curious fact,
that such principles as these early botanists put forth were
singularly deficient in accuracy and ingenuity. To class
plants according to their being eatable or poisonous, bul-
bous or fibrous in their roots, arborescent or herbaceous in
their constitution, is, in every point, almost equally futile
and uninstructive. Nor is it less curious, that philosophers
of great eminence, who long after undertook the investi-
gation of the anatomy and philosophy of the vegetable
kingdom, were (to their own great disadvantage, ) as little
attentive to the natural affinities or diversities of plants, in
the prosecution of their various experiments and the theo-
ries founded upon them. In like manner, the class of pro-
fessed systematic writers, in their earliest attempts at ar-
rangement, seem to have been led more by rules of tech-
nical discrimination than of natural or philosophical com-
bination. None of these three descriptions of persons
thought of deriving any aid from each other. Hence the
reproach not altogether unjustly cast upon systematic
botany, or at least upon some systematic botanists, —that

417

their study teaches nothing of the uses of plants. On the
other hand, physiologists, in their investigations of the ve-
getable as well as animal kingdoms, have fallen into errors
and laboured under many disadvantages, for want of accu-
rately knowing one thing from another ; just as mere prac-
tical or empirical observers or collectors of plants, so far
from noticing any circumstance that might lead by reason
or analogy to assist their inquiries, very often, from the
neglect of the clearest principles, commit the most absurd
mistakes. Thus I have known Chervil gathered for Hem-
lock, the purple Lythrum for the Digitalis, and Creeping
Crowfoot for the Fiorin Grass. The great physiologist
Spallanzani made observations upon young aquatic snails,
which had not yet acquired their shells, mistaking them
for the vegetable Tremella; and proved, by learned de-
duction, that the said Tremel/a, or rather the snails, were
of an animal nature; nor was he at all pleased at being
set right in this matter of fact. .
We are indebted to the Italian philosophers of the seven-
teenth century, especially to Malpighi, for the first con-
siderable information respecting the anatomy or internal
structure of the vegetable body; though our ingenious
countryman, Dr. Grew, nearly about the same time was
intent on the same subject. In the next century their facts
and observations, assisted by new ones, were made good
use of by physiologists, properly so called,—such as
Hales, Blair, Bradley, and our immortal Newton himself,
in England ; and more recently by Du Hamel and Bonnet,
with a number of less original writers, on the continent.
Labourers in this field of science have, for some time past,
not been wanting, though much yet remains to be done.
Every hand is not alike successful in advancing the pro-
gress of real knowledge. Those who have had some par-
ticular object in view, as the uses of the stamens and
pistils of plants, or the theory of their reproduction, have
paid little regard to the physiology of other parts, —as the
calyx, corolla, or foliage. So, with respect to classification,
VOL. Il. 2E

418

some have entered very deeply and successfully into the
accurate principles of generic and specific distinction, as
Dillenius, who hardly gave a thought to general arrange-
ment; while many systems have been planned by men
who had no correct ideas of the natural principles of dis-
crimination or affinity.

It seems as if the science of botany were no sooner
destined to emerge from obscurity and confusion, by a just
perception on these various subjects, than it becomes in
danger of plunging again into darkness by a neglect of
them. The natural principles of arrangement for a scien-
tific knowledge of plants, and a permanent discrimination
of their families and species, have been no sooner distin-
guished (at the suggestion of Linneus) from an artificial
scheme, for their convenient investigation, than these dif-
ferent objects are confounded. Local Floras, for begin-
ners, are disposed according to natural orders; as if
plants could be made out by them in an analytical man-
ner,—which the most learned could scarcely attempt.
This would perhaps be of small consequence, did not the
depreciation of the artificial system of Linnzus induce a
neglect of those great and important principles, that di-
dactic precision independent of all systems, to which his
own fame and the advancement of every branch of natural
science are owing. If any of his principles should prove
to be ill-founded, or his laws objectionable, either with
regard to the characters or the names of plants, let those
who are competent by all means amend them. Let Lin-
neus himself be brought back to his own wise laws, which
he too often transgresses.

But let not inadvertence or ignorance take place of his
sagacity and experience, and publish their crudities with-
out reading his works; founding genera without knowing
any sound rules for their discrimination, and giving names
according to futile principles which have been scouted
over and over again.

The French nation, always aiming at a paramount au-

419

thority in matters of science, grudging England her New-
ton, and Sweden her Linnzus, has attempted to make a
schism in botany, as in other departments of knowledge.
But these are the contemptible aims of second-rate cha-
racters.

The illustrious Frenchman Bernard de Jussieu, the
early and confidential friend of Linneus, conceived a phi-
losophical idea of natural orders of plants, and conferred
on the subject with the only man whom he found capable
of appreciating or understanding them. He, in his letters
to Linneus, even gives him the honour of having first
formed a scheme of natural orders of plants. However
this may be, they certainly laboured for some time in con-
junction. Afterwards Linneus pursued his own course
alone ; and the first and most important result was the
assertion of a principle to which I have already alluded,
—that natural and artificial classification are in themselves
essentially distinct, and calculated for purposes altogether
incompatible with each other. This may be easily il-
lustrated. That the distinction of one species of plant
from another is strictly natural, no one will deny. Such
a distinction is not only obviously founded in nature, but
is confirmed, as clearly as possible, by experience, in the
vegetable as well as the animal kingdom. Varieties among
plants do, indeed, often arise from seed, originating in
various causes ; which causes are, as yet, very imperfectly
known. But the experience of every day teaches, that
such varieties are but of limited duration. They are aber-
rations from the regular plan of Nature, which she is ever
checking and defeating. As far as any observation or
record extends, no permanent change has taken place in
any known species of plant. On the contrary, the history
of those variations which have most attracted notice, as in
eatable fruits and ornamental flowers, shows very distinctly
that each has but a limited and uncertain duration, This
fact being more clearly demonstrated by Linnzus than it
had previously been, he advanced a step further, and as-
; 2E2

420

serted, that certain assemblages of species, of plants as
well as animals, agreeing in their appropriate characters
and qualities, are as much founded in nature as the
species themselves. These are called genera, or fami-
lies of plants. Each is marked by an assemblage of
natural characters, in which our idea of such genus is
founded ; while it is distinguished from all others by
some essential character. A few familiar examples will
explain this. In the animal kingdom the great tribe of
Monkeys forms a natural genus or assemblage of species,
which no one will dispute. The Lion, Tiger, Leopard, Cat,
and many more, constitute another, whose rough tongue
and retractile claws exhibit an essential character, that
confirms their other peculiarities and common habits.
Parrots, also, happily termed ‘‘ the monkeys of birds,”
are no less similar to each other than different from the
rest of their tribe. In plants, the genus Rosa, under all
the elegant differences of its species and their several va-
rieties, is no less well marked. You will find its indis-
putable characters in every botanical book. The valuable
genus Quercus, the Oak, known by the acorn and its scaly
cup; the very curious and extensive genus Ficus, the Fig,
so peculiarly distinguished by the concealment of its
flowers in a cell or bag, which afterwards becomes the
fruit ; are both no less obviously defined by the hand of
nature than a dog and a horse.

But there are other natural assemblages not less evi-
dent than natural genera.

These are termed natural orders.

The Rose, the Bramble, the Strawberry, and the Cinque-
foil, have numerous characters, as well as properties, in
common, which stamp them all together as a natural
order ; while each is marked by a peculiarity in its fruit,
not unattended by other differences, by which its indi-
vidual generic distinction is just as clearly defined. So
beasts of prey and birds of prey, properly so called, are
known to everybody as natural tribes, consisting of several

421

no less natural genera or assemblages of species. Nor are
Grasses, as one clear natural order, and Umbelliferous
plants as another, less strikingly evident among vegeta-
bles. Bernard de Jussieu and Linneus concurred in
tracing out several of these natural orders. But Linneus,
who long survived his learned friend, at length became
persuaded, that neither our knowledge of the species and
genera of plants, nor the discriminative powers of the
human mind, were as yet adequate to the forming a ge-
neral system of such orders ; nor even to define, perhaps
any one of them, beyond a possibility of doubt or excep-
tion. Genera may, in a vast number of instances, be
clearly and technically defined with almost mathematical
precision ; but scarcely any natural order, however di-
stinctly perceptible, has yet been reduced to irrefragable
definition in words. This being the case, it is manifest
that no assemblage of such orders can serve for the ana-
lytical investigation of unknown plants.

That object is attainable by simple and indisputable
principles only, which keep clear of the ambiguities of na-
tural orders, and which require no previous knowledge of
any such combinations. The purpose of an artificial sy-
stem, or any system for the use of a learner, is, to make
out the characters, name, and history of some unknown
plant.

The chief object of the study of natural orders is to
enable us to understand and to teach others the limits of
natural genera.

It is of great consequence that these two very distinct
objects should not be confounded, for they cannot be as-
similated. A simple and ready artificial arrangement, on
the plan of an alphabet, is necessary for those who, hay-
ing found a plant, want to discover its name and history,
by investigation of its technical characters, according to
rules which are easily learned, and require no previous ex-
perience.

Such is the sole aim of the popular system of Linneus.
Being founded on parts which every plant in perfection

422

must have, it must be universally applicable. These parts
are the stamens and pistils of flowers. Their number,
situation, and proportion, afford the principles by which
the twenty-four classes of Linnzus, and their respective
orders, are discriminated. This alphabet is the key to our
botanical dictionaries, whether they be universal systems,
or Species Plantarum ; or whether they be partial or local
catalogues, termed Floras, of particular countries, or ca-
talogues of limited collections or gardens.

Such works as these last have multiplied prodigiously
since the promulgation of the Linnean system, and have
tended very essentially to promote a practical knowledge
of plants. To this end, they should be accompanied with
as much useful information as their concise plan admits ;
or, at least, with references to more ample treatises. _

Much scorn has been bestowed, by some affected phi-
losophers, upon these ‘‘ mere catalogues,” as they call
them, which, as they allege, teach nothing but names.

‘But these philosophers have never attempted to instruct
us how we are to perpetuate or communicate a knowledge
of things, without the very commodious invention of di-
stinguishing them by names. The subjects of the vege-
table kingdom are indeed so immensely numerous (sixty
thousand Phenogamous), that this study of nomenclature
is become of itself no less arduous than necessary; but
be this as it may, it cannot be dispensed with.

Voyages and accounts of distant countries are now no
longer written or read for mere amusement, like novels
or fairy tales. We are not now to be satisfied with
reading that particular nations or people use some “‘ cer-
tain herb or tree” for food or medicine. We expect to
know the scientific name, or the botanical affinities, of
every curious or important plant, whence alone we can
derive any real instruction.

I hope it will in time be thought no less essential, that
the distinguishing characters of every such object, in the
animal as well as vegetable kingdom, should be indicated
by travellers of competent information.

423

When ve have stored our minds with the names, and
a sufficient practical knowledge of the technical distinc-
tions of a number of plants, we may try to study their
natural affinities and properties.

We shall find where we are most likely to meet with

an eatable fruit, a medicine of a particular quality, or a
texture or substance that may serve any one ceconomical
purpose. Thus a sound scientific knowledge is acquired
step by step ; and, accordingly, Linneus read lectures on
the natural orders of plants to his most assiduous and ac-
complished pupils only. To begin to teach botany by
these orders, would be like putting Harris’s Hermes into
the hand of an infant, instead of his horn-book.
. Linneus, to the last, professed himself but a learner in
this abstruse science ; and was so well aware of bis limited
knowledge, that: he never would attempt to construct any
general system of natural classification. He did indeed,
as his friend Bernard de Jussieu had done, attempt ranging
his orders in a simple series, there being a manifest af-
finity between some of them rather than others. He went
a step further, and formed a sort of map, indicating in a
geographical manner the proximity and the bearings of
the several orders with regard to each other. This was an
original idea of Linnzeus, and it greatly facilitates a com-
prehensive notion of the subject. In this state he left it ;
and we are indebted to two or three of his pupils, who
took notes of his lectures, and with his leave published
them, for almost all our knowledge of his principles or
opinions. These are often so imperfectly or incorrectly
detailed, that we cannot but lament the work was not un-
dertaken, or at least revised and corrected, by himself,

Meanwhile, however, the ancient rivalship between the
schools of Upsal and of Paris took the commendable and
beneficial form of a just and worthy emulation. To the
French botanists we are indebted for the great attempt of
moulding into a regular shape the philosophical specula-
tions of Linnzus and of Bernard de Jussieu. The latter

424

was succeeded by a nephew, capable of advancing his un-
dertakings, and worthy to inherit his fame. The present
Professor de Jussieu has constructed a regular system, or
methodical arrangement, upon the natural orders of his
uncle: a system which is necessarily imperfect, because
there are numerous genera whose orders remain undeter-
mined ; and necessarily artificial also, because human
knowledge, as well as human intellect, being limited, no
man can fully comprehend, much less preconceive, the
entire plan of the all-wise Author of Nature, without ex-
ception or ambiguity. One celebrated character only, the
famous Sir John Hill, has laid claim to this power.

When. Dr. Garden discovered in Carolina what was
thought to make a new order of animals, Sir John Hill
wrote to congratulate him, as having verified a sublime
speculation of his own.

‘““T have disposed,” says he, “ all the works of creation
in a series or chain, and have distinguished each by its
appropriate number. In doing this I have perceived that
there must be some intermediate beings, not yet disco-
vered, to fill up breaks in my chain. Your new animal
comes precisely between two of my numbers where there
is One number unoccupied.” Had I not seen the original
letter of Sir John Hill in Dr. Garden’s hands, [I could
scarcely have believed the existence of so much pre-
sumption. The opinion, and its pretended anticipation,
prove equally unfounded ; for the animal supposed to con-
stitute, not only a new genus but a new order, proves
really a fish of the well-known genus Murena. In ac-
ceding to this opinion of the learned Professor Camper
I must ingenuously confess, that, in this instance at least,
the sagacity of an able physiologist has rendered a ma-
terial service to systematic naturalists; though I cannot
submit to the contempt with which he in general regarded
men as able and learned as himself, though in a line of
science for which he had little taste or ability. The na-
tural orders of plants, therefore, not being as yet all de-

* 425

termined ; and the relationship of many of them to each
other either very disputable or not at all perceptible; there
being, moreover, a great number of genera which cannot
be referred to any of them; the chain of connexion by
which they have, however ingeniously, been linked to-
gether, constitutes, in my opinion, but an artificial system,
infinitely less easy and commodious than the professedly ar-
tificial system of Linneus, and making combinations, in
several instances not more natural. This has been well
illustrated by my able friend Mr. Roscoe, in the eleventh
volume of the Linnean Society’s Transactions. No
one can deny that the present system of Jussieu offers
the whole vegetable kingdom to our consideration under
a most instructive view, as bringing together every ac-
knowledged point of affinity, and indicating even the
most remote. I only contend that it is but an artificial
and imperfect assemblage of natural orders, and that its
scheme of arrangement is totally unfit for the use of
beginners, the most learned, who have no occasion to at-
tend to it, being scarcely competent to unravel its nume-
rous contradictions and exceptions. What seems to me
most paradoxical is, that botanists, of the French school,
who are strenuous for the use of natural orders to the ex-
clusion of an artificial method, object altogether to the
principle of Linnezus, that all genera are, or ought to be,
natural ; they assert, that all genera are mere artificial
combinations, existing in the mind of man only; and yet
they will have their own orders, which are assemblages
of such genera, to be indisputably founded in nature.
In the one point or the other they surely must err. Both
appear natural to me, though I am very far from suppo-
sing that we have brought the knowledge of either to
perfection. We can only advance towards that point by
long experience and close observation.

The best practical botanist, is he who knows the great-
est number of species, and combines them into the most
natural genera. The best theoretical one, is he who con-

426

ceives the most clear and comprehensive idea of natural
orders, separately or combined ; who perceives best what
constitutes an order or a genus, and, above all, from what
particular principles, in each different order, generic di-
stinctions are best to be derived. But most of all I
should wish to attempt the demonstration of some of his
or Linneeus’s natural orders, for they are very often the
same, that you may be enabled to see in what their di-
stinctions consist, and to pursue the ideas of these great
men, for your own pleasure and instruction. The subject is
boundless, and perfection is unattainable. But we may
derive great assistance from considering nature under va-
rious points of view, and from applying to practical use
what others have, with great pains and difficulty, been
able to establish.

All systematic botanists, since the subject was first at-
tentively considered, have concurred in one sentiment,
that the parts of fructification, or, in other words, the
organs which compose the flower and fruit, are the only
ones which can, with any certainty, be resorted to for the
essential principles of arrangement. Linnzus extends
this maxim to the generic characters of plants, in which
botanists of the French school do not concur.

I cannot but esteem this one of their greatest errors,
which, as far as I can perceive, may always be avoided by
a competent exertion of the mental powers; the parts of
fructification, well considered, being abundantly sufficient
in every case to characterize genera that are really and
naturally distinct. For those that are not so, of which
examples in books are but too frequent, I am ready to al-
low that no good distinctions are to be found. The first
great difference in plants universally considered as divi-
ding the vegetable kingdom into two most natural and
essentially distinct sections, is founded on the structure
of the seed, and its mode of germinating or sprouting.
If its form be simple, and the bud or embryo undivided,
the plants so circumstanced are said to be Monocotyle-

427

dones, or having but one cotyledon. If the embryo di-
vides, in sprouting, into two * primary lobes, which origi-
nally made up the bulk of the seed, as in a Pea or Bean,
and between which the young plant springs, such are
termed Dicotyledones. These are the most numerous.

The obscure tribes of Fungi, Mosses, Ferns, and others,
whose parts of fructification are but partially known, and
which Linneus referred to his class Cryptogamia, are
supposed, with a few doubtful additions, to make up a
third division, called Acotyledones, as having no cotyledon
at all. But this is an extremely doubtful point, scarcely
capable of demonsiration, or even of investigation; and
which the further we look we find less reason to adopt.
It would be more consonant with fact to say, that what
are denominated Monocotyledones, have really no cotyle-
dons. As, however, the Cryptogamous tribes just men-
tioned, are too imperfectly known in their germination, to
allow us to say any thing decisive about them, it is best to
leave them apart, and to adopt for the bulk of the vege-
table kingdom the popular terms and ideas of Monocoty-
ledones and Dicotyledones, This distinction is confirmed
by others, well worthy of remark. The Monocotyledones
are most simple in their whole structure, external as well
as internal. Their vascular system is on a larger scale,
and more easily examined. Their bark and wood are
scarcely, if at all, deposited in concentric or annual layers.
Their stems are less branching, their foliage generally
simple, undivided, and without indentation. The parts
of fructification are disposed according to the number 3
and its compounds, which I believe the learned Mr.
Brown either first observed, or, at least, has much con-
firmed and illustrated.

The Dicotyledones are in every respect more complex
and various. Their seed-lobes either remain under ground,
or more commonly are elevated in the form of a pair of
leaves, till the real foliage comes forth. The wood of

* Rarely many-cleft:

428

their stems and roots is composed of annual circles, in the
youngest or outermost of which the whole process of their
circulation, nourishment, and increase, for tle present year,
is transacted. The number 5 and its compounds generally
prevail in their parts of fructification.

These great primary distinctions being, in the main,
established, we proceed to principles of subdivision. In
these, what is technically called insertion, or the mode in
which one part is situated with respect to another, takes
the lead. Chiefly is to be considered whether the Ger-
men (the rudiment of the fruit or seed,) is below the other
parts of the flower or above them, inferior or superior.

Next we are to notice how the Petals (coloured leaves
of a flower) if present, and the Stamens (organs of im-
pregnation) are connected with each other, or with the
Calyx (external covering). Lastly, whether the Stamens
and Pistils are situated in the same flower or in two di-
stinct ones of the same species.

These several principles are the key to Jussieu’s sy-
stem. The comparative value, or certainty, of each, we
shall investigate as we proceed. We must always keep
in mind that not one of them is, in every case, strictly ab-
solute, or without exception, in its interference with na-
tural orders, perhaps not even the great division of Mo-
nocotyledones and Dicotyledones.

Hence, an ingenious French author, M. Richard, re-
jecting this, has divided plants, according to their mode
of germination, into Endorhize and Exorhize.

The first, as the name imports, produce their root from
an internal tubercle, evolved ingermination. In the others,
the lower point of the embryo itself becomes the root.

Endorhize@ are generally analogous to Monocotyledones,
and Exorhize to Dicotyledones. But besides the great
obscurity of these distinctions, nothing is gained by them.
They are liable to as many exceptions as the cotyledons.

I have only now to add, that nothing like mathematical
certainty is to be found in the classification of plants.

429

Methodical arrangement of natural bodies is but a choice
of difficuliies. Specific characters, indeed, very often pos-
sess this absolute certainty, independent of any casual
variation. Generic characters also are, not unfrequently,
absolute, and capable of precise limitation. Sometimes
they are marked by one most elegant and peculiar cha-
racter. But classes and orders, however apparently
obvious, are to be defined but in general terms ; they are
rather to be perceived than described. If, therefore, I
shall be obliged, in explaining the method of Jussieu, to
point out so many anomalies and inconsistencies, as may
seem to render it too difficult and uncertain for the most
learned to make any use of, I wish my hearers to attri-
bute those imperfections rather to the intricacies of nature,
than to the inability of the writer. The difficulties in
question do not affect an experienced botanist; who,
knowing the orders themselves, neither wants a clue to
make them out, nor a very precise definition of their limits,
concerning which he must judge for himself. But for
these very reasons, it is clear as the day, that no student
can enter upon the first knowledge of plants, and the in-
vestigation of their genera and species, by so intricate
and precarious a path.

ON THE SURNAME OF LINNZUS.—See page 343.

Sir J. E. Smith to the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

Sir, Norwich, March 10, 1810.

In reply to your correspondent in the Monthly Mag.
for March last, p. 123, I beg leave to give my reasons
for continuing to write the name of Linneus, in its ori-
ginal form, rather than Linné. The Swedes did not adopt
the use of regular surnames till the early part of the last
century. When each family took a name, literary people
in general chose one derived from Greek or Latin ; hence
arose the family names of Mennander, Melander, Dryan-

430

der, Aurivillius, Celsius, &e. Some gave a Latin termina~
tion to names of rman origin, as Bergius, Retzius,
Afzelius, Browallius; and these became Swedish names
even with that termination entire.

The name of Linneus was in this latter predicament.
Its termination, therefore, is by no means “ boorish,” or
** plebeian,” or “ vile,”’ but of classical origin ; and these
names have the peculiar felicity of being transferable into
any language without inconvenience, and especially of en-
tering spontaneously into Latin composition. If your
correspondent be in the habit of writing or reading many
scientific books in Latin, he will duly appreciate this last
consideration. With respect to English writing, as we
mention Titus, and Marcus Aurelius, ’ in their original or-
thography, without following the French, who call them
Tite and Mare Auréle, no one has found any difficulty in
making an English word of Linnzus.

When this great man became ennobled, [am w ell aware
that, in conformity to the court ceremonies of the day,
which were all French, a termination borrowed from the
language of that people was, in his case, as in others,
adopted, with the strange jumble of a Gothic prefix, and
he becaine in Swedish von Linné, as in French de Linné,
and in barbarous Latin a Linné. No one that I know of
has adopted any of these in English, though some have
called him Linné, but hitherto with little success. I
presume no one would wish to Anglicize his name into
Linny ; and yet that, however ridiculous, would be the
only correct and consistent measure, except we retain the
von, the de, or the a.

I have therefore always used his original name, with-
out any design, or surely any suspicion, of slighting the
honours which his sovereign conferred upon him, and
which, I will venture to say, reflected glory on his royal
patron in return, By such a disposal of honours their
lustre is preserved, as in the cases of a Marlborough, a
Newton, and a Nelson, from that deterioration to which,

451

from human imperfection and error, they are in their very
nature otherwise prone, but from which it is the interest
of every good citizen to guard them. I do not conceive,
however, that any one needs to be reminded of the various
dignities, whether courtly or academical, conferred on the
illustrious Swede. His simple name Linnzus, recalls them
all. We have no occasion to say the Emperor Julius
Cesar, King Henry IV. of France, Mr. Secretary Milton,
or the Right Honourable Mr. Addison. Neither is it ne-
cessary to say Sir Charles Linnzus, or the Chevalier de
Linné, to remind us that he was Knight of the Polar Star,
and the first person who ever received that honour, equal
to the Garter with us, for literary merit. I must, there-
fore, protest against any interpretation of intended slight
in this case, for my meaning is the very reverse.

I believe the practice followed in England has decided
the conduct of other nations. In Latin he is now always
called Linneus, even by the Swedes, and, what is still
more striking, the French now write Linneus, even in their
own language. I presume your correspondent had never
a design of recommending, for Latin composition, any
thing but Linneus; and I hope he will not hereafter think
me pertinacious, nor in any respect blameable, if, for the
above reasons, I continue the same practice in English,
leaving every one to followme, or not, at his discretion, and
trusting to time and experience for a final decision. I
must express my regret that the title of the Linnaan So-
ciety, as I would always write it, has in its charter been
spelt Linnean. The latter had in view the name of Linné,
and was so far proper; but I have always conceived the
diphthong to be more classical, and if we preserve the word
Linneus in English, undoubtedly more correct. In this
point, most certainly every writer may judge for himself,
and in speaking there luckily is no ambiguity.

I remain, Sir,
‘Yours, &c.
Jas. Epw. Smiru.

432

The grammatical article printed below is mentioned at
p. 340, in a letter to Mr. Roscoe.

OBSERVATIONS ON SHALL AND WILL.

To the Editor of the Athenaeum.
Sir, Norwich, Aug. 5, 1807.

The various writers on English grammar have scarcely
explained with sufficient precision the proper use of the
verbs shall and will, with the preterites should and would.
Many persons consider the just application of these verbs
asa sort of shibboleth, a test of a true-born Englishman,
for which no rule can be given, and which no foreigners,
not even our fellow-subjects of Scotland and Ireland, can
ever learn. The latter is undeniable; and it is equally
true that an Englishman, however uneducated, will never,
except corrupted by an intercourse with strangers, com-
mit an error in this respect. Nevertheless, before we
indulge in triumph over other people, it becomes us to
give, if possible, a reason for our own conduct ; nor ought
any reproach to fall on those who, in learning a language,
err on a point concerning which no rule can be given.

Allow me therefore to suggest that shad/ and will are
two distinct verbs, which interchange their meanings in the
different persons. Shall and should express, in the first
person, simple futurity, but in the second and third per-
sons they imply a command or decision of the speaker.
On the contrary, wz// and would in the first person im-
ply the same command or decision, while in the second
and third they express only simple futurity. There is,
however, a third verb, w//, in every one of the three per-
sons, which expresses the decision of the person spoken

of.
This is best understood by a table of each verb and

its tenses.

433

No. 1. No. 2. No. 3.
expresses simple fu- the decision of the the decision of the
turity : speaker : party spoken of,
I shall 1 will I will
Thou wilt Thou shalt Thou wilt
He will He shall He will
We shall We will We will
You will You shall You will
They will. They shall. They will.
Preterite.
I should I would I would
Thou wouldst Thou shouldst Thou wouldst
He would , He should He would
We should We would - We would
You would You should You would
They would. They should. They would.

The first persons singular and plural in both tenses of
the verbs No. 2. and 3. are necessarily the same, because
the speaker and the party spoken of are one ; and there-
fore No. 3. may be said to have no first person. The only
apparent ambiguity lies between the second persons of
No. 1. and 3; but the verbs are so essentially distinct in
sense, that this is never perceived even in writing; and
in conversation it is always avoided by the emphasis
laid on No. 3. An Englishman says to his friend, “I
shall be very glad to see you:” not, like the Scotch and
Irish, “I will be very glad.” The simple futurity only
is here proper to be expressed, for an effort of implied
volition destroys the civility. It is no compliment to
any one to say, ‘‘I will try to be glad to see you;” and
the expression itself is a solecism. Writers on experi-
mental philosophy in Scotland often say, “‘ If we make
such and such an experiment, we wi// find the result, &c.”
though they mean simple futurity, that the result wil
be so. It is as ridiculous to say, ‘‘ we wll (that is, we
are determined to) find the result so,” as to say, “‘the
result shall be so ;” or else to understand the verb No. 8.
instead of No. 1. ‘‘ the result w7// (or is in its own mind
determined to) be so.” A true English writer is so much

VOL, Il. 2

434

on his guard against the above error, that he sometimes
falls into a contrary fault; for instance, in a note of
civility written, as usual, in the third person:—‘“ Mr.
A. hoped to have sent Mr. B, the promised books this
morning, but is disappointed. He trusts, however, that
next week he shall have no difficulty in procuring them.”
The true meaning of which is, “‘ he confidently thinks to
himself, I shall have no difficulty in procuring them.”
The writer could not so completely transform himself in
idea into a third person, as to forget his own identity.
If he had wanted to say, “‘he trusts that his bookseller
will have no difficulty in procuring them,” the third per-
son being evident, no doubt could have arisen in his
mind.

Perhaps the use of the three verbs in question may
be best illustrated by a familiar conversation between A.,
B., and C., in which each verb is numbered wherever it
occurs.

A. I shall’ fall down the precipice if I go further in
this slippery path. If C. goes on, he will" inevitably
tumble, and so wi/t'thou. We shall’ all break our necks.
I will’ turn back.

B. We will* go on, and thou shalt* go with us, whe-
ther thou wilt® or not.

A. You wili' both repent when too late, since you
will® be so obstinate. What perverseness! They will’
suffer, and I shall’ be blamed ; but their parents shall”
know the truth. I wil/* bear this no longer: you shall’
both turn back. I should’ like to see you fall if I were
sure you would’ not hurt yourselves, and then you should*
obey me whether you would® or not. Your parents should*
have sent some one with you that you would® have at-
tended to; but they would’ not, even though I would”
have had them. They would’ be very sorry to see what
I see, and they would® be obeyed.

C. We would® obey thee if thou wouldst® but be less
loquacious ; and whatever may happen, I insist that thou

435

shouldst® not blame us. Thou wou/dst’ be most to blame
for alarming us.

We must not confound with the foregoing verbs a
fourth, should, as a sign of the potential mood, or, in
other words, as epeesane the possibility of imple fare
rity. This is unchanged in all the persons, whether
singular or plural—Thus C. might proceed in the above
conversation :

C. If I should* fall, and thou shouldst* see me, and
if B. should* be unable to help me, we should’ all lament
our mishap. If we should* be so unfortunate, and if you
both should* go home without me, and if my parents
should* be there, Kc. &c.

An apparent exception to the above rule occurs in
scriptural language: ‘‘The Lord shall judge the world
in righteousness.” ‘The Lord shall reign for ever and
ever,” &c. In such cases, though the fact ought, in
ordinary language, to be announced as a matter of simple
futurity, yet by a kind of poetical licence, the narrator
assumes more than ordinary authority, which can only
be expressed by the tone of deciston or determination de-
rived from inspiration itself. We overlook the speaker
or writer in the consideration of this all-commanding
decision, proceeding from the fountain of Ghebaistabie
truth. To reduce these sentences to grammatical exact-
ness by substituting will for shall, as some injudicious
and tasteless reformers of spiritual poetry have done, en-
feebles their sentiment, without adding any thing to their
precision, for they are used only on an occasion in which
there is no possibility of mistake.

I cannot but esteem the irregularity of the verbs in
question rather a beauty than a defect in our language.
No Englishman is puzzled in their use, because the rule
above given is absolute. Endless confusion arises from
those who, not perceiving that rule, attempt to correct
the language ; and the matter is only further obscured

2F2

436

by writers who, considering the whole but as one verb,
explain it on false principles.

IME.S:

For the following anecdotes concerning the great
Haller, Sir J. E. Smith was indebted to Mr. Davall. Some
of them are new, and any incident in the life of such a
man cannot be a subject of indifference to the reader.

ANECDOTES RELATING TO HALLER,

Communicated by Mr. Wyttenbach to Mr. Davall: some ex-
tracted from Zimmerman’s Work,—these are marked Z. ;
others, from Wyttenbach’s private knowledge, with W.

Dans son enfance il étoit foible et maladif; ce qui a
fait qu’il prit de trés-bonne heure du gout pour la retraite,
et une inclination insatiable pour la lecture. Aussial’age
deneuf ans il commenga a compiler un dictionnaire Hebreu
et Grec de tous Jes mots du Vieux et du Nouveau Testa-
ment, une grammaire Chaldaique, l’histoire des vies de
plus de 2000 hommes savants et célébres selon les
modéles de Bayle et de Moréri. Tout ce qu’il entre-
prit déja dans ce tems-la, visoit au grand, et son génie
vouloit tout embrasser, tout approfondir; mais sa vie
retirée, la simplicité extréme et naive de ses meeurs, le peu
de gottt qu’il montroit pour les amusements ordinaires
de la jeunesse, firent qu’on le traita presque d’imbécile,
et qu’on le méprisa méme parmi ses parents.—Z.

Dés l’age de dix ans son amour pour la poésie s’é-
veilla et le domina si fort pendant quelques années, qu’il
ne fit presque que composer des poésies qui quelques
années apres ont été brulées par lui-méme.—Z.

437

Un trait assez drole de sa simple naiveté est, que ren-
contrant une fois une pauvre personne, il lui donna une
piece de cing ou de dix batz*, tout ce qu’il possédoit.
Le lendemain, en se réveillant et en s habillant, il se mit
a pleurer,—Demandé pourquoi? sa réponse fut, ‘‘J’ai
donné tout mon argent 4 un pauvre, et comme |’Evangile
dit que les aumOnes seront récompensées plus que double-
ment, je cherchois a-présent dans ma poche mon argent
doublé, et je n’y ai rien trouvé.” —W.

Une bonne partie de ses sublimes poésies ont été com-
posées dans ses courses botaniques, ou aprés avoir ad-
miré les beautés merveilleuses de la nature dans les
plantes, et fatigué de ses courses, il se jettoit sous l’om-
bre d’un bois, d’un arbre, d’un rocher, sur le gazon, ‘mé-
ditant et composant dans son imagination les plus belles
pensées, qu’il ne méttoit sur le papier qu’étant revenu
a la maison. —Z.

Le bois de Bremgarten prés de Berne, le Glassbrunn
si souvent cité dans son Hist. Stirpium, et ot croit la
belle Jungermannia ciliaris, le Drakau, Vun et l’autre
dans le méme bois, ont trés-souvent été ses retraites
botaniques et poétiques. C’est sur le Gurten, montagne
pres de Berne, “‘ supra semitam cavam, que ducit ex
Wabern ad villam Spiegel” (souvent mentionné dans son
Historia Cryptog.), qu’il acomposé le commencement de
son poeme “ Sur l’Origine du Mal.”—W.

Revenant de ses voyages en 1729 a Berne, il essuia
trés-souvent les effets du motto des républiques, ‘‘Ne quis
emineat.”” On disoit de lui qu’il étoit grand théoréticien,
mais foible praticien en médecine. II se présenta pour
la place de médecin praticien de l’hopital, mais on di-
soit que cela ne convenoit pas a un poete. II se pré-
senta apres pour la chaire de professeur en belles lettres ;

* Une piece de 10 batz, worth 1s. 3d. English.—E. D.

438

mais le refrein contre lui fut, que cela ne convenoit pas
i un médecin.—Z.

Haller sur la fin de sa vie, dans son Usong, a fait un
tableau d’aprés nature de tous ces contretems et ob-
stacles qu’il a essuiés 4 Berne.—W.

Ne sachant pas ce que Mr. Smith a déja dit de
Haller dans son Voyage, je ne puis pas savoir non plus
ce que je pourrai lui envoyer d’anecdotes sur ce grand
homme; mais quand une fois la premiére édition de ses
Voyages aura paru, il me sera plus facile de ’augmenter
par des extraits de Zimmermann, ou par d’autres anec
dotes. ;

Ce Zimmermann lorsqu’il a composé l’histoire de la
vie de Haller, a été si prodigieusement enthousiasmé de
son Mécéne, qu’une fois le Docteur Langhanns de Berne,
en présence de Mr. Sprungli le naturaliste, qui furent
alors 4 Gottingue, osant dire que Mr. Haller n’étoit pas
infaillible, et qu’il avoit aussi ses foiblesses, ce docteur
a sur cela été provoqué en duel par Zimmermann. Mr.
Sprungli m’a souvent raconté cette histoire, et jamais
sans rire de tout son coeur.

Vous savez que j’ai vd, sur la fin de sa vie, Mr. Hal-
ler presque tous les jours pendant prés de quatre mois. IIL
avoit un sommeil qui le persécutoit tous les jours d’abord
apres midi, et s’il s'y abandonnoit, il devenoit sombre vers
le soir et mélancholique, et alors il ne vouloit entendre
parler que de religion, et préféroit en général les écrits de
St. Jean, dont il falloit toujours lui citer des passages.
Si au contraire on l’avoit empéché de dormir, et il prioit
méme tous les assistants de le secouer, de le réveiller,
alors il étoit calme, serein, tranquille, s’entretenoit avec
plaisir de sciences, de nouvelles littéraires, et sa conver-
sation étoit trés-intéressante ; mais il revenoit cependant
toujours a la religion, et me disoit souvent, ‘‘ A-présent,
mon ami, quittons les bagatelles, le tems qu’il me reste

439

est trop court, il s’écoule fort vite; dites moi quelque
chose de notre Sauveur, car il n’y a que lui qui puisse
me sauver et me rendre heureux.”

I] me disoit souvent, “‘Je suis pourtant un étre bien mal-
heureux, autrefois j’avois des idées si subitmes de 1’éter-
nité, je sentois si vivement le bonheur d’étre vertueux,
javois tant d’enthousiasme pour ma religion; mais a-
présent je me sens si froid, si pesant, si indifférent, que
cela m/attriste véritablement.” Quand méme alors je
disois 4 ce grand physiologiste, ‘‘ Mais vous savez que
vous n’étes plus dans l’A4ge ot vous avez pleuré la mort
de votre premiere femme: votre jeunesse, ot dans le
Bremgarten vous avez composé votre poeme sur l’éter-
nité, s’est écoulée, vos forces ont diminué, votre corps est
usé.” Cela ne le consoloit pas assez, et il ne vouloit
jamais comprendre que son imagination et ses sentiments
ne pouvoient plus étre aussi vifs que dans sa jeunesse.

Ce grand poéte sur la fin de ses jours, pendant bien
des mois, ne trouvoit de nourriture et de consolation que
dans le simple E'vangile, dans les poésies les plus simples,
et si je voulois l’entretenir a son gré, il falloit lui parler
de religion, comme j’en parle aux plus simples paysans,
aux enfants mémes.

Quelques jours aprés que l’Empereur fut chez lui, un
bon ecclésiastique qui le voyoit souvent, et dont d’ailleurs
il étoit trés-content, lui dit : ‘Mais, Monsieur! je dois a
juste titre vous féliciter de ’honneur que l’Empereur vous
a fait. Cela doit vous soulager, vous faire grand plaisir.”
Haller n’y répondit rien pendant quelque tems, et aprés
quelques moments il regarda le pasteur, et lui dit en sou-
riant, ‘‘ Heureux ceux dont les noms sont inscrits au
ciel,” et dés lors il ne fut plus question de l’Empereur.

Maleré cette fagon de sentir, de penser, et d’agir, au
milieu méme de ses douleurs continuelles, et voyant la
mort s’approcher de fort prés, il lisoit également des
romans, des brochures assez légéres, &c. pour en faire
des extraits et critiques pour la Gazette de Gottingue. Je

440

Jui reprochai cela une fois en lui disant, dans un accés
qu’il avoit de mélancholie, que j’étois fort étonné de le
trouver si souvent occupé de pareilles bagatelles ; mais
il me répondit sur le champ, “‘C’est mon métier, mon
ami! je fais cela pour le Journal de Gottingue, non pas
pour m’en amuser.”

Ne pouvant étre un moment sans s’occuper et tra-
vailler, et ne voulant pourtant pas abuser du Sabbath,—il
s’occupoit ces jours 4 composer ses lettres sur la religion,
et la réfutation des ouvrages de Voltaire.

Il est mort en observateur, en médecin. J’étois le
dernier jour de sa vie 4 la campagne; il me fit faire plu-
sieurs messages, que je ne scus malheureusement que
le soir en revenant en ville. J’y courus fort vite, mais
je le trouvai déjA mort depuis quelques moments. Un
ecclésiastique des plus respectables de notre ville lui avoit
tenu la téte, et tout d’un coup Haller dit avec une cer-
taine force, ‘‘ Je meurs!” et c’en étoit fait.

Le seul honneur qu’on a fait 4 Haller aprés sa mort
a Berne, fut celui de placer son portrait dans la galérie
oti sont nos avoyers, entre les deux avoyers regnants ;
mais je crois qu’il doit cette distinction plutot aux sen-
timens de Mr. Sinner, qui étoit alors bibliothécaire, qu’a
un ordre souverain.

Vous verrez de tout ceci que je viens d’écrire fort a la
hate ce qu’il vous plaira! Et disez 4 Mr. Smith que je
me fais véritablement un plaisir de lui rendre quelque
service ; ne pouvant pas lui fournir des découvertes intér-
essantes en botanique, je voudrois bien lui prouver par
d’autres services que je 1’éstime infiniment.

Je viens de lire dans le Journal littéraire de Jéna que
quelqu’un s’est déja chargé de la traduction des Voyages
de Smith, ainsi que je puis espérer de les lire bientot.

441

A REVIEW OF THE MODERN STATE OF BOTANY,

WITH A PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE NATURAL SYSTEMS OF
LINNZUS AND JUSSIEU*.

[4 Review of the modern State of Botany,” mentioned Vol. i.
p- 494, not having been printed in the Transactions of the Lin-
neean Society, it may prove an acceptable addition to the present
mork to introduce this Essay, which from its situation in the

Encyclopzedia Britannica, not being accessible to general readers,
is gwen entire in this place. |

THE Linnean system of botany, the principles upon
which it is founded, with its application to practice, have
all been amply elucidated in the fourth volume of the
Encyclopedia Britannica. The reader will there find
a general view of this celebrated system, including
the generic characters, as well as some of the specific
differences, of most plants hitherto discovered, with their
qualities and uses. The terminology of Branca is ex-
plained; his arguments for the existence of sexes in
flowers are detailed ; his ideas of a natural method of
classification, and of ts utility in leading to a knowledge
of the virtues of plants, are subjoined to a compendious
history of botanical science. <
The writer of the present supplementary article pro-
poses to take a different view of the subject. This study
has, within twenty or thirty years past, become so popular,
and has been cultivated and considered in so many diffe-
rent ways, that no dry systematic detail of classification
or nomenclature is at all adequate to convey an idea of
what botany, as a philosophical and practical pursuit, is
now become. The different modes in which different
nations, or schools, have cultivated this science; the cir-

* From the second volume of the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica.

442

cumstances which have led some botanists to the investi-
gation of certain subjects more than others; and the
particular success of each; may prove an amusing and
instructive object of contemplation. In this detail, the
history of scientific botany will appear under a new as-
pect, as rather an account of what is doing, than what is
accomplished. The more abstruse principles of classifi-
cation will be canvassed ; and the attention of the student
may incidentally be recalled to such as have been neg-
lected, or not sufficiently understood. The natural and
artificial methods of classification having been, contrary
to the wise intention of the great man who first distin-
euished them from each other, placed in opposition, and
set at variance, it becomes necessary to investigate the
pretensions of each. The natural method of Linnzus
may thus be compared with his artificial one; and as the
competitors of the latter have long ceased to be more than
objects of mere curiosity, we shall have occasion to show
how much the rivals of the former are indebted to both.
In the progress of this inquiry, the writer, who has lived
and studied among the chief of these botanical polemics,
during a great part of their progress, may possibly find
an occasional clue for his guidance, which their own
works would not supply. No one can more esteem their
talents, their zeal, and the personal merits of the greater
part, than the author of these pages ; but no one is more
independent of theoretical opinions, or less dazzled by
their splendour, even when they do not, as is too often
the case, prove adverse to the discovery of truth. Nor
is he less anxious to avoid personal partiality. Incorrup-
tam fidem professis, nec amore quisquam, et sine odio, di-
cendus est. .
About the end of the seventeenth century, and the be-
ginning of the eighteenth, the necessity of some botanical
system, of arrangement as well as nomenclature, by which
the cultivators of this pleasing science might understand
each other, became every day more apparent. Nor was

43

there any deficiency of zeal among the leaders and pro-
fessors of this science. Systems, and branches of systems,
sprung up over the whole of this ample field, each aspi-
ring to eminence and distinction above its neighbours.
Many of these, like the tares, that fell by the way side,
soon withered for want of root ; others, like the herba im-
pia of the old herbalists, strove to overtop and stifle their
parents ; and all armed themselves plentifully with thorns
of offence, as well as defence, by which they hoped finally
to prevail over their numerous competitors. This state
of scientific warfare did not, in the mean while, much pro-
mote the actual knowledge of plants, though it prepared
the way for a final distribution of the numerous acquisi-
tions, which were daily making, by the more humble,
though not less useful, tribe, of collectors and discoverers.
The success of the Linnean artificial system is not alto-
gether, perhaps, to be attributed to its simplicity and fa-
cility ; nor even to the peculiar attention it commanded,
by its connexion with the striking phenomenon, brought
into view at the same time, of the sexes of plants. The in-
sufficiency, or at least the nearly equal merits, of the many
other similar schemes that had been proposed, began to
be most strongly felt, just at the time, when the great
progress and success of practical botany, rendered the
necessity of a popular system most imperious. . While
the cause of system was pending, some of the greatest
cultivators of the science were obliged to have recourse
to alphabetical arrangement. This was the case with
Dillenius, the man who alone, at the time when Linneus
visited England, was found by him attentive to, or capabie
of understanding, the sound principles of generic distinc-
tion. These he probably understood too well to presume
to judge about universal classification. It was the fashion
of the time however for every tyro to begin with the lat-
ter; and the garden of knowledge was consequently too
long encumbered with abortive weeds.

Linneus had no sooner published and explained his

444

method of arranging plants, according to that which is
generally termed the Sexual System, than it excited con-
siderable attention. His elegant and instructive Flora Lap-
ponica could not be perused by the philosopher or the
physician, without leading its readers occasionally aside,
from the immediate objects of their inquiry, into the paths
of botanical speculation, and awakening in many a curi-
osity, hitherto dormant, on such subjects. But the scope
of that limited Flora is by no means sufficient to show
either the necessity or the advantages of any mode of ar-
rangement. Linnzus may be said to have grasped the
botanical sceptre, when, in the year 1753, he published
the first edition of his Species Plantarum; and the com-
mencement of his reign must be dated from that period.
The application of his system to universally practice, in
this compendious distribution of all the known vegetables
of the globe; his didactic precision; his concise, clear,
and certain style of discrimination ; his vast erudition dis-
played insynonyms ; and, perhaps as much as any thing
else, the fortunate invention of trivial or specific names, by
which his nomenclature became as evidently commodious,
and indeed necessarily popular, as any part of his per-
formance ; all these causes co-operated to establish his
authority. An immediate impulse was given to practical
botany. The vegetable productions of various countries
and districts were marshalled in due array, so as to be
accessible and useful. A common language was esta-
blished throughout the world of science ; a common stock
of knowledge and experience began to accumulate, which
has ever since been increasing, and can now never be
lost. Of these partial Floras to which we allude, those of
Lapland and Sweden, the productions of Linnzus him-
self, were the models of most of the rest, and have never,
on the whole, been excelled.

Hence arose the Linnean school of botany, which
though founded in Sweden, extended itself through Hol-
land, Germany, and more or less perfectly in other parts

445

of Europe, though not without impediments of which we
are hereafter to speak. In Britain it was firmly esta-
blished by the influence of some of the most able pupils
of Linneus, and strengthened at length by the acquisition
of his literary remains. But these are adventitious sup-
ports. The strength of philosophical, like political, au-
thority is in public opinion, and the cement of its power
is public good.

As we proceed to trace the practical influence of the
Linnean system, or ratherof the facility which it afforded,
in botanical studies, it will be useful at the same time to
observe the effects of adventitious circumstances, which
render botany almost a different sort of study in different
parts of the habitable globe.

In those northern ungenial climates, where the intellect
of man indeed has flourished in its highest perfection, but
where the productions of nature are comparatively spa-
ringly bestowed, her laws have been most investigated
and best understood. The appetite of her pupils was
whetted by their danger of starvation, and the scantiness
of her supplies trained them in habits of ceconomy, and of
the most acute observation. The more obvious natural
productions of such climates are soon understood and
exhausted. But this very cause led Linneus to so minute
a scrutiny of Swedish insects, as had never been under-
taken before in any country ; in consequence of which a
new world, as it were, opened to his contemplation, and
the great Reaumur declared that Sweden was richer in this
department than all the rest of the globe. Such indeed
was its appearance, because it had been more carefully
examined. When the ardour and acuteness of the pupils
of the Linnean school first sought matter of employment
for their talents, some few had the means of visiting di-
stant, and scarcely explored, countries; but this could
not be the lot of many. The greater part were confined
to their native soil; and it is remarkable that those who
were longest so confined, have displayed in the sequel the

446

greatest abilities, and have rendered the greatest services
to science, independent of the accidents which made the
labours of others imperfect or abortive. Such men as
Ehrhart and Swartz were not to be satisfied with the ge-
‘neral productions of the fields or gardens to which they
had access. They had no resource but in the recondite
mysteries of cryptogamic botany, in the first instance.
To these they directed their microscopic eyes, and more
discriminating minds, with the happiest success. When
they had derived from hence an ample harvest, Ehrhart,
limited in circumstances and opportunites, hindered more-
over perhaps, in some degree, by a singularity and inde-
pendence of character, not always favourable to worldly
prosperity, opened to himself a new path. The native
trees of the north, and especially the hardy shrubs and
arborescent plants of the gardens, had not, as he judi-
ciously discovered, received that correct attention, even
from his master Linneus, which was requisite to make
them clearly understood. Difficulties attending the study
of these plants, the various seasons in which they require
to be repeatedly scrutinized, and the obscurity or minute-
ness of the parts on which their differences depend, were
by no means calculated to deter this laborious and accu-
rate inquirer. He submitted the supposed varieties of the
shrubbery, the kitchen garden, and even of the parterre,
to the same rigorous examination, and, for the most part,
with the happiest success. His discoveries have not re-
ceived the notice they deserve, for his communications
were deformed with asperity and pedantry, and he did
not always keep in mind the concise and sober principles
of definition, which his preceptor had both taught and
practised, and to which he owed so large a share of his
well-merited fame. Ehrhart died prematurely; but his
name ought to be cherished among those whose talents
have advanced science, and who loved Nature, for her
own sake, with the most perfect disinterestedness.

The fate of Swartz has been far more propitious to

447

himself and to the literary world. Having thrown more
light upon the cryptogamic productions of Sweden and
Lapland than they had previously received, and which
has only been exceeded by the more recent discoveries of
the unrivalled Wahlenberg, he undertook a botanical in-
vestigation of the West Indies. . Carrying with him, to
this promising field of inquiry, so great. a store of zeal
and practical experience, his harvest was such as might
well be anticipated. Whole tribes of vegetables, which
the half-learned or half-experienced botanist, or the su-
perficial gatherer of simples or flowers, had totally over-
looked, now first became known to mankind. Tropical
climates were now found to be as rich as the chill forests
and dells of the north, in the various beautiful tribes of
mosses; and the blue mountains of Jamaica rivalled its
most fertile groves and savannas in the beauty, variety
and singularity of their vegetable stores.

Nor must we pass over unnoticed the discoveries of
another illustrious disciple of Linnzeus, the celebrated
Thunberg, who has, now for many years, filled the pro-
fessorial chair of his master, with credit to himself and
advantage to every branch of natural science. The rare
opportunity of examining the plants of Japan, and of
studying at leisure the numerous and beautiful produc-
tions of the Cape of Good Hope, as well as of some parts
of India, have thrown in the way of Professor Thunberg
a greater number of genera, if not species of plants, than
has fallen to the lot of most.learned botanists; except
only those who have gone round the world, or beheld the
novel scenes of New Holland. These treasures he has
contemplated and illustrated with great advantage, so far
as he has confined himself to practical botany. We lament
that he ever stepped aside to attempt any reformation of
an artificial system. It is painful to complain of the
well-meant, though mistaken endeavours of so amiable
and candid a veteran in our favourite science; but what
we conceive to be the interests of that science must form

448

our apology. We cannot but be convinced, and the ex-
perience of others is on our side, that discarding those
principles of the Linnean system which are derived from
the sttwation of the several organs of impregnation, and
making number paramount, has’ the most pernicious and
inconvenient effect in most respects, without being advan-
tageous in any. This measure neither renders the system
more easy, nor more natural, but for the most part the
reverse of both. We have elsewhere observed, (Jntro-
duction to Botany, ed. 3. 358,) that the amentaceous
plants are of all others most uncertain in the number of
their stamens, of which Linnzus could not but be aware.
“¢ Even the species of the same genus, as well as indivi-
duals of each species, differ among themselves. How un-
wise and unscientific then is it, totake as a primary mark
of discrimination, what nature has evidently made of less
consequence here than in any other case !”” When such
plants are, in the first place, set apart and distinguished,
by their monoecious or dioecious structure, which is liable
to so little objection or difficulty, their uncertainty with
respect to the secondary character is of little moment ;
their genera being few, and the orders of each class widely
constructed as to number of stamens. Linnzus, doubt-
less, would have been glad to have preserved, if possible,
the uniformity and simplicity of his plan; but if he found
it impracticable, who shall correct him ? Such an attempt
is too like the entomological scheme of the otherwise in-
genious and able Fabricius. The great preceptor having
arranged the larger tribes of animals by the organs with
which they take their various food, and which are there-
fore accommodated to their several wants, and indicative
of even their mental, as well as constitutional, characters,
Fabricius his pupil would necessarily extend this system
to insects. But nothing can be more misapplied. Feed-
ing is not the business of perfect insects. Many of them
never eat at all, the business of their existence through
the whole of their perfect state, being the propagation of

449

their species. Hence the organs of their mouth lead to
no natural distinctions, and the characters deduced there-
from prove, moreover, so difficult, that it is notorious they
could not generally be applied to practice by Fabricius
himself, he having, in the common course of his studies,
been chiefly regulated by the external appearance of the
insects he described. This external appearance depend-
ing on the form and texture of their wings, and the shape
of their own peculiar organs, the antenna, affords in fact
the easiest, as well as the most natural, clue to their ar-
rangement and discrimination.

As we presume to criticize the systematic errors of
great practical observers, it cannot but occur to our recol-
lection how very few persons have excelled in both these
departments. Ray, Linneus, and perhaps Tournefort,
may be allowed this distinction. We can scarcely add a
fourth name to this brief catalogue. The most excellent
practical botanists of the Linnzan school have been such
as hardly bestowed a thought on the framing of systems.
Such was the distinguished Solander, who rivalled his
preceptor in acuteness of discrimination, and even in pre-
cision and elegance of definition. Such is another emi-
nent man, more extensively conversant with plants, more
accurate in distinguishing, and more ready in recollecting
them, than almost any other person with whom we have
associated. Yet we have heard this great botanist declare,
that however he might confide in his own judgement with
regard to a species, or a genus of plants, he pretended to
form no opinion of classes and orders. Men of so much
experience know too much to be satisfied with their ac-
quirements, or to draw extensive conclusions from what
they think insufficient premises. Others, with a quarter
of their knowledge, find no difficulty in building systems,
and proceed with great alacrity, till they find themselves
encumbered with their ownrubbish ; happy if their doubts
and uncertainties will afford them a tolerable screen or
shelter! But we here anticipate remarks, which will come

VOL, II. 2c

450

with more propriety hereafter. We return from the con-
sideration of the labours of particular botanists, to that of
the diversities of nature and circumstance.

While it is remarked that in the cold regions of the
north, the skill of the deep and learned botanist is chiefly
exercised on the minute and intricate cryptogamic tribes,
we are not to infer that Nature is not everywhere rich in
beauty and variety. Mosses and Lichens afford inex-
haustible amusement and admiration to the curious inqui-
rer, nor are more gorgeous productions entirely wanting.
Even Lapland boasts her Pedicularis Sceptrum, never seen
alive out of her limits, and Siberia offers her own beauti-
ful crimson Cypripedium, to console for a moment the mi-
serable banished victims of imperial caprice. Kotzebue,
though ignorant of botany, did not pass this lovely plant
unnoticed, even in the height of his distress. The au-
thoress of the pleasing little novel called ‘ Elizabeth,”
has represented in a just light the botanic scenery of that
otherwise inhospitable country; yet it must be allowed
that its rarities are not numerous, except perhaps in those
microscopic tribes already mentioned.

Let us in imagination traverse the globe, to a country
where the very reverse is the case. From the represen-
tations, or accounts, that have been given of New Hol-
land, it seems no very beautiful or picturesque country,
such as-is likely to form or to inspirea poet. Indeed the
dregs of the community which we have poured out upon
its shores, must probably subside, and purge themselves,
before any thing like a poet, or a disinterested lover of na-
ture, can arise from so foul a source. There seems how-
ever to be no transition of seasons, in the climate itself, to
excite hope, or to expand the heart and fancy; like a
Siberian or Alpine spring, bursting at once from the icy
fetters of a sublime though awful winter. Yet in New
Holland all is new and wonderful to the botanist. The
most common plants there are unlike every thing known be-
fore; and those which, at first sight, look like old acquain-

451

tances, are found, on a near approach, to be strangers,
speaking a different language from what he has been used
to, and not to be trusted without a minute inquiry at every
step.

The botany of the Cape of Good Hope, so well illus-
trated by Thunberg, and with whose treasures he scattered
a charm around the couch of the dying Linneus, most
resembles that of New Holland. At least these countries
agree in the hard, rigid, dwarfish character of their plants.
But the Cape has the advantage in general beauty of
flowers, as well as in a transition of seasons. After the
dry time of the year, when every thing but the Aloe and
Mesembryanthemum tribes is burnt up, and during which
innumerable bulbs are scattered by the winds and driving
sands over the face of the country, the succeeding showers
raise up a new and most beautiful progeny from those
bulbs. The families of Inia, Gladiolus, Iris, Antholyza,
Ovalis, and many others, then appear in all their splen-
dour. Some of them, the least gaudy, scent the evening
air with an unrivalled perfume, whilst others dazzle the
beholder with the most vivid scarlet or crimson hues, as
they welcome the morning sun.

The lovely Floras of the Alps and the Tropics contend,
perhaps most powerfully, for the admiration of a botanist
of taste, who is a genuine lover of nature, without which
feeling, in some degree of perfection, even botany can
but feebly charm. Of one of these the writer can speak
from experience ; of the other only by report; but he
has had frequent opportunities of remarking, that the
greatest enthusiasts in the science have been Alpine bo-
tanists. The expressions of Haller and Scopoli on this
subject go tothe heart. The air, the climate, the charms
of animal existence in its highest perfection, are associ-
ated with our delight in the beauty and profusion of na-
ture. In hot climates, the insupportable languor, the
difficulty of bodily exertion, the usual ill health, and the
effects of unwholesome instead of salutary fatigue, are

262

452

described as sufficient to counterbalance even the pleasure
which arises from the boundless variety, and infinite
beauty, of the creation around. ‘The flowery trees of a
tropical forest raise themselves far above the human
grasp. They must be felled before we can gather their
blossoms. The insidious and mortal reptile twines among
their boughs, and the venomous insect stings beneath
their shade. We who enjoy the productions of these cli-
mates in peace and safety in our gardens, may well ac-
knowledge our obligations to the labour and zeal of those
who, by arduous journeys and painful researches, supply
us with the riches of every country in succession. We
do not, indeed, enjoy them in perfection; but we can
study and investigate at leisure their various beauties and
distinctions. We can compare them with our books,
and profit by the acuteness of former observers. We can
perpetuate, by the help of the pencil or the pen, whatever
is novel or curious. We can preserve the plants and
flowers themselves for subsequent examination, and re-
turn to them again and again in our closet, when winter
has fixed his seal on all the instruction and pleasure af-
forded by the vegetable creation abroad. Yet let not the
sedentary botanist exult in his riches, or rejoice too heed-
lessly in the abundance of his resources. A plant ga-
thered in its native soil, and ascertained by methodical
examination, is more impressed on the memory, as well
as more dear to the imagination, than many that are ac-
quired with ease, and named by tradition or report. The
labours of its acquisition and determination enhance its
value, and the accompaniments of delightful scenery, or
pleasing society, are recollected, when difficulties and
toils are forgotten.

The western continent is, with respect to botany, al-
‘most a world in itself. There exists, indeed, a general
affinity between the plants of North America and those
of Europe, and many species of the arctic regions are the
same in both; but there are few common to the more

453

temperate climates of each. A considerable number
communicated by Kalm to Linneus, which the latter
considered as identified with certain well-known plants
of our quarter of the world, prove, on more accurate ex-
amination, to be corresponding, but distinct species. In-
stances occur in the genera of Carpinus, Corylus, Quer-
cus, as well as in the Orchis tribe, and others. These
points of resemblance are found mostly among the vege-
table productions of the eastern regions of North America.
Mexico, and what little we know of the intermediate
space, abound with different and peculiar productions.
So, in South America; Peru, Guiana, Brasil, &c. have
all their appropriate plants, of which we know as yet
enough to excite our curiosity, rather than to satisfy it.
Whatever has hitherto been given to the world respecting
American botany has had one considerable advantage.
Each Flora has been founded on the knowledge and ex-
perience of some one or more persons, long resident, and
in a manner naturalized, in the countries illustrated. Those
regions commonly comprehended under the name of
North America, have afforded materials for the Flora
Boreali-Americana of Michaux, and the more complete
and correct Flora Americe Septentrionalis of Pursh. Mi-
chaux, Wangenheim, and Marshall, have particularly il-
lustrated the trees of those countries. But all these
works have been enriched hy the communications and
assistance of men who had much more extensive and re-
peated opportunities of observation than their authors,
except Mr. Marshall, could have. Such are the vene-
rable John Bartram, the Reverend Dr. Muhlenberg,
Messrs. Clayton, Walter, Lyon, &. The Mexican Flora
has received, for a long course of years, the attention of
the able and learned Mutis, who long corresponded with
Linnzeus, and whose countrymen have prepared the sump-
tuous Flora Peruviana; each of the authors of which
has repeatedly traversed, at various seasons, the rich and
interesting regions, whose botanical treasures make so

454

splendid and novel an appearance in those volumes. Of
those treasures, we have still more to learn from the un-
rivalled Humboldt. The French botanist Aublet, after
having gained considerable experience in the Mauritius,
resided for many years in Cayenne and Guiana, for the
purpose of studying the plants of those countries, of which
his work, in four quarto volumes, gives so ample a history
and representation.

All the writers just named have been practical bota-
nists. They have generally excelled in specific discri-
mination, nor have they neglected the study of generic
distinctions. Any thing further they have scarcely at-
tempted. It is remarkable that they have all followed,
not only the Linnean principles of definition and nomen-
clature, but the Linnean artificial system of classification.
This same system was chosen by the veteran Jacquin, in
his well-known work on West Indian plants, entitled
Stirpium Americanarum Historia, as well as by Browne,
in his History of Jamaica; not to mention Swartz, in his
Flora Indie Occidentalis, who only wanders a little out
of the way, to adopt some of Thunberg’s alterations.
We cannot but observe, that in the very department of
botany in which he has most signalized himself, and with
which he is most philosophically conversant, the Orchi-
dea, he totally rejects the ideas of Thunberg.

If we now turn our eyes to the oriental world, we shall
find that the seeds of Linnean botany, sown by Koenig,
have sprung up and produced successive harvests among
the pious missionaries at Tranquebar, who still continue
to interweave a sprig of science, from time to time, among
their amaranthine wreaths, which are not of this world.
India too has long possessed a practical botanist of inde-
fatigable exertion and ardour, who has thrown more light
upon its vegetable riches, with the important subject of
their qualities and uses, than any one since the days of
Rheede and Rumphius. It is scarcely necessary to name
Dr. Roxburgh, whose recent loss we deeply lament, and

455

whose acquisitions and learned remarks are given to the
world by the munificence of the East India Company, in
a style which no prince has ever rivalled. That enthusi-
astic admirer of nature, Colonel Hardwicke, and the
learned botanist Dr. Francis Buchanan, have also contri-
buted greatly to increase our knowledge of Indian botany.
The latter has enjoyed the advantage of investigating, for
the first time, the remote and singular country of Nepaul;
so prolific in beautiful and uncommon plants, that few
parts of the world can exceed it, and yet meeting, in se-
veral points, not only the Floras of the lower regions and
islands of India, but those of Japan, China, and even
Siberia. The only systematic work on East Indian plants,
is the Flora Indica of Burmann, which is classed ac-
cording to the Linnean artificial method. We cannot
but wish it were more worthy of the system or the sub-
ject; yet, as a first attempt, it deserves our thanks. In
speaking of Indian botany, shall we withhold our homage
from that great and sublime genius Sir William Jones ?
who honoured this study with his cultivation, and, like
every thing else that he touched, refined, elevated, and
elucidated it, with a beam of more than mortal radiance.
No man was ever more truly sensible of the charms of
this innocent and elegant pursuit; and whenever he ad-
verted to it, all the luminous illustrations of learning, and
even the magic graces of poetry, flowed from his pen.
Butwe must extend our view beyond the utmost bounds
of India, and of the then discovered world, to trace the
steps of those adventurous circumnavigators who sought
out, not only new plants, but new countries, for botanical
examination. The names of Banks and Solander have,
for nearly half a century, been in every body’s mouth.
Their taste, their knowledge, their liberality, have diffused
a charm and’ a popularity over all their pursuits; and
those who never heard of botany before, have learned to
consider it with respect and admiration, as the object to
which a man of rank, riches, and talents, devotes his life

456 ©

and his fortune ; who while he adds, every season, some-
thing of novelty and beauty to our gardens, has given the
Bread-fruit to the West Indies, and is ever on the watch
to prompt, or to further, any scheme of public advantage.
With the recollection of such men must also be associated
the names of the learned Forsters, father and son, of
Sparrmann, and of Menzies, who have all accomplished
the same perilous course, and enriched their beloved
science. The cryptogamic acquisitions of the latter in
New Zealand, prove him to have attended to that branch
of botany with extraordinary success, and at the same
time evince the riches of that remote country. Indeed,
it appears that any country proves rich, under the inspec-
tion of a sufficiently careful investigator. The labours of
these botanists have all been conducted according to the
principles and classification of Linneus. Forster, under
Sparrimann’s auspices, has judiciously pointed out, and
attempted to remedy, defects that their peculiar opportu-
nities enabled them to discover, but with no invidious
aim. They laboured, not to overthrow or undermine a
system, which they found on the whole to answer the pur-
pose of readily communicating their discoveries, but to
correct and strengthen it for the advantage of those who
might come after them. It is much to be lamented that,
except the Nova Genera Plantarum, we have as yet so
short and compendious an account of the acquisitions
made in their voyage. To the technical history of these,
however, the younger Forster has commendably added
whatever he could supply of practical utility, and has thus
given us all the information within the compass of his
means.

Long since the voyages of these celebrated naturalists,
the same remote countries have been visited, in our own
days, by two learned botanists more especially ; these are
M. La Billardiére, and Mr. Brown, Librarian of the Lin-
nean Society. The former has published an account of
the Plants of New Holland, in two volumes folio, with fine

457

engravings; the latter has favoured the botanical world
with one volume of a most acute and learned Prodromus
of his discoveries. As his voyage was made at the public
expense, we may trust that the government will consider
itself bound to enable him to publish the whole of his ac-
quisitions, in such a manner as to be generally useful. His
own accuracy of observation, illustrated by the drawings
of the inimitable Bauer, cannot fail to produce such a
work as, we will venture to pronounce, has never been
equalled. M. La Billardiére has disposed his book ac-
cording to the system of Linneus, a rare example in
France, where any thing not French usually comes but ill
recommended. Mr. Brown, on the other hand, has writ-
ten his Prodromus, at least, on the principles of classifi-
cation established by the celebrated Jussieu, the great
champion of a natural system of his own. On this subject
we postpone our remarks for the present. Before we can
enter on the subject of natural classification, it is neces-
sary to consider the state and progress of botany, for some
years past, in the schools, and among the writers, of
Europe.

Sweden has continued to maintain her long established
rank in the several departments of natural science, nor has
Denmark been behind-hand with her neighbour and an-
cient rival. The son and successor of the great Linnzus
endeavoured to follow his father’s steps, and was ambitious
of not being left very far in the rear; a commendable aim,
which his short life, to say nothing of his talents or expe-
rience, disabled him from accomplishing. He completed,
and gave to the world, the unfinished materials which his
father had left, fora Supplement to his Species Plantarum
and Mantisse ; and having enriched the book with many
communications of Thunberg and others, as well as a
number of original remarks, he felt a strong desire, not
altogether unpardonable, of being thought the principal
author of the work. All uncertainty on this subject,
wherever other helps fail, is removed by the original ma-

458

nuscript of the Supplementum Plantarum in our posses-
sion. Ehrhart superintended the printing of this work,
and made some alterations in the manuscript, traces of
which are perceptible in the affected Greek names, given
to some species of Carex, Mespilus, &c., as well as in
their sesquipedalian specific characters. But he had intro-
duced his own new genera of Mosses; which the younger
Linneus thought so alarming an innovation, that he or-
dered the sheet which contained these matters to be can-
celled. We are possessed of a copy, which shows the
genera in question to be almost all well founded, and
what are now, under Hedwig’s sanction, generally received,
though by other names. The descriptions of Ehrhart are
precise and correct, though his terminology is exception-
able, full of innovations, and crabbed expressions. Two
years, almost immediately preceding the death of the
younger Linnzus, were spent by the latter in visiting En-
gland, France and Holland, and were employed to very
great advantage, in augmenting his collection of natural
productions, as well as his scientific skill. During this
tour, he attached himself strongly, through the medium
of his old friend Solander, to Sir Joseph Banks ; and
while in France, he almost planted, or at least greatly ad-
vanced, a Linnean school in that kingdom. He had
scarcely resumed his professorial office at home, when he
was unexpectedly taken off, by an acute disease, in his
forty-second year. Of the talents and performances of
his successor Thunberg, who still with honour fills the
chair of the Rudbecks and the Linnei, we have already
spoken. Dr. Swartz is the Bergian professor of Botany
at Stockholm. The Transactions of the Upsal Academy,
founded by the younger Rudbeck, are continued occa-
sionally ; and those of the Stockholm one, whose founda-
tions were laid by Linneus, are published regularly. Both
are from time to time enriched with botanical communi-
cations, worthy of the pupils of so illustrious a school. A
veteran in botanical science, Professor Retzius, still pre-

459

sides at the University of Lund. The worthy and accu-
rate Afzelius, well known in England, who accomplished
a hazardous botanical expedition to Sierra Leone, is the
coadjutor of Professor Thunberg; and the difficult sub-
ject of Lichens, under the hands of Dr. Acharius, is be-
come so vast and so diversified, as to be almost a science
of itself.

Denmark has always-possessed some acute and learned
botanists, and has, more than most other countries, been
supplied with dried specimens of plants, as an article of
commerce, from her West or East Indian establishments.
Oeder, the original author of the Flora Danica, and Mul-
ler its continuator, have distinguished themselves ; but
their fame is inferior to that of the late Professor Vahl,
who studied under the celebrated Linnzus, and who is the
author of several excellent descriptive works. He under-
took no less than a new Species, or, as“he entitled it,
Enumeratio, Plantarum, an admirable performance, cut
short by his death at the end of the second volume, which
finishes the class and order Triandria Monogynia. It is
almost superfluous to mention, that Afzelius and Retzius,
as well as Vahl, in all they have given to the world, have
followed the system of their great master. The Lora
Danica, chiefly a collection of plates, with few synonyms
and no descriptions, has come forth, from time to time,
for above fifty years past, in fasciculi, without any order,
and is still mcomplete. It was undertaken by royal com-
mand, and, in a great measure, at the sovereign’s expense ;
deaeti eccihaly sold, except some copies presented to
certain distinguished men, as Linneus.

After the example of Denmark, Sweden, &c. Russia
has been desirous of promoting, throughout its vast de-
pendencies, an attention to natural knowledge. Nor
was any country ever more fortunate in the possession of
an active and intelligent naturalist. The celebrated
Pallas successfully devoted a long life to these pursuits,
and to the communication of his discoveries and obser-

460

vations. He prompted the Empress Catherine to offer
an unlimited sum for the museum, library, and manu-
scripts of Linneus; but, fortunately for their present
possessor, the offer was made too late. A Flora Rossica,
on the most magnificent scale, was undertaken by Pallas,
his Imperial mistress proposing to defray the cost of the
whole undertaking, not merely for sale, but for gratui-
tous presentation, on the most princely scale, to all who
had any taste or ability to make use of the book. This
well-intended munificence was the cause of the ruin of
the project. Half of a first volume was bestowed as the
Empress intended. But the second part, instead of fol-
lowing the destination of the first, got into the hands of
interested people, who defeated the liberal designs of
their sovereign, misapplied her money, and by the dis-
gust and disappointment which ensued, prevented the
continuance of the work. Those who wished to com-
plete their sets, or to obtain the book atall, were obliged
to become clandestine purchasers, buying, as a favour,
what they ought to have received as a free gift; and
were moreover, like the writer of this, often obliged to
put up with imperfect copies. In like manner, the in-
tentions of the great Mr. Howard, respecting his book
on Prisons, were rendered ineffectual, by the disgrace-
ful avarice of certain London booksellers, who immedi-
ately bought up, and sold at a greatly advanced price,
the whole edition, which its benevolent author had de-
stined to be accessible to every body at an unusually
cheap rate. These examples, amongst others, show that
itis the most difficult thing in the world to employ pa-
tronage, as well as gratuitous charity of any kind, to real
advantage, except under the guidance of the most rigo-
rous discretion. ‘‘ All that men of power can do for
men of genius,” says Gray, if we recollect aright, ‘‘is to
leave them at liberty, or they become like birds in a cage,”
whose song is no longer that of nature and enjoyment.
The great and the affluent may foster and encourage

461

Science and literature, by their countenance, their at-
tention, and a free, not overwhelming, liberality. But
when princes become publishers of books, or directors
of academies, they generally do more harm than good.
They descend from their station, and lose sight perhaps
of their higher and peculiar duties, which consist in pro-
moting the general prosperity, peace, and liberty of their
subjects, under the benign influence of which, every art,
science, or pursuit, that can be beneficial to mankind, is
sure to flourish without much gratuitous assistance.
Several of the immediate scholars of the illustrious
Swedish naturalist were planted in different parts of Ger-
many. Murray, to whom he entrusted the publication
of that compendious volume, entitled, Systema Vegeta-
bilium, and who printed two successive editions of the
work, was seated as Professor at Gottingen. Giseke
was established at Hamburgh, and, after the death of
Linneus, gave to the world such an edition as he was
able to compile, from his own notes and those of Fabri-
cius, of the lectures of their late preceptor, on the Natu-
ral Orders of Planis. His ideas on this subject Linnzus
himself always considered as tooimperfect to be published,
except in the form of a sketch or index, at the end of his
Genera Plantarum. The venerable patriarch, Professor
Jacquin, still survives at Vienna, where he, and his wor-
thy son, have emiched botany with a number of splendid
and useful works. They have given to the public seve-
ral labours of the excellent practical botanist Wulfen, and
others, which might, but for their encouragement, have
been lost. The highly valuable publication of Host on
Grasses, is conducted on the plan of Jacquin’s works. His
Synopsis of Austrian plants is an excellent [ora, dis-
posed according to the Sexual System, as is the more
ample Tentamen Flore Germanice of the celebrated Dr.
Roth, one of the best practical European botanists, and
more deeply versed than most others in cryptogamic lore.
The best Linnean Flora, as far as it goes, that the world

462

has yet seen,—we speak it without any exception,—is the
Flora Germanica of Professor Schrader of Gottingen, the
first volume of which, comprising the first three classes
of the sexual system, was published in 1806. The cor-
rect distinctions, well-digested synonyms, and complete
descriptions of this work, are altogether unrivalled. If
the whole should be equally well executed, for which the
longest life would be scarcely sufficient, it must ever be
the standard book of European botany. Its descrip-
tions of grasses are worthy to accompany the exquisite
engravings of the same tribe from the hand of Leers,
published at Herborn in 1775, which excel every other
botanical representation that we have examined. They
will bear, and indeed they require, the application of a
magnifying-glass, like the plants themselves. The pur-
chaser of this little volume must however beware of the
second edition, whose plates are good for little or nothing.
The name of Schrader has long been distinguished in
Cryptogamic Botany. In this pursuit, the industrious
and accurate botanists of Germany, shut out from exten-
sive opportunities of studying exotic plants, have had
full scope for their zeal and abilities. In this field the
Leipsic school has distinguished itself. Here the great
Schreber first began his career with some of the most
perfect cryptogamic works, especially on the minute ge-
nus Phascum. Here the same author published his ex-
cellent [ora Lipsiensis, his laborious practical work on
Grasses, and finally his improved edition of the Genera
Plantarum of his friend Linneus. But, above all, Leip-
sic is famous for being the residence of Hedwig, whose
discoveries, relative to the fructification and generic cha-
racters of Mosses, form an era in botanic science. Under
the hands of such an observer, that elegant tribe dis-
plays itself with a degree of beauty, variety, and singu-
larity, which vies with the most admired herbs and flow-
ers, and confirms the Linnean doctrine of impregnation,
which the more obvious organs of the latter had originally

463

taught. Nor must we, in speaking of cryptogamic
plants, neglect here to record the names of Weis, Weber,
Mohr, Schmidel, Esper, and especially Hoffmann; the
plates of the latter, illustrating the Lichen tribe, are
models of beauty and correctness. His Flora Germanica
is a most convenient and compendious manual, after the
Linnean system. Fungi have been studied in Germany
with peculiar care and minuteness. The leading syste-
matic author in this obscure tribe, Persoon, was indeed
born, of Dutch parents, at the Cape of Good Hope ; but
he studied and published at Gottingen. Two writers, of
the name of Albertini and Schweiniz, have published the
most minute and accurate exemplification of this natural
order, in an octavo volume, at Leipsic, in the year 1805,
comprising the Fungi of the district of Niski in Upper
Lusatia. If their figures are less exquisitely finished
than Persoon’s, or less elaborately detailed than Schra-
der’s, their descriptions make ample amends.

The German school of botany has, for a long period,
been almost completely Linnean. This however was not
always the case, for, in the earlier part of his career, the
learned Swede was attacked more repeatedly and severely
from this quarter of the world than any other ; his ridi-
culous critic Siegesbeck of Petersburgh excepted, who
would not admit the doctrine of the sexes of plants, be-
cause the pollen of one flower may fly upon another, and
his purity could not bear the idea of such adultery in
Nature. Numerous methods of arrangement appeared
in Germany, from the pens of Heister, Ludwig, Haller,
and others, and even Schreber adopted a system like some
of these in his Fora above mentioned. It would be to
no purpose now to criticize these attempts. They cannot
rank as natural systems, nor have they the convenience of
artificial ones. Part of their principles are derived from
Linneus, others from Rivinus. Their authors were not
extensively conversant with plants, nor trained in any
sound principles of generic discrimination or combination.

464

They set off with alacrity, but were soon entangled in
their own difficulties, and were left by Linnzeus to answer
themselves or each other. We here mention these learned
systematics, for learned they were thought by themselves
and their pupils, merely because they will scarcely require
animadversion, when we come to canvass the great ques-
tion of natural and artificial classification, they having had
no distinct ideas of a difference between the two. Hedwig
used frequently to lament, that his preceptor Ludwig had
never perfected his system of arrangement; but from
what he has given to the world, we see no great room to
suppose he had any thing very excellent in reserve. Un-
executed projects are magnified in the mists of uncer-
tainty. We have ventured elsewhere, in a biographical
account of Hedwig, to remark, that even that ingenious
man “ did not imbibe under Ludwig, anything of the true
philosophical principles of arrangement, the talents for
which are granted to very few, and are scarcely ever of
German growth. We mean no invidious reflections on
any nation or people. Each has its appropriate merits,
and all are useful together in science, like different cha-
racters on the theatre of human life.”

Germany may well dispense with any laurels obtained
by the very secondary merit of speculative schemes of
classification, when she can claim the honour of having
produced such a practical observer as Gertner. This in-
defatigable botanist devoted himself to the investigation
of the fruits and seeds of plants. Being eminently skilled
in the use of the pencil, he has, like Hedwig, faithfully
recorded, what he no less acutely detected. The path he
struck out for himself, of delineating and describing in
detail, with magnified dissections, every part of the seed
and seed-vessel of each genus within his reach, had never
been explored before in so regular and methodical a man-
ner. Botanists of the Linnzan school are justly cen-
surable for having paid too little attention to the structure
of these important parts, in their generic characters. In-

465-

deed it may be said, that if they were able to establish
good genera without them, and, after the example of their
leader, merely preferred the more obvious and distinct or-
gans, when sufficient for their purpose, their conduct was
justifiable. If generic principles be natural and certain,
it matters not on what parts of the fructification they are
founded; nor is the inflorescence, or even the herb or
root, rejected by sound philosophers, but because they
are found to lead only to unnatural and uncertain charac-
ters. It is therefore extremely to the honour of Linneus,
Gertner, and Jussieu, that their conceptions of genera are
almost entirely the same. They meet in almost every
point, however different the paths by which they pursue
their inquiries. Their labours illustrate and confirm each
other. Even Tournefort, who conceived so well, on the
whole, the distinctions of genera, which he could but ill
define, receives new strength from their knowledge, which
does not overturn his imperfect performances, but improves
them. The accurate student of natural genera cannot
fail to perceive, that where Gertner differs from Linneus,
which is but ina very few material instances, such as his
numerous subdivision of the genus Fwmaria, and his dis-
tribution of the compound flowers, it arises from his too
intent and exclusive consideration of one part of the fruc-
tification, instead of an enlarged and comprehensive view
of the whole. In other words, he neglects the Linnzan
maxim, that “‘ the genus should give the character, not the
character the genus.” Such at least appears to us the
case in F'umaria. In the syngenesious family, being so
very natural in itself, the discrimination of natural genera
becomes in consequence so difficult, that Gertner and
Linneus may well be excused if they do not entirely
agree, and they perhaps may both be satisfied with the
honour of having collected materials, and disposed them
in different points of view, for the use of some future sy-
stematic, who may decide between them. However exact
Gertner may have been in discriminating the parts of
VOL. Il. 2H

466

seeds, we believe him mistaken in distinguishing the vi-
tellus as a separate organ, distinct in functions from the
cotyledons. His readers will also do well, while they
profit by his generally excellent principles, not to admit
any of his rules as absolute. They may serve as a clue to
the intricacies of Nature, but they must not overrule her
laws. Still less is our great carpologist to be implicitly
followed in physiological doctrines or reasoning’s ; witness
his feeble and incorrect attack on Hedwig’s opinions, or
rather demonstrations, respecting the impregnation of
Mosses. His criticisms of Linnzus are not always marked
with that candour which becomes a disinterested lover of
truth and nature, nor can we applaud in general his
changes of nomenclature, or of terminology ; especially
when he unphilosophically calls the germen of Linneus,
the ovarium, a word long ago rejected, as erroneous when
applied to plants. These however are slight blemishes,
in a reputation which will last as long as scientific botany
is cultivated at all. Botanists can now no longer neglect,
but at their own peril, the parts which Gertner has called
into notice, and to the scrutiny of which, directed by his
faithful guidance, the physiologist and the systematic
must often, in future, recur.

We shall close this part of our subject with the men-
tion of the Berlin school, where Gleditsch, who, in 1740,
repelled the attacks of Siegesbeck on Linnzus, was Pro-
fessor, and published a botanical system, founded on the
situation, or insertion, of the stamens; the subordinate
divisions being taken from the number of the same parts;
so that it is, in the latter respect, a sort of inversion of
the Linnean method. In the former, or the outline of
its plan, the system of Gleditsch is in some measure an
anticipation of that of Jussieu. Berlin has of late been
much distinguished for the study of natural history, and
possesses a society of its own, devoted to that pursuit.
Its greatest ornament was the late Professor Willdenow,
who, if he fell under the lash of the more accurate Afze-

467

hus, is entitled to the gratitude of his fellow-labourers,
not for theoretical speculations, but for the useful and ar-
duous undertaking of a Species Plantarum, on the Lin-
nean plan, being indeed an edition of the same work of
Linneus, enriched with recent discoveries. This book,

left unfinished at the end of the first order of the Crypto-
gamia, by the death of the editor, wants only a general
index to render it sufficiently complete. The Muscz, Li-
chenes, and Fungi, are systematically treated in the sepa-
rate works of writers devoted to those particular, and now
very extensive, subjects, from whom Willdenow could but
have been acompiler. With the Fidices, which he lived to
publish, he was practically conversant. His insertion of
the essential generic characters, throughout these volumes,
is an useful addition, and now become necessary in every
similar undertaking.

Little can be said of Holland in this review of the bo-
tanical state of Europe for a few years past. The Leyden
garden has always been kept up, especially during the
life of the late Professor David Van Royen, with due
eare and attention; we know little of its fate in the sub-
sequent convulsed state of the country. Bofany has long
been on the decline at Amsterdam, though we are indebted
to that garden for having first received, and afterwards
communicated to other countries, such acquisitions of
Thunberg in Japan as escaped the perils of importation.

The botany of Switzerland may, most commodiously,
be considered in the next place. Here, in his native
country, the great Haller, after a long residence at Got-
tingen, was finally established. Its rich and charming
Flora has been illustrated by his classical pen, with pecu-
liar success.. Everybody is conversant with the second
edition of his work, published in 1768, in 3 vols. folio,
and entitled, Historia Stirpium Indigenarum Helvetia,
with its inimitable engravings, of the Orchzs tribe more
particularly. But few persons, who have not laboured
with some attention at the botany of Switzerland, are

2H 2

468

aware of the superior value, in point of accuracy, of the
original edition of the same work, published in 1742,
under the title of Enumeratio Methodica Stirpium Hel-
vetia Indigenarum. This edition is indispensable to those
who wish fully to understand the subject, or to appreciate
Haller’s transcendent knowledge and abilities. These
works are classed after a system of his own, intended to
be more consonant with nature than the Linnean sexual
method. We can scarcely say that it is so, on the whole;
nor is it, on the other hand, constructed according to any
uniformity of plan. The number of the stamens, com-
pared with that of the segments of the corolla, or its
petals, regulates the characters of several classes, and
those are artificial. Others are assumed as natural, and
are for the most part really so, but their characters are fre-
quently taken from Linneus, even from his artificial sy-
stem, as the Cruciat@, and the Apetale. Lord Bute has
well said, that Haller was a Linnean in disguise. His clas-
sification however was merely intended to answer his own
purpose, with respect to the Swiss plants; for he was
not a general botanist, nor had he a sufficiently compre-
hensive view of the subject to form a general system, or
even to be aware of the difficulties of such an underta-
king. He ought not therefore to be obnoxious to criticism
in that view. His method has served for the use of his
scholars, as the Linnzan one serves English botanists, by
way of adictionary. Some such is necessary ; and those
who should begin to decide on the merits of a system,
before they know plants, would most assuredly be in dan-
ger of appearing more learned to themselves than to others.
We cannot exculpate Haller from some degree of preju-
dice in rejecting real improvements of Linnzeus, which
are independent of classification ; such as his trivial or
specific names, by which every species is spoken of at
once, in one word, mostly so contrived as to assist the
memory, by an indication of the character, appearance,
history, or use, of the plant. What did the great Swiss

469

-botanist substitute in the place of this contrivance? A
series of numbers, burthensome to the memory, destitute
of information, accommodated to his own book only, and
necessarily liable to total change on the introduction of
every new-discovered species! At the same time that
he rejected the luminous nomenclature of his old friend
and fellow-student, who had laboured in the most inge-
nuous terms to deprecate his jealousy, he paid a tacit
homage to its merit, by contending that the honour of
this invention was due to Rivinus. In this he was not
less incorrect than uncandid, the short names of Rivinus
being designed as specific characters, for which purpose
Haller knew, as well as Linnzus, they were unfit. Useful
specific characters he himself constructed on the plan of
Linnzus, with some little variation, not always perhaps
for the better, as to strictness of principle, but often
strikingly expressive. Here, as in every thing connected
with practical botany, he shines. The most rigid Linnean,
whose soul is not entirely shrivelled up with dry apho-
risms and prejudice, must love Haller for his taste and
enthusiasm, and the Flora of Switzerland as much for his
sake as its own. No wonder that his pupils multiplied,
and formed a band of enthusiasts, tenacious of even the
imperfections of their master. The line of demarcation
is now no longer distinctly drawn between them and the
equally zealous scholars of the northern sage. The
amiable and lamented Davall strove to profit by the la-
bours of both. The Alpine botanists of France and Italy
have served to amalgamate the Swedish and the Helve-
tian schools. The Floraof Dauphiny by Villars is nearly
Linnzan in system, and the principles of the veteran Bel-
lardi of Turin are entirely so; though he has been, in
‘some of his publications, obliged to conform to the me-
‘thod of his late preceptor, the venerable Allioni, who, in
spite of all remonstrance, had the ambition of forming a
system of his own. His Flora Pedemontana is disposed
according to this system, an unnatural and inconvenient

470

jumble of the ideas of Rivinus, Tournefort, and others.
This work is also faulty in the neglect of specific defini-
tions, so that its plates and occasional descriptions are
alone what render it useful ; nor would it perhaps, but
for the uncommon abundance of rare species, be consulted
at all.

We may glance over the botany of Italy, to whose
boundaries we have thus been insensibly led, as the eye
of the traveller takes a bird’s-eye view of its outstretched
plains from the summits of the Alps. We may pass from
Turin to Naples without meeting with any school of di-
stinction. The northern states are not without their
professors and patrons of botany, nor are their nobles
destitute of taste in various branches of natural know-
ledge. The names of a Castiglione of Milan, a Durazzo
and Dinegro of Genoa, and a Savi of Pisa, deserve to be
mentioned with honour, for their knowledge and their
zeal. The unfortunate Cyrillo, and his friend Pacifico,
at Naples, were practical botanists. There is also a rising
school, of great promise, at Palermo. But since the time
of Scopoli, Italy has contributed little to our stock of in-
formation ; nor are the latter publications of this eminent
man, while he resided at Pavia, commensurate in import-
ance or merit with those earlier ones, the Flora, and En-
tomologia, Carniolica, which have immortalized his name.
Scopoli, who at first adopted a system of his own, had
the sense and liberality, in his second edition, to resign
it, in favour of what his maturer experience taught him
to prefer, the sexual system of Linnzus.

Spain and Portugal claim our attention ; the former
for being the channel through which the gardens of Eu-
rope have been, for some years past, enriched with many
new Mexican and Peruvian plants; and likewise as the
theatre of the publication of some important books, rela-
tive to the botany of those countries. In speaking of
American botany, we have mentioned the Flora Peru-
viana, whose authors, Ruiz and Pavon, rank deservedly

471

high for their industry and knowledge. The late Cava-
nilles, resident at Madrid, has also communicated to the
learned world much information, from the same source.
Spain seems anxious to redeem her reputation, which
suffered so much from the neglect, or rather persecution,
of the truly excellent but unfortunate Dombey, who, like
many other benefactors of mankind, was allowed to make
all his exertions in vain, and finally perished unknown,
in the diabolical hands of English slave-dealers at Mont-
serrat. Portugal is most distinguished at home by the
labours of a learned benedictine, Dr. Felix Avellar Bro-
tero, author of a Flora Lusitanica, disposed after the
Linnzan method, reduced entirely to principles of num-
ber ; and abroad by the valuable work of Father Loureiro,
entitled Flora Cochinchinensis, in which the plants of
Cochinchina, and of the neighbourhood of Canton, are
classed and defined in the Linnean manner, with valu-
able descriptions and remarks. It is undoubtedly a dis-
grace to the possessors of such a country as Brasil, that
they have not derived from thence more benefit to the
world, or to themselves, from its natural productions.
But they are satisfied with what the bowels of the earth
afford, and they neglect its more accessible, though per-
haps not less valuable, treasures. The jealousy and in-
numerable restrictions of their Government render what
they possess as useless to aJl the world as to themselves.
A genius of the first rank in natural science, as well as in
every thing which his capacious mind embraced, has
arisen in Portugal, and has been domesticated in the
schools of Paris and London, the amiable and learned
Corréa de Serra, now a traveller in the United States of
America. What little impulse has been given to litera-
ture in Portugal, and particularly the foundation of a
Royal Academy of Sciences, is owing to him ; and though
-his name has chiefly appeared in the ranks of botanical
science in an incidental manner, no one possesses more

472

enlarged and accurate views, or more profound knowledge,
of the subject.

In the extensive, though incomplete, review which we
have undertaken of the recent history of botanical science,
the individual merits of particular writers have chiefly
hitherto been detailed and compared. The most difficult
part of our task perhaps still remains; to contrast and
to appreciate the influence and the merits of two great
and rival nations, in the general school of scientific bo-
tany ; to consider the causes that have led to the parti-
~ cular line which each has taken, and to compare the suc-
cess, as well as to calculate the probable future conse-
quences, of their respective aims. England and France
have, from the time of Ray and Tournefort, been compe-
titors in botanical fame, because each was ambitious of
supporting the credit of the great man she had produced.
This contest, however, as far as it regarded theoretical
speculations, has entirely subsided on the part of Ray’s
champions. In practical science, likewise, the admirers
of Ray and of Tournefort have shaken hands, like those
of every other school. On the subject of system, the
question is greatly changed; for though a phenix has
arisen from the ashes of Tournefort, its “ star-like eyes,”
darting far beyond all former competition, have been met,
if not dazzled, by a new light, rising in full glory from
the north ; a polar star, which has been hailed by all the
nations of the earth.

The Linnean system of classification, with all its con-
comitant advantages of nomenclature, luminous technical
definition, and richness of information, was planted, like
a fresh and vigorous scion, in the favourable soil of En-
gland, already fertilized with accumulations of practical
knowledge, about the middle of the last century. If we
may pursue the metaphor, the ground was entirely cleared
for its reception ; for all previous systems had been of

473

confined and local use; the alphabetical index having
becom¢ the resource of even the most learned ; and the
pupils of Ray being held to his method of classification,
rathe by their gratitude for his practical instruction, than
any (ther consideration. Accordingly we have, in our
early progress, before they were all, as at present,
swept off the stage, found them rather contending for his
no/nenclature, imperfect as it was, because they were ha-
hituated to it, than for his system, of which, it was evi-
dent, they had made little use. Hence the first attempt
in England to reduce our plants to Linnean order, made
by Hill, was chiefly a transposition of Ray’s Synopsis into
the Linnean classes, the original nomenclature being re-
tained, while the specific names of the Species Plantarum
were rejected. .
Hill’s imperfect performance was superseded by the
more classical Flora Anglica of Hudson, composed under
the auspices and advice of the learned and ingenious Stil-
lingfleet, in which the botany of England assumed a most
scientific aspect, and with which all the knowledge of
Ray was incorporated. At the same time, the principles
of theoretical botany, and the philosophical writings of
the learned Swede, were studied with no ordinary powers
of discrimination and judgement, in a small circle of ex-
perienced observers at Norwich. A love of flowers, and
a great degree of skill in their cultivation, had been long
ago imported into that ancient commercial city, with its
worsted manufacture, from Flanders; and out of this
taste, something like the study of systematic botany had
sprung. These pursuits were mostly confined to the
_ humblest of the community, particularly among the then
very numerous bodies of journeymen weavers, dyers, &c.
Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, several of
the opulent merchants seem to have acquired, by their
intimate connexion with Holland, not only the above-
mentioned taste for horticulture, but likewise an ambition

474

to be distinguished by their museums of natural curiosities.
The former sometimes extended itself, from the flowery
parterre, and the well-arranged rows of tulips, hyacinths,
carnations and auriculas, into no less formal labyrinths,
or perhaps a double pattern of angular or spiral walks,
between clipped hedges, exactly alike on each side of a
broad gravel walk. Such was the most sublime effort of
the art within the compass of our recollection. ‘‘ Grove”
could by no means be said to “nod at grove,” for the
perpendicular and well-trimmed structure was incapable
of nodding ; but that ‘‘ each alley should have a brother”
was an indispensable part of the design. Greenhouses
of exotic plants, except oranges and myrtles, were at this
time scarcely known ; and the writer well recollects
having seen, with wonder and admiration, above forty
years ago, one of the first African Geraniums that ever
bloomed in Norwich. If, however, the progress of natural
science was slow in this angle of the kingdom, the wealthy
manufacturers, become their own merchants, found it ne-
cessary to acquire a knowledge of various foreign lan-
guages, in order to carry on their wide-extended com-
merce. In learning French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and
German, they unavoidably acquired many new ideas.
Their sons were sent to the continent, and it were hard
indeed if many of them did not bring home much that
was worth learning. The society of the place, aided by
some concomitant circumstances, and the adventitious ac-
quisition of two or three men of singular talents and ac-
complishments, became improved. A happy mixture of
literature and taste for many years distinguished this
city above its rivals in opulence and commercial pros-
perity. Such Norwich has been in our memory; and if
its splendour be gone by, a taste for mental cultivation,
originating in many of the before-mentioned causes, still
remains, and is fostered by the novel pursuits of chemistry
and natural history, on which some arts, of great import-

475

ance in the manufactory of the place, depend for im-
provement. We trust the reader will pardon this digres-
sion from the subject more immediately before us, to
which we shall now return.

Some of the more learned students of English plants,
among the lovers of botany in Norwich, had long been
conversant with the works of Ray, and even the Historia
Muscorum of Dillenius. They were prepared therefore
to admire, and to profit by, the philosophical writings of
Linneus. Hence originated the Elements of Botany,

published in 1775, by Mr. Hugh Rose ; who was aided
in the undertaking by his equally learned friend, the Rev.
Henry Bryant, of whose acuteness and botanical skill no
better proof is wanting, than his having found and deter-
mined, nine years before, the minute T?//ea muscosa, for
the first time in this island. | Numerous pupils were eager
to improve themselves by the assistance of such masters,
and amongst others the writer of these pages imbibed,
from their ardour and their friendly assistance, the first
rudiments of a pursuit that has proved the happiness and
the principal object of his life.

London became, of course, the focus of this science,
as well as of every other. Of the English Universities,
Cambridge most fulfilled its duty, in rendering its public
establishments useful to the ends for which they were
founded and paid. The names of Martyn, both father
and son, have long maintained a distinguished rank in
botany ; and the latter, for many years, has inculcated the
true principles of Linnean science from the professor’s
chair. A botanic garden was established, by a private
individual, Dr. Walker, about the period of which we are
speaking. A Linnean Flora Cantabrigiensis, by Mr.
Relhan, has renewed the celebrity of that field, in which
Ray had formerly laboured ; and there has always existed
a little community of Cambridge botanists, though fluc-
tuating and varying, according to circumstances. At
Oxford, botany, so vigorously established by Sherard and

476

Dillenius, slept for forty years under the auspices of the
elder Professor Sibthorp, at least as to the utility of its
public foundations. Yet even there the science had many
individual cultivators, and if others were forgotten, the
name of a Banks ought to render this school for ever ce-
lebrated. The younger Professor Sibthorp well atoned
for the supineness of his father and predecessor. He
published a Flora Oxoniensis, and extended his inquiries
into the classical scenes of Greece, finally sacrificing his
life to his labours, and sealing his love of this engaging
study by a posthumous foundation, which provides for the
publication of a sumptuous Flora Greca, and the subse-
quent establishment of a professorship of Rural Economy.
Edinburgh, under the auspices of the late worthy Pro-
fessor Hope, became distinguished for the cultivation of
botany,~as a branch of medical education. The physi-
ology of plants was there taught, more assiduously than
in almost any other university of Europe; and the Linnean
principles were ably enforced and illustrated, not with
slavish devotion, but with enlightened discrimination.
Nor must the dissenting Academy at Warrington be for-
gotten, where the distinguished circumnavigator Forster,
of whom we have already spoken, was settled. Here
many young naturalists were trained. The neighbouring
family of the Blackburnes, possessed, even to this day, of
one of the oldest and richest botanic gardens in England,
have steadily fostered this and other branches of natural
knowledge. The same taste has spread to Manchester,
Liverpool, and the country around Westmoreland, Nor-
thumberland, and Durham have their sequestered prac-
tical botanists, in every rank of life. Scenes celebrated
by the correspondents of Ray are still the favourite haunts
of these lovers of nature and science, who every day add
something to our information, and to the celebrity of other
parts of the same neighbourhood.

We must now concentrate our attention to the London
school, which for about forty years past has maintained a

477

rank superior to most other seats of botanical science ;
the more so perhaps for its being founded in total disinter-
estedness, both with respect to authority and emolument.
Truth alone, not system, has been the leading object of this
school ; unbiassed and gratuitous patronage its support ;
and a genuine love of nature and of knowledge its bond
of union, among persons not less distinguished from each
other by character and opinion, than. by their different
pursuits, and various ranks of life. The illustrious Banks,
from the time when, after his return from his celebrated
and adventurous voyage, he devoted himself to the prac-
tical cultivation of natural science for the advantage of
others, as he had long pursued it for his own pleasure
and instruction, has been the head of this school. Here
he fixed the amiable and learned Solander, for the re-
mainder of his too short life. The house of this liberal
Meceenas has ever since been, not only open, but, ina
manner, at the entire command of the cultivators and ad-
mirers of this and other branches of philosophy; inasmuch
as his library and museum have been devoted to their free
use; and his own assistance, encouragement and infor-
mation are as much at their service, as if his fortune and
fame had all along depended on their favour. With such
an establishment as this, aided by the perpetual re-
sources of the numerous public and private gardens
around, botany might well flourish. The liberal spirit of
the leaders of this pursuit gave a tone to the whole.
The owners of nurseries, though depending on pecuniary
emolument for their support, rivalled each other in disin-
terested communication. The improvement of science
was the leading object of all. One of this latter descrip-
tion took his rank among the literary teachers of botany.
Lee’s Introduction was much approved by Linneus,
whose system and principles it ably exemplifies, and who
became the friend and correspondent of its author. Tra-
velling botanists were dispatched, under the patronage of
the affluent, to enrich our gardens from the Alps, the

478

Cape of Good Hope, and the various parts of America.
Every new acquisition was scrutinized, and received its
allotted name and distinction, from the hand of the correct
and classical Solander, who one day was admiring with
Collinson, Fothergill, or Pitcairn, the treasures of their
respective gardens, and another labouring with the distin-
guished Ellis, at the more abstruse determination of the
intricate family of marine productions, whether sea-weeds,
corallines, or shells. His own acquisitions, and those of
his friend and patron, in the fairy land of the South-Sea
Islands, the hazardous shores of New Holland, or the
nearly fatal groves and swamps of Java, were at the same
time recorded by his pen, as they were gradually perpe-
tuating by the slow labours of the engraver. To this
band of zealous naturalists the younger Linneus was, for
a while, associated, as well as the excellent and zealous
Broussonet, who, though not unversed in botany, devoted
himself most particularly to the more uncommon pursuit
of scientific ichthvology.

The Banksian school, altogether intent upon practical
botany, had adopted the Linnzan system as the most
commodious, while it pursued and cultivated the Linnean
principles, as the only ones which, by their transcendent
excellence, could support the science of botany on a stable
foundation. In these Dr. Solander was, of course, well
trained ; and, having added so wide a range of experience
to his theoretical education, few botanists could vie with
him, who had, as it were, caught his preceptor’s mantle,
and imbibed, by a sort of inspiration, a peculiar talent for
concise and cleardefinition. Abstract principles of clas-
sification, or even such outlines of natural arrangement as
Linneus had promulgated, seem never to have attracted
Solander. In following the chain of his ideas, discernible
in the materials he has left behind him, one cannot but
remark his singular inattention to every thing like botani-
cal affinity, to which the artificial sexual system was, with
him, entirely paramount. The genera which, for extem-

479

poraneous use, he named with the termination ozdes, com-
paring each with some well-known genus, till a proper
appellation could be selected, are seldom thus compared
because of any natural affinity, nor scarcely any external.
resemblance, but because they agree with such in their
place in the artificial system, or nearly perhaps in tech-
nical characters. A great botanist therefore, it is evi-
dent, may exist, without that vaunted erudition in a pe-
culiar line, which some would have us consider as the
only road to knowledge and to fame. We allow that
this sort of erudition is now, since the attention it has
received from Linnzus, Jussieu, and others, become in-
dispensable to a good theoretical or philosophical bota-
nist, as is the study of carpology, in consequence of the
labours of Gertner ; we only contend that it is possible
to know plants extremely well without either.

The learned Dryander, less skilled than his predeces-
sor as the coadjutor of Sir Joseph Banks, in a practical
acquaintance with plants, exceeded him in theoretical
lore and ingenious speculation, and far excelled every
other man in bibliographic information, as well as in the
most precise fastidious exactness relative to every sub-
ject within the wide extent of his various knowledge. He
furthered, upon principle, and with unwearied assiduity,
every object of the noble establishment to which he was
devoted; but he, like Solander, now sleeps with his fa-
thers, and his place is supplied bya geniusof British growth,
who unites talents with experience, and theoretical skill,
in the most eminent degree, with practical knowledge.

Although it is almost superfluous to name the most
eminent disciples of the London school of botany, it
might seem negligent to pass them over without some
particular mention. The ardent and ingenious Curtis
has left a permanent monument behind him, in the Flora
Londinensis, to say nothing of the popular Botanical
Magazine, continued by his friend Dr. Sims. The Flora
Scotica of Lightfoot first offered, in a pleasing and fami-

480

liar garb, the botanical riches of that part of the island.
to its southern inhabitants. The lynx-eyed Dickson, so
long and faithfully attached to his constant patron, has
steadily traced, through all its windings, the obscure
path of cryptogamic botany, with peculiar success. No
more striking instance can be pointed out, to prove how
totally the most consummate practical skill, even in the
most difficult part of botany, is independent of theoreti-
cal learning. Even those who profit by the certain aids
supplied by the discoveries of Hedwig, can with difficulty
keep pace with this veteran in their pursuits, who, with
conscious independence, neglects all those aids.

Just at the time when the school, whose history we are
endeavouring to trace, had most firmly established its
credit and its utility, a great additional weight was given
to England, in the scale of natural science, by the ac-
quisition of the entire museum, library, and manuscripts
of the great Linnzus and his son, which came amongst
us, by private purchase, in 1784, after the death of the
latter. Hence our nomenclature has been corrected,
and our knowledge greatly augmented. These collec-
tions have necessarily been consulted by most persons,
about to publish on the subject of natural history; and a
reference to them, in doubtful cases, secures a general
conformity of sentiment and nomenclature, among the
botanists of Europe, Asia, and America. Weare seldom
obliged to waste time in conjecturing what Linnzus, or
the botanists with whom he corresponded, meant, for we
have before us their original specimens, named by their
own hands. An entire London winter was devoted to
the almost daily labour, of comparing the Banksian her-
barium throughout, with that of Linnzus, and to a copious
interchange of specimens between their respective pos-
sessors, who, with the aid of Mr. Dryander alone, ac-
complished this interesting and instructive comparison.
Hence the Hortus Kewensis of the lamented Aiton, which
was at that period preparing for publication, became

481

much more correct in its names, than it, or any other
similar performance, could have been, without this advan-
tage. It could scarcely be imagined that Sweden would,
unmoved, thus let the botanical sceptre pass from her ;
but it is much to the honour of the nation, that all her
naturalists have ever preserved the most friendly inter-
course with us, particularly with the person who deprived
them of this treasure. They have not merely pardoned,
but publicly sanctioned, the scientific zeal which prompted
him to this acquisition, by associating him with all their
learned establishments, without any solicitation on his
part.

The institution of the Linnean Society at London in
1788, especially under that name, must be considered as
a triumph for Sweden in her turn. By this establishment
the intercourse of science is facilitated; essays, which
might otherwise have never seen the light, are given to
the world ; and a general taste for the pleasing study of
nature is promoted. Learned and worthy people are thus
made acquainted with each other, from the remotest cor-
ners of the kingdom, and their information enriches the
common stock. The state has given its sanction to this
rising establishment. Its publications and its members
are spread over the Continent, and other similar institu-
tions have borrowed its name, imitated its plan, and paid
respect to its authority. Yet it is not in the name alone
of Linnzus, that the members of this Society place their
confidence; still less do they bow to that name or to any
other, at the expense of their own night of private judge-
ment. Their Transactions are open to the pupils of every
school, and the observations of every critic, that have any
prospect of being useful to the world. The writer of each
communication, must, of course, be answerable for the
particulars of his own performance, but the Society is re-
sponsible for each being, on the whole, worthy to be
communicated to the public. The possession of the very
materials with which Linnzus worked, his own specimens

VOL. II. 21

482

and notes, enables us very often to correct mistakes, even
of that great man, many of which would be unaccountable
without the means of thus tracing each to its source. At
the same time, the acquisition of materials to which he
never had access, tends to improve and augment the hi-
story of what he had left imperfect. His language, his
definitions and characters were, for some time, held so
sacred, that they were implicitly copied, even though
manifestly inapplicable, in some points, to the objects to
which they were referred. Synonyms were transcribed
from his works by Rose, Hudson, Curtis, and even Gert-
ner, (we assert it on the positive proof of errors of the
press, copied in the transcribing,) without reference to the
original books, to see whether such synonyms, or their
accompanying plates, agreed with tne plant under consi-
deration. The example of Dr. Solander first led the wri-
ter of this to avoid such a negligent and unfaithful mode
of proceeding ; yet he has ever considered as sacred the
very words of Linnzus, where they require no correction.
They are become a kind of public property, the current
coin of the botanical realm, which ought not, with impu-
nity, to be falsified or adulterated. To them we hope to
be pardoned if we apply the words of the poet,

‘“‘ The solid bullion of one sterling line,
Drawn to French wire, would through whole pages shine.”

Of this it is needless to quote examples. We must be
every day more and more sensible of the value of the Lin-
nean style, in proportion as the number of those who can
attain it is evidently so very small. By the light of our
master alone can the science, which he so greatly advanced
and refined, be preserved from barbarism, while long and
tedious, loose and feeble, ill-contrasted and barbarously-
worded definitions, press upon it from various quarters.
New terms are invented to express old ideas; names and
characters are changed for the worse, to conceal the want
of new discoveries ; and students are often deterred from

483

adopting real improvements, because they know not which
guide to prefer.

From the combined effects of the various causes which
we have endeavoured to trace, the study of botany in
England has, for a long period, been almost entirely prac-
tical. To determine the particular species intended, in
every case, by Linneus; to distinguish and to describe
new ones; to improve scientific characters, and to correct
synonyms ; these have been the objects of our writers ;
and hence many publications of great utility, especially a
number of critical and descriptive essays, in the Transac-
tions of the Linnean Society, not unworthy of the school
which gave them birth, have enriched the general stock
of knowledge. These are the sound fruits of skill and
investigation, the solid advantages of real information,
applied to practical use. They are independent of theo-
retical speculation, and will stand unshaken, amidst any
possible changes of system. On such principles the Flora
Britannica has been attempted, and continued as far as
the present unsettled state of some of the latter orders, of
the last class, will allow. Such impediments, which
depend on the difficulties of systematic discrimination,
among the Lichens especially, it is hoped will soon be
removed. Meanwhile the English Botany of the same
writer, illustrated by Mr. Sowerby’s expressive and scien-
tific figures, has finished its course, and formed so nearly
complete a body of local botany, as, we believe, no other
country has produced. In this the liberal contributions
of numerous skilful observers, from the alpine heights of
_ Scotland to the shores and circumambient ocean of the

south, are preserved and recorded ; evincing a degree of
general inquiry and acuteness, which hardly any nation
can rival. The memory of several benefactors to the
science, otherwise in danger of passing away, is embalmed
in this national work, which serves at once as their bota-
nical testament, and the monument of their fame. Some
of our botanists of the present day have thrown great light

212

484

on several of the most obscure departments of the science ;
witness Mr. Sowerby’s work on English Fungi; the la-
bours of the learned Bishop of Carlisle on Carices, and,
in conjunction with Mr. Woodward, on Luci; of Mr.
Dawson Turner on the latter tribe, and on the Musci of
Ireland ; but especially Mr. Hooker’s inimitable display
of the British Jungermannia. Nor shall the contributions
of a Winch or an Abbot, a Withering, Knapp, Stackhouse
or Velley, nor the more splendid labours of the indefati-
gable Lambert, be forgotten. Each, in one way or other,
has enlarged the bounds of science, or rendered it easier
of access. We cannot, in the compass of our present
undertaking, pay the tribute due to every individual, our
aim being a general picture of the whole. From what we
have said, the zeal with which this lovely science has been
cultivated in England will sufficiently appear. Nor have
public lectures, or botanic gardens, been neglected, in
order to render the knowledge of botany as accessible as
possible, and to diffuse a taste for its pursuit. The po-
pularity of the study has, at least, kept pace with the
means of instruction. The garden and green-house, the
woods, fields, and even the concealed treasures of the
waters, are now the resource of the young and the elegant,
who in the enjoyment of a new sense, as it were, in the
retirement of the country, imbibe health, as well as know-
ledge and taste, at the purest of all sources.

France alone now remains to be considered, in order
to finish the historical picture which we have undertaken,
of the state of botanical science in Europe. To do justice
to this part of our subject, we must turn our attention to
times long since gone by, or we shall scarcely render in-
telligible the state of affairs at present. ]

The great Tournefort, by the force of his character, his
general and particular information, the charms of his pen,
and the celebrity which his name gave to his country,
through the popularity of his botanical system, was so
firmly established, in the ideas of the French, as the Grand

485

Monarque of botany, that they would have as soon allowed
the greatness of Louis XIV. to be questioned, as that of
this distinguished philosopher. So beneficial was this
partiality, in some respects, that it gave an unprecedented
impulse and popularity to the science ; so disadvantageous
was it in others, that it placed a formidable barrier in the
way of all improvement. Vaillant, the able and worthy
pupil of Tournefort, has never been forgiven for speaking,
on some occasions, too freely of his master’s defects.
Hence his own merit has been kept in the background.
The doctrine of the sexes of plants was discountenanced
as long as possible, because it was proved by Vaillant,
after having been rejected by Tournefort. Nevertheless,
when the good seed of science is once sown, it can hardly
be totally suffocated by the impediments of prejudice and
ignorant partiality. Practical zeal sprung up by the side
of speculative jealousy, and the tares withered, while the
profitable plants flourished. Some botanists followed the
steps of Tournefort to the Levant, exploring afresh those
countries which he has for ever rendered classic ground.
Others visited America, which they traversed in different
directions. The indefatigable Plumier performed three
separate voyages to the western world, and though his
discoveries have, in a great measure, suffered shipwreck
from tardy and imperfect patronage, as a great part of his
collections did by the accidents of nature, yet something
of value remains. His Filices are enough to insure his
perpetual remembrance, and his Nova Genera are the
basis of our knowledge of generic differences in West In-
dian plants. Most of all has been distinguished, among
the French botanists who succeeded the times of Tourne-
fort and Vaillant, the family of the Jussieus. One of
these investigated the prolific regions of Peru, and dis-
covered some things which no succeeding traveller has
gathered; other branches of this family, besides being
eminent in medical science and practice, have pursued
the study of botany with no ordinary success, on the most

486

philosophical principles. Of these the most eminent are
the celebrated Bernard de Jussieu, the contemporary of
the earlier days of Linneus ; and his nephew Antoine Lau-
rent de Jussieu, the pride and the ruler of systematic
botany at present in France. The views and the perfor-
mances of these great men lead us to a new branch of our
subject, which indeed we have had in our contemplation
from the beginning of this essay, the exposition of the
principles of a natural scheme of botanical classification,
as hinted, and imperfectly sketched, by Linneus, and
brought to the perfection of a regular system by the Jus-
sieus.

Previous to our entering on this detail, and the remarks
to which it will give rise, we must conclude all that be-
longs to the former part of our undertaking, by giving
some account of those botanists who have formed and
maintained a Linnean school in France. We must shel-
ter ourselves under the broad banner of truth when we
observe that these have, till very lately, been almost the
only French botanists that have supplied us with any
practical information ; and their labours have been useful
in proportion as they have commendably shaken off the
prejudices of their predecessors. Of this last proposition
Duhamel is a witness, though we may perhaps excite
some surprise in classing him among Linnean botanists.
His preface to his T’raité des Arbres sufficiently shows
how fearful he was of being taken for such, and yet how
he was held by vulgar prejudice alone, to the nomencla-
ture, or rather the generical opinions, of Tournefort. He
tells us, while he adopts these, that his judgement went
with Linneus, whom he follows in all new discoveries.
The plan of his book, confined to hardy trees and shrubs,
justifies his use of an alphabetical arrangement, in pre-
ference to any system, unless he had thought sufficiently
well of Tournefort’s to prefer that. But he has prefixed
to his work, as a practical method of discovering scienti-
fically what it contained, no other than a sexual classifi-

487

cation. His practical botany was so limited, being en-
tirely subservient to his great objects, of forest planting
and vegetable physiology, that he had no attention to
spare for the consideration of methodical systems. Ac-
cordingly he tells us, that some such is necessary for the
use of botanists, especially of those who explore the pro-
ductions of foreign countries, but whether the method of
Ray, Tournefort, Boerhaave, Van-Royen, Linneus, or
Bernard de Jussieu be adopted, is of no importance. Six
years before Duhamel’s work came out, Dalibard had
published, in 1749, his Flore Parisiensis Prodromus, ac-
cording to the Linnean system.

It has always appeared to the writer of this, from the
conversation and writings of French botanists, that the
judgement of the learned Le Monnier, and the countenance
of his patron the Duke D’Ayen, afterwards Marechal de
Noailles, first established the reputation of Linnzus in
France ; not so much possibly for the sake of his system,
as his discoveries, his commodious nomenclature, and his
clear principles of discrimination. When Le Monnier
botanized in Chili, in the company of the astronomers with
whom he was associated, he soon found, like Dr. Garden
in South Carolina, that the classification of Tournefort
was no key to the treasury of a new world. He however
made his remarks and collections, and studied them sub-
sequently under the auspices of a more comprehensive
guide. The Marechal de Noailles, a great cultivator of
exotic trees and shrubs, corresponded with the Swedish
naturalist, and endeavoured to recommend him to the no-
tice of the lovers of plants in France. Meantime Gerard
and Gouan in the south, both mtroduced themselves to
the illustrious Swede, and promulgated his principles and
discoveries, though only the latter adopted his classifica-
tion. Villars we have already noticed as the author of a
Linnean Histoire des Plantes de Dauphiné. He died lately,
Professor of Botany at Strasburgh, where he succeeded
the very able and philosophical Hermann, one of the truest

488

Linneans, who had imbibed all the technical style of the
Swedish school, as well as its accuracy of discrimination.
We may now safely announce Hermann as the real author,
in conjunction perhaps with Baron Born, of that ingenious
but bitter satire the Monachologia, in which the several
species of monks are affectedly discriminated, and their
manners detailed, like the animals in the Linnean Systema
Nature. This ludicrous performance has long since ap-
‘peared in a, not very exact, English translation, and was
rendered into French by the late M. Broussonet. As we
are led again to name this amiable man, too soon lost to
his country, after experiencing every vicissitude of revo-
lutionary peril and alarm, we cannot help distinguishing
him as one most zealous in the cultivation and diffusion
of Linnean learning, a taste for which he chiefly imbibed
in England. He had no indulgence for those prejudices,
which cramped the talents of his countrymen, and pre-
vented their deriving knowledge from any quarter where
it was to be had. He recommended the younger Linnzus
to their personal acquaintance and favour, which service
he also rendered, a few years after, to the person who now
commemorates his worth, and who will ever remember,
with affection and regret, his many virtues, his agreeable
converse, and his various and extensive acquirenients.
The intimacy which subsisted between this enthusiastic
naturalist, and the distinguished botanist L’Heritier, con-
firmed, if it did not originally implant, in the mind of the
latter, that strong bias which he ever showed for the Lin-
nean principles of botany. According to these his nu-
merous splendid works are composed. He moreover
imbibed, if we mistake not, from the same source, a pe-
culiar preference for uncoloured engravings of plants,
instead of the coloured ones which had long been in use.
It cannot be denied that the merit of these last is very
various, and sometimes very small. They do, nevertheless,
present to the mind a more ready idea of each species,
than a simple engraving can do, nor is the latter less liable

489

to incorrectness. When plates are taken from the deli-
neations of such exquisite artists as L’Heritier employed,
they have a good chance of excellence; but the engra-
vings of Cavanilles, done after miserable drawings, though
they deceive the eye by their neat finishing, are really less
exact than many a rude outline. Coloured plates, if ex-
ecuted with the uniformity and scientific exactness of Mr.
Sowerby’s, or the characteristic effect of Jacquin’s, speak
to the eye more readily than most engravings. The art
of printing in colours, practised formerly in England with
small success, was revived at Paris by Bulliard, and is
carried to the highest perfection in the recent publications
of Redouté and Ventenat, which leave hardly any thing
to be wished for, with respect to beauty or exactness.
Many of the works of L’Heritier have reniained imperfect,
in consequence of the political convulsions of his country,
and his own premature death. The learned and worthy
Desfontaines, who travelled in Barbary, has been more
fortunate in the completion of his labours. His elegant
Flora Atlantica, in 2 vols. 4to, with finely engraved un-
coloured plates, is classed and modelled on the plan of
the Linnean school. Such also is the plan of the works
of that distinguished botanist La Billardiére, who, besides
his account of New Holland plants, has published five
elegant decades of new species from Syria. That. scien-
tific horticulturist M. Thouin, likewise a most excellent
‘botanist, though he has scarcely written on the subject,
is a correct pupil of the Swedish school. His general spirit
of liberal communication, and his personal attachment to
the younger Linneus, led him to enrich the herbarium of
the latter with the choicest specimens of Commerson’s
great collection, destined otherwise to have remained in
almost entire oblivion. A singular fate has attended the
discoveries of most of the French voyagers, such as Com-
merson, Sonnerat, and Dombey, that, from one cause or .
other, they have scarcely seen the light. So also it has
happened to those of Tournefort, Sarrazin, Plumier, and

490

others, whose acquisitions have long slept in the Parisian
museums. Happily there seems to have arisen of late a
commendable desire to render them useful by publication,
and thus many fine plants, known merely by the slight
and unscientific appellations of Tournefort, and therefore
never adopted by Linnzus, have recently been clearly de-
fined, or elegantly delineated. The journeys of Olivier
and Michaux towards the east have enriched the Paris
gardens, and been the means of restoring several lost
Tournefortian plants. We believe however that the En-
glish nurseries have proved the most fertile source of aug-
mentation to the French collections, as appears by the
pages of all the recent descriptive writers in France.

We dare not presume to arrange the indefatigable and
very original botanist Lamarck among the Linnean bota-
nists of his country ; but we beg leave to mention him here,
as one who has thought for himself, and whose works are
the better for that reason. His severe and often petulant
criticisms of the Swedish teacher, made him appear more
hostile than he really was, to the principles of that great
man. Being engaged in the botanical department of the
Biiwalapédlie Methodique, he was obliged to conform to
an alphabetical arrangement; but he surely might have
chosen the scientific generic names for that purpose, in-
stead of barbarous or vernacular ones, which, to foreign-
ers, would have made all the difference between a com-
modious and an unintelligible disposition of his work. In
the detail of his performance, he has great merit, both
with respect to clearing up obscure species, or describing
new ones, and he had the advantage of access, on many
occasions, to Commerson’s collection. Lamarck’s Flore
Frangoise, is arranged after a new analytical method of
his own. This book however is valuable, independent of
its system, as an assemblage of practical knowledge and
observation. We have only to regret a wanton and in-
convenient change of names, which too often occurs, and
which is not always for the better; witness Chetranthus

491

hortensis, instead of the long established zmcanus of Lin-
neus ; Melampyrum violaceum, which is not correct, for
nemorosum, which is strictly so, and which preserves an
analogy with the rest of the species.

We shall now undertake the consideration of the prin+
ciples that have been suggested, and the attempts that
have been made, respecting a

Natural Classification of Plants.

The sexual system of Linnzus lays no claim to the
merit of being a natural arrangement. Its sole aim is to
assist us in determining any described plant by analytical
examination. The principles on which it is founded are
the number, situation, proportion, or connexion, of the
stamens and pistils, or organs of impregnation. These
principles are taken absolutely, with the sole exception
of their not being permitted to divide the genera, that is,
to place some species of a genus in one part of the system,
and others in another, though such may differ in the
number, situation, proportion, or connexion of their sta-
mens or pistils ; those characters being possibly artificial,
while the genera are supposed, or intended, according to
a fundamental law independent of all systems, to be na-
tural assemblages of species. We need not here explain
the mode in which Linneus has provided against any in-
convenience in practice, resulting from such anomalies of
Nature herself.

But though this popular system of Linneus does not
profess to be a natural method of classification, it is, in
many points, incidentally so, several of its classes or or-
ders whose characters are founded in situation, proportion,
or connexion, being more or less perfectly natural assem-
blages ; nor can it be denied that, on the whole, it usually
brings together as many groups of natural genera, as oc-
cur in most systems that have been promulgated. This
fact would be more evident, if the various editors of this

492

system, those who have added new genera to the original
ones of Linnzus, or, in general, those who have any way
applied his method to practice, had properly understood
it. They would then have perceived that its author had
always natural affinities in view; his aim, however in-
completely fulfilled, according to our advanced know-
ledge, having constantly been, to place genera together |
in natural affinity or progression, as far as their relation-
ship could be discerned. At the same time he uses an
analytical method, at the head of each class in his Sy-
stema Vegetabilium, in which the genera are disposed
according to their technical characters. Murray, in
compiling the fourteenth edition of that work, has been
inadvertent, respecting this essential part of its plan.
Indeed it is probable that he was not competent to judge
of the affinities of the new genera, introduced from the
Supplementum, or from the communications of Jacquin,
Thunberg, &c. Yet surely he might have perceived the
affinity of Banksia to Protea, rather than to Ludwigia or
Oldenlandia ; and indeed Linnezus himself ought to have
‘discovered the relationship of the latter to Hedyotis, if he
did not detect their identity, instead of inserting it be-
tween two such strict allies of each other as Ludwigia and
Ammannia. To pursue these remarks would be endless.
It is hardly necessary to indicate the natural classes, or
orders of the Linnean system, such as the Tetradynamia,
Didynamia, Diadelphia, Syngenesia; the Triandria Di-
gynia, Gynandria Diandria, &c. Except the first-men-
tioned class, which, if Cleome be removed, is strictly
natural and entire, the others are liable to much criticism.
We are almost disposed to allow, what we know not that
any one has yet observed, that the system in question is
the more faulty in theory, for these classes being so natu-
ral as they are. Each order of the Didynamia presents
itself as a natural order, though the character of that
class, derived from the proportion of the stamens, serves
to exclude several genera of each order, and to send them

493

far back, into the second class. If all ideas of natural
affinity be discarded from our minds, there is no harm
whatever in this; but if the Didynamia claims any credit,
as a class founded in nature, the above anomaly is a de-
fect. So, still more, under the same point of view, is the
Diadelphia, or at least its principal order Decandria, lia-
ble to exception. This order consists entirely of the very
natural family of Papilionace@. They are characterized
as having the ten stamens in two sets. Now it happens
that there are many papilionaceous genera, indeed a great
number of such have been discovered since Linneus
wrote, whose ten stamens are all perfectly distinct. These
therefore are necessarily referred to the class Decandria,
and they come not altogether amiss there, because they
meet, inthat class, some concomitant genera, which though,
like them, leguminous, are less exactly, or scarcely at all,
papilionaceous. But the greatest complaint lies against
some genera of the Diadelphia Decandria, for having
the stamens all really combined into one set, so as in
truth to answer to the technical character of the pre-
ceding class, Monadelphia. There is mostly indeed some
indication of a disunion upward, where they, more or
less perfectly, form two sets; and some of them are
so nearly diadelphous, that their complete union at the
bottom may easily be overlooked ; others, however, have
only a fissure along the upper side of their common tube,
witheut any traces of a separate stamen or stamens.
The papilionaceous character of the corolla therefore, in
such cases, is made to overrule that of the particular
mode of union among the stamens, and is in itself so clear,
as seldom to be attended with any difficulty ; but the
incorrectness of principle in the system, in the point be-
fore us, as being neither professedly natural, nor exactly
artificial, cannot be concealed. Part of the objections,
towhich the sexual system was originally liable, have been
obviated. We mean what concerns the last class but

494

one, Polygamia. Dr. Forster observed, in his voyage
round the world, that this class was subject to great ex-
ception, on account of the trees of tropical climates, so
many of which are constantly or occasionally polygamous ;
that is, each individual frequently bears some imperfect
flowers, male or female, along with its perfect or united
ones. Such a circumstance reduces any genus to the
class Polygamza ; and on this principle Mr. Hudson, think-
ing perhaps that he made a great improvement, removed
our Ilex Aquifolium, or Holly, thither, though I/ex is well
placed by Linnzus in the fourth class. The author of the
present essay has ventured to propose a scheme, which is
adopted in his Flora Britannica, for getting clear of this
difficulty. He considers as polygamous such genera only
as, besides having that character in their organs of im-
pregnation, have a difference of structure in the other
parts of their two kinds of flowers. Thus Atriplex has, in
its perfect flowers, a regular spreading calyx, in five equal
segments; in the attendant female ones a compressed
one, of two leaves, subsequently much enlarged.

The genera thus circumstanced are so very few, as far
as we have discovered, that possibly the class might, but
for the uniformity of the system, be abolished. We can-
not indeed tell what future discoveries may be made ; and
its character, on the above foundation, is sufficiently clear
and permanent; for flowers of an essentially different
configuration, can hardly vary into each other. The or-
ders of the last class of the Linnean system, Cryptoga-
mia, are natural, and preserved, all nearly the same, by
every systematic projector. The original appendix to
this system, the Palme, would be a great blemish therein,
as an artificial’ arrangement: for such an arrangement
ought to be so formed as to admit every thing, on some
principle or other. But this stumbling-block is now re-
moved. The palm tribe were placed thus by themselves,
merely till their fructification should be sufficiently known.

495

Now they are found to agree well with some of the esta-
blished classes and orders, where they meet with several
of their natural allies.

Whatever advantages might accrue to the practical
study of botany, from the convenience and facility of his
artificial system, Linnzeus was from the beginning intent
on the discovery of a more philosophical arrangement of
plants, or, in other words, the classification of nature.
This appears from the 77th aphorism of the very first
edition of his Fundamenta Botanica, published in 1736,
where he mentions his design of attempting to trace out
fragments of a natural method. In the corresponding
section of his Philosophia Botanica, he, fifteen years af-
terwards, performed his promise; and the same Frag-
menta, as he modestly called them, were subjoined to the
6th edition of his Genera Plantarum, the last that ever
came from his own hands. The interleaved copies of
these works, with his manuscript notes, evince how assi-
duously and constantly he laboured at this subject, as long
as he lived. He was accustomed to deliver a particular
course of lectures upon it, from time to time, to a small
and select number of pupils, who were for this purpose
domesticated under his roof. What this great botanist
has himself given to the world, on the subject under con-
sideration, is indeed nothing more than a skeleton of a
system, consisting of mere names or titles of natural or-
ders, amounting in his Philosophia to 67, besides an ap-
pendix of doubtful genera ; and that number is, in the
Genera Plantarum, reduced to 58.

Under the title of each order, the genera which com-
pose it are ranged according to the author’s ideas of their
relationship to each other, as appears by some of his ma-
nuscript.corrections ; and some of the orders are subdi-
vided into sections, or parcels of genera more akin to each
other than to the rest. He ingenuously avowed, at all
times, his inability to define his orders by characters. He
conceived that they were more or less connected with

496

each other, by several points of affinity, so as to form a
map, rather than a series. The experienced botanist,
who peruses the above-mentioned [ragmenta, will in most
cases readily imbibe the ideas of their author, as to the
respective affinities of the genera. In some few instances,
as the Dumose, where he avows his own doubts, and the
Holeracee, where he is unusually paradoxical, it is more
difficult to trace the chain of his ideas. - Such however
was all the assistance he thought himself competent to
afford. His distinguished pupils Fabricius and Giseke
fortunately took notes of his lectures on natural orders ;
and by the care of the latter, to whom Fabricius commu-
nicated what he had likewise preserved, their joint acqui-
sitions have been given to the public, in an octavo volume
at Hamburgh, in 1792. Nor was this done without the
permission of their venerable teacher, who told Giseke by
word of mouth, when they took leave of each other, that
‘as he loved him, he had laboured with pleasure in his
service ;” adding, that ‘“‘ Giseke was at liberty to publish,
whenever he pleased, any thing that he had retained from
his own instructions.”

Linneus, according to a conversation with Giseke,
recorded in the preface of the volume edited by the latter,
declined to the last any attempt to define in words the
characters of his orders. His reason for this appears in
his Classes Plantarum, where he justly remarks, that no
certain principle, or key, for any such definition can be pro-
posed, till all the orders, and consequently all the plants,
inthe world are known. He has however so far expressed
his opinion, in the work last quoted, as to point out the
situation of the seed itself, with respect to other parts,
and the situation and direction of its vegetating point, or
corculum, as most likely to lead to a scheme of natural
classification. Hence the system of Cesalpinus stood
very high in his estimation. He also, in the conversation
above mentioned, divides his own orders into three sec-
tions or classes, Monocotyledones, comprising the first ten

497

orders, with the 15th ; Dicotyledones (with two or more
cotyledons), the 11th tothe 54th order, inclusive, except
the 15th; and Acotyledones, order 55th to 58th, with a
hint that the last, or Fungz, ought perhaps to be altogether
excluded. This distribution of plants, by the number or
the absence of the cotyledons, or lobes of the seed, is the
great hinge of all the professedly natural modes of ar-
rangement that have been attempted. We shall for the
present not enter on the consideration of this principle,
as it will more properly be explained when we examine
the system of Jussieu. lLinneus did not consider it as
absolute, for he told Giseke that he knowingly admitted
into his 11th order some plants that are monocotyledo-
nous, with others that are dicotyledonous. The reason
of this was the only secret he kept from his pupil, nor
could the latter ever dive into it, though he afterwards
endeavoured to learn it from the younger Linneus, who
knew nothing, neither did he, as Giseke says, rauch care,
about the matter. We hope to be able to throw some
light upon this mystery, when we come to the order in
question.

The want of any avowed principle of distinction, pre-
eludes all criticism of these natural orders of Linneus, as
a regular system ; we can therefore only take a cursory
view of them as they follow each other, with such indica-
tions of their characters as Giseke has recorded, or as we
may ourselves be able to trace. A great part of the sub-
stance of the lectures, published by him, consists of re-
marks on the genera of each order, as to their mutual di-
stinctions ; with numerous botanical and even economical
matters, which do not all come within the compass of our
present consideration. What we have to lay before the
reader, is not, in any manner, forestalled, by what he will
find in the fourth volume of the ENcycLorapiA, above
cited, which is taken from a different source.

Order 1. Patmam. “ An entirely natural and very di-
stinct order.” This tribe of plants, stationed by nature

VOL, 11. 2k

498
within the tropics, is considered by Linneus as the ori-
ginal food of man ; still supplying the place of corn to the
inbabitants of tropical countries. Palms are the most
lofty of plants, and yet it is a matter of doubt whether
they ought to be called trees or herbs. They do not form
wood in concentric circles, year after year, like our trees,
though they are extremely long-lived. The author of the
sexual system was, as we have just mentioned in speak-
ing of that system, but little acquainted at first with the
structure of the flowers of palms, or the number of their
stamens or pistils. His predecessors in the establishment
of genera of plants, Tournefort and Plumier, had pub-
lished little or nothing illustrative of this tribe. He had
himself seen no more than three or four species in fructi-
fication, nor had he any other resource, in founding ge-
nera, than the plates of the Hortus Malabaricus, (excel-
lent indeed, but not delineated with any particular view
of this kind,) and the less complete representations of
Rumphius. The growth of these plants is quite simple.
Each terminates in a bud, of a large size, called the heart,
or by voyagers in general the cabbage, of the palm.
When this is cut off, the tree dies, though the growth of
many centuries. This bud has a gradual and nearly con-
tinual vegetation, unfolding its leaves, which Linnzus
rather incorrectly terms fronds, one after another in suc-
cession, not all at any particular season. The bud there-
fore is perennial, not, as in our trees, annual, nor can it,
for this reason, be renewed. Fresh buds, in time becom-
ing trees, are furnished from the generally creeping, per-
ennial, and deeply descending roots. What have com-
monly been denominated the branches of palms, Linnzeus
very properly declined calling so, because they never in-
crease by producing lesser branches. He objected to
calling them leaves, “‘ because they are each attended by
no separate annual bud, neither have they the texture of
ordinary leaves, nor do they wither and fall off at any
particular season.” He adopted the term frond, which

499

he always used when he could not decide whether the part
in question were a branch, leaf, or stem. We cannot but
think these are truly leaves, though it must be confessed
they differ from the generality of such, in being destitute
of any line of separation by which they are capable of
falling, or being thrown off, from the stem. _ In this they
agree with the foliage of Musci and Jungermannie ; there
being a perfect continuity of substance throughout. The
hardened torn fibres, or rather vessels, which remain on
the stems of palms, where the leaves have once been, are
precisely the same as what occur in various mosses ; and
something similar may be observed in many liliaceous
plants and their allies, which approach to the nature of
palms.

In describing the fructification of this order, Linnzeus
- considered as belonging thereto, what we should presume
to be rather the inflorescence. Hence the great branch-
ing flowerstalk retains, in a technical sense, the name of
spadix, derived from the ancients; and its ample con-
taining sheath is denominated a spatha. The latter is
reckoned a kind of calyx, as the former a sort of branched
common receptacle. Linnzus strengthens his terminology —
in this case, by tracing an analogy between the spatha
of palms, and the glume of grasses. We doubt whether
any such particular analogy exists. Neither does his
other comparison, of the part in question to the sheath
of a Narcissus and its allies, at all, as far as we can judge,
elucidate or confirm his principle. He surely swerves in
these instances, as well as in his generic distinctions of
the umbelliferous plants, from the correctness of an axiom,
on which botany as a philosophical science depends,
that generic characters, and much more those of classes
and orders, should be exclusively derived from the parts
of fructification. Surely a very slight consideration of
the flowers and fruits of the Palma@, as we have become
acquainted with them since the time of Linneus, will
abundantly satisfy any person, that they afford ciear cha-

2K2

500

racters, on which to found a sufficient number of distinct
and very natural genera. Even that author, in the lec-
tures before us, records that some genera have a three-
leaved calyx, others none at all; some have a corolla of
three, others one of six, petals; most have six stamens,
some three, others nine, while the Nipa of Thunberg has
only one. The germens are three in some, solitary in
others, and the style and stigma are subject to like diver-
sity in different genera. The fruit is in some, as the
Phenix dactylifera, or Date, a single drupa, in others
composed of three; in some, like the Cocoa, a nut witha
coriaceous coat. The seeds are mostly solitary, but in
several instances two or three in each fruit. Hence, while
the fructification affords sufficient materials for discrimi-
nating genera, Linneus observes that no common charac-
ter, exclusively descriptive of the whole order, can be
founded upon it. The reader will find the essential cha-
racters of his genera in our Vol. IV. 288. His Zamia,
concerning which he avowed considerable doubts, chiefly
because it wanted a spatha, is now by common consent
among botanists, removed either to the Ferns, or to an
intermediate order between them and the Palms, to which
also Cycas belongs. The technical characters which have
induced this alteration, are confirmed by circumstances
attending the habit and qualities of these genera.

At the end of his proper Palme, Linnzus subjoins in
a distinct section, three genera, which he was doubtful
whether to leave there, or to establish as a distinct order.
These are Stratiotes, Hydrocharis, and Valisneria. He
remarks in his lectures that ‘‘ they have a spatha ex-
tremely like the palms; a calyx of three leaves, and a
corolla of three petals; leaves perennial and evergreen,
folded when they first come forth. Hydrocharis cannot
be separated from Stratiotes, nor Valisneria from Hydro-
charis. They produce their leaves crowded together at
the base, hke Ferns. Although their strict affinity with
the larger Palms of India cannot be demonstrated, they

501

ought nevertheless to be associated therewith. They are
all aquatics, whence we may presume that India may
afford some aquatic palms, smaller than the others, which
may prove a connecting link between the latter and the
plants of which we are speaking.” Giseke points out
several palms, in various authors, which though but im-
perfectly ascertained, confirm this conjecture of his pre-
ceptor. Linneus in his own copy of the Genera Plan-
tarum, enriched with his manuscript notes, to which we
shall often refer, has marked this section, or appendage,
of his Palma, as distinguished by “ an inferior fruit, with
many seeds.” He has moreover added 4 genera to this
assemblage, Pandanus, Bromelia, Tillandsia, and Bur-
mannia. Giseke has amply illustrated the order of
Palme, by observations of his own, or those of various
writers; but the most solid acquisitions to our knowledge,
in this interesting tribe, are derived from the labours of
Dr. Roxburgh, in his Plants of Coromandel.

Order 2. Piperirx. ‘The plants of this order have
an acrid flavour, whence the name.” They afford no
common character to discriminate the order, except pos-
sibly the elongated receptacle and sessile anthers, but
some amentaceé have the same. They consist of Zostera,
Arum, and its allies, Orontium, Acorus, Piper, and Sau-
rurus. The last is removed by Linnzus in his manuscript
to his 15th order.

Order 3. CatamMarRiz. ‘* These are closely related
to the true grasses, and have almost the same kind of
leaves. Their seed is solitary and naked; stamens three;
style one, not unfrequently three-cleft at the summit.
Their glume is of one valve (whereas most grasses have
two valves), except Schenus, which bears several: valves
irregularly disposed, though in other respects so near the
rest of its order, as scarcely to be distinguished without
accurate examination of the parts alluded to. The stem
of these plants is a culm, mostly triangular, rarely round,
often leafless, or nearly so. Leaves rather rigid and rough.

502

Flowers often disposed in an imbricated manner. Seed
in a few instances surrounded with bristles. When these
are extended into a kind of wool, hanging out beyond the
scales, such a character marks the genus Eriophorum.”
Linneus asserts that “‘ Scirpus differs from Carex, in
having all the flowers united, whereas in the latter some
scales are accompanied with stamens only, others with
pistils ;” but he forgot the tunic, or arillus, of the seed,
which makes the essential and clear character of Carex.
He mistakes also in supposing the stamens are always
three in this order ; in several instances they are but two,
in a few they are solitary. Much has been done respect-
ing the genera and species of this order by Rottboll, Vahl,
Brown, Schrader, and others. Linneus has made a ma-
nuscript correction in the Calamarie, excluding from
thence I'ypha and Sparganium, which he would remove
to the preceding order, principally, it seems, because he
judged the latter to be very closely allied to Zostera; as
well as on account of its anthers, but we can trace no re-
semblance in those to the Piperite. On the contrary
they and their filaments agree with the Calamariea. The
stamens of Typha indeed are somewhat different, and Mr.
Brown, in his Prodromus Flore Nove Hollandie, has an-
ticipated this alteration of Linneus.

Order 4. Gramina. ‘‘ The true Grasses compose as
peculiar a family as the Palms. They are the most com-
mon plants in the world, making about a sixth part of the .
vegetable kingdom, especially in open situations. There
they multiply, and extend themselves by their creeping
roots, prodigiously. In confined and woody places they
scarcely creep, but stand erect. They are the most im-
portant of all vegetables, for this reason, that they are
the chief support of such animals as depend on vegetable
food. They make the verdure of our summers, and the
riches of rustic life. Their leaves are not easily hurt by
being trampled on, and though the severity of winter may
wither and fade them, so that in the early spring no ap-

503

pearance of life remains, yet they revive. The solicitude
of the Author of Nature, for the preservation of this im-
portant tribe of vegetables, appears from their flowering
stems being rendered unfit for the food of cattle, that
nothing may hinder the perfecting of their seeds. Besides,
the more they are cut and ill-treated, the more vigorously
they grow, propagating themselves proportionably under
ground ; and in order that they may be enabled to thrive
any where, their narrow leaves are so contrived, as to
insinuate themselves between the divisions or branches of
other herbs, without any mutual impediment. There are
very few grasses agreeable to our palate. For the most
part they are insipid, like pot-herbs; a very small num-
ber being fragrant. None are nauseous or poisonous.
Grasses are the most simple of all plants; having scarcely
any spines, prickles, tendrils, stings, bracteas, or similar
appendages to their herbage.”

“‘Their stem is termed a culm, being hollow, composed
of_joints which are separated by impervious knots. In
our quarter of the world the culm is usually simple, unless
in consequence of cutting away the flowering part ; in the
Indies most culms are branched. The leaves are mostly
alternate, always undivided, and generally flat on both
sides, with a rough edge, and either smooth or hairy sur-
face. Each leaf stands on a sheath, which embraces the
stem, and is crowned with a membrane, sometimes termed
ligula, closely embracing the stem, to hinder the admis-
sion of water. The sheath springs from a knot, and (with
its membrane) answers the purpose of a stipula.”’

“‘The fructification of Grasses differs so much from
that of other plants, that it was supposed impossible to
reduce them to scientific order. They were first distin-
guished into corn and grasses; but such a distinction is
founded merely on the comparatively larger seeds of the
former, on which we depend for food, as small birds do
on the very minute seeds of the latter. Ray was the first
botanist who undertook a regular examination of grasses.

504

He distributed them according to their outward appear-
ances, but distinctive characters failed him. Neither was
Tournefort, however great a botanist, equal to the arrange-
ment of this tribe. Monti.followed Ray, but investigated
such only as were natives of Italy. John Scheuchzer,
first induced by Sherard, paid a most laborious attention
to this subject, spllerting grasses from all quarters, and
describing them with the greatest exactness; but he was
deficient in technical terms, and his very long descriptions
are nearly all alike, till he arrives at the fowirisng part.
The terms which he uses are folliculus for the corolla,
gluma for the calyx, docusta for the spikelet contained in
the latter. After him Micheli contrived a new method,
dividing grasses according to their spikelets, which he
observed to be either compound or simple. He subdi-
vided them by their flowers being united or separated ;
and subjoined an order of plants “akin to grasses,”’ which
really do not belong to them. If their sexes be attended
to, the arrangement of grasses becomes less difficult. They
are either monandrous, diandrous, triandrous, or hexan-
drous. The two latter have either united, monoecious or
polygamous flowers.”

‘‘The inflorescence in this order of plants is either
spiked or panicled. Their spike, properly so called, con-
sists of several flowers, placed on an alternately toothed
rachis, or stalk. If such a rachis be conceived perfectly
contracted, it will become a toothed common receptacle,
as in compound flowers, so that grasses may thus be dis-
tinguished into simple and compound. Or if we imagine
all the flowers to be sessile on one common base, such
grasses as are properly spiked will have a scaly receptacle,
the rest a naked one, according to the analogy of the syn-
genesious class; and by this means the corn family may
be separated from the rest, for they are scaly..

‘“The calyx is a husk of two valves, one proceeding
from within the base of the other, like the claw of a crab.
These husks are concave, and truly the leaves of the plant

505

in miniature. The calyx contains one, two, or more, flo-
rets, which are constructed in the same manner, of two
leafy husks, called by Linneus petals, to distinguish them
from the former. Within the petals the receptacle bears
two very minute, roundish, pellucid, extremely tender,
withering scales, often invisible without a magnifier, which
Micheli termed petals, Linneus nectaries. Stamens ge-
nerally three, in a few one, two, or six with capillary fila-
ments, and oblong incumbent anthers, whose lobes become
separated at each end. Micheli erroneously imagined
those which have six stamens, to bear, as it were, doubled
flowers. The germen is superior, with two styles, some-
times raised on a common stalk or elongated base, and
they are usually reflexed to each side, being either longi-
tudinally hairy, or tufted at the summit only. Seed
universally solitary, without a capsule, Lygeum only
having a nut, of two cells, which is very singular. A few
have a simple style, as Zea, Nardus, and Lygeum. The
seed is occasionally coated by the petals, which closely en-
fold it, and are almost united with it,—witness Hordeum
and Avena ;” (to which examples indicated by Linneus
we may add Briza). ‘‘ Many grasses are furnished with
an awn, arista, mostly rough, like a prominent bristle,
inserted into the back of the outermost petal, either at the
bottom, middle, summit, or a little below the latter. This
appendage is either straight, or furnished with a joint,
and twisted backward, or simply recurved; in some it is
woolly: in several it is accompanied by hairs at the base -
of the corolla. The use of these parts is to attach the ripe
seeds to the coats of animals, that they may be the more
dispersed.”

“ Although grasses are destitute of spines properly so
called, a few have their leaves longitudinally involute, in
such a manner that their rigid permanent points have all
the properties of thorns, as in Spinifex, and some Festuca.
Their foliation is, for the most part, involute, but in some
instances, as Dactylis glomerata, it is folded. This cha-

506

racter has not as yet received sufficient attention, but
ought to be noticed in future, as it may throw great light
on the distribution of the family of plants in question. Very
few indeed are furnished with setaceous leaves.”

Order 5. TripETALOIDE®. ‘‘ Scheuchzer and other
authors have referred Juncus and its allies to Grasses,
under the title of Graminibus affines. In truth, they are
so similar to grasses, as scarcely to be distinguishable
without fructification, The genera are Juncus, Aphyllan-
thes, Triglochin, Scheuchzeria, Elegia and Restio in the
first place, then Flagellaria, Calamus, Butomus, Alisma
and Sagittaria.”” Linneus, in his manuscript, has hinted,
that the three latter may possibly belong to the above-
mentioned section at the end of his Palme; see Ord. 1.

Order 6. Ensatm. ‘So called from the form of their
leaves, resembling a sword, being perfectly simple, almost
linear, alternate, mostly converging by the margins, often
cloven longitudinally, so that the edge of one leaf embraces
the other, thus constituting what is termed equitant fo-
liage. The root in many cases is oblong and fleshy, lying
flat on the ground, or creeping. But some species of Iris
are truly bulbous, like Crocus, Iria, Antholyza, &c. Stem,
in these genera, simple, erect, zig-zag ; but in Commelina,
especially the annual kinds, it is branched, as in T’rade-
scantia. Crocus and Bulbocodium have no stems. Leaves
usually sword-shaped ; very rarely quadrangular; in the
bulbous species of Iris involute ; in not a few Commeline
ovate; in Xyris and various kinds of Eriocaulon awl-
shaped. Fulcra, or appendages, are scarcely to be found
in this order. The calyx is a spatha, though but of
a spurious kind, being mostly a large concave valve, re-
sembling a halved sheath in Jris ; most beautiful in Com-
melina, where it is heart-shaped. In Sisyrinchium how-
ever this partis more perfectly bivalve. Corolla generally
of six petals; though in Jris so united by their claws, as
to constitute a monopetalous corolla. In Commelina and
Tradescantia the petals are very distinct, but the three

507

inferior being ruder in texture, and smaller, resemble a
calyx. Style with three stigmas, except some Comme-
line. Pericarp a capsule of three cells and three valves,
with many seeds; generally inferior, but not so in Com-
melina, Tradescantia, and Callisia. Hence it follows that
this order affords no certain mark, on which a distinctive
character could be founded.”

Order 7. Orcnipex. ‘ Orchis is a most ancient
generic appellation, alluding to the testicular shape of
the roots, in many plants of this family, which have, at
all times, been believed to possess a stimulating or aphro-
disiacal virtue. All the Orchidee might be compre-
hended in one genus, in which light also the Umbellate,
Semiflosculose, Papilionacee, might each likewise be con-
sidered. But the science would be overwhelmed in con-
fusion by such extensive genera, which it is therefore
found necessary to subdivide.

‘‘Many Orchidee have a tuberous fleshy root; not
properly to be termed bulbous, because its fibres are
thrown out from the top, or crown, whereas true bulbs
produce their fibres from the base. These tubers, or
knobs, are mostly in pairs; some of them globose and
undivided, others palmate, like the hand. One of these
tubers, from whence the plant of the present year has
come, being exhausted, will swim in water; the other,
destined to blossom next season, is so solid as to sink.
In the palmate kinds, the former is vulgarly called the
hand of the Devil, the latter the hand of God. Ophrys
corallorrhiza however has a threadshaped, branched,
and jointed root; that of O. bifolia is perfectly fibrous.
In other genera, particularly Epidendrum, the root con-
sists of clusters of fibres.”

‘The stem is solitary and herbaceous, except in se-
veral kinds of Epidendrum, quite simple, often leafy. In
some however there is merely a leafless, radical flower-
stalk, generally round, though not so in Ophrys Loeseliit
and paludosa. The leaves are simple, alternate, undi-

508

vided, sheathing the stem; sometimes wanting, as in
Orchis abortiva. Appendages none at all, except brac-
teas. Inflorescence terminal, either spiked or racemose,
Fructification irregular, and very singular, for it is impos-
sible to say what is calyx, and what corolla; nor is this
point of much importance, nature having placed no limits
between them. There are five petals ; besides a nectary,
which makes, as it were, a sixth. These five seem to
constitute an upper lip, the nectary an under one. Or it
may be said that the corolla is composed of three outer,
often ruder petals ; and three inner, the lowermost of
which ought rather to be denominated a nectary. This
last is various in different genera, having its appropriate
figure and dimensions, while the rest of the petals are
more uniform. Sometimes the middlemost of the five
petals, composing the upper lip, (like that of a ringent or
helmet-shaped flower,) is more erect and dilated; but I
have received some species from the Cape of Good Hope,
in which these petals are united to each other, and elon-
gated at their common base into a spur. Such will con-
stitute a new division or genus, of this family, as it stands
in the Species Plantarum, many of which have a spur
from the base of the lower lip, or nectary. The petals
however do not afford sufficient distinctions, for genera
or species. The former are determined by the nectary,
which is for that purpose principally to be regarded.
There is indeed no occasion to advert to any other part
than the flower of these plants, for distinguishing either
genera or species. Vaillant therefore, and Seguir, have
contented themselves with delineating their various flowers
alone.”

‘The stamens consist of two anthers, nearly without
filaments, very singular, and peculiar to this order, con-
cealed in a donble pouch or hood, but their pollen has
not been ascertained. They are ‘ contracted at the base,
naked, or destitute of a skin, divisible like the pulp of an
orange, and covered each by a cell open underneath, in-

509

serted into the inner margin of the nectary ;’ as described
in the Genera Plantarum. It remains therefore for in-
quiry, whether the anthers burst in these as in other sta-
mens, and whether the pollen explodes upon the female
organs? or whether there be any internal communica-
tion between the anthers and germen?” This latter opi-
nion Linneus was inclined to adopt, because, (as he
thought,) ‘‘ the pistil was so obscure, that no one was
able to say whether there were any style or stigma.”? We
cannot but remark here that the latter is sufficiently ap-
parent, in the form of a shining glutinous depression or
cavity, just below the anthers ; nor is there any doubt
that the pollen, though differetit in texture from other
plants, and various in the different species of these, per-
forms the office of impregnation by the stigma. It con-
sists of naked elastic or granular masses, being what Lin-
neeus terms the anthers.

‘The germen is inferior in the whole order; the style
short, inclining, in many hardly manifest, in some Ameri-
can Orchidee very conspicuous. Stigma either obsolete,
or funnelshaped, sometimes compressed. A small gland
moreover is present, suspected to belong to the female
organs of impregnation, but not very decidedly.” —(Lin-
nus surely errs in asserting that the sexes of the plants
in question are very obscure.) ‘‘ The fruit is a capsule,
of one cell, and three valves, which last are connected by
a lateral suture, to which the seeds are attached, as toa
receptacle. The capsule does not burst in the usual
manner, but the valves separate at their lateral sutures,
while their extremities remain united at top and bottom.
The seeds are numerous, of a chaffy appearance, like
saw-dust.”

‘* Many fine species of this order are found in Europe
and America; the Cape of Good Hope is not rich in
them;” (Mr. Brown observed a considerable number
there ;) ‘‘ both Indies abound with singular ones, espe-
cially with Epidendra. Their favourite soil is a spongy,

510

moist, friable, rich, but not manured, earth, in rather
shady situations. The species of Epidendrum are all,
perhaps, parasitical, insinuating their roots into the bark
of aged trees.”

“*‘ Orchidee are extremely difficult of culture.” We
refrain from transcribing the ideas of Linneus on this
subject, as it is now known that some of these plants may
be propagated by seed, and that several succeed very well
in our stoves, among the rotten bark of trees, accompa-
nied by fresh vegetable mould. Our wild Orchises are
best removed when in full bloom, when the mould should
be entirely cleared away from their roots, and the latter
planted immediately in fresh sifted soil from their native
place of growth, with moderate subsequent watering.
Thus treated they will come up and flower for many suc-
cessive years in the same pot.

Order 8. Sciraminex. “These nearly approach the
Orchidee in aspect. The name of the order is an ancient
word, synonymous with aromatic, and answers to the
whole of the tribe, except Musa, Heliconia, and Canna.”
(The two former certainly do not belong to this order, and
the last but imperfectly.)

“‘The roots of the Scitaminee are fleshy, mostly acrid
and aromatic, lying on the surface of the ground, and
throwing out fibres from their under side, like some of
the 6th order. Stem always quite simple,” (to this there
are exceptions in Maranta,) ‘‘in some bearing alternate
leaves; in others naked, and separate from the foliage.
Leaves lanceolate, quite entire, even, stalked, convoluted
contrary to the direction of the sun ; their stalks sheath-
ing the stem. Inflorescence either a spike or cluster, the
flowers being separated by coriaceous or membranous
bracteas. Flower superior. Calyx a perianth of three
valves. Corolla always irregular. Pericarp in most in-
stances a capsule of three cells and three valves, with
many seeds in each cell.” We pass over much of the
Linnean description, recent discoveries having enabled

511

succeeding writers, particularly Mr. Roscoe, in Trans. of
Linn. Soc. vol. viii., and Mr. Brown in his Prodr. Nov.
Holl., to explain the flowers much better. The corolla
is monopetalous, with a double limb, and more or less ir-
regular; each limb in three deep segments; the inner
most unequal, one of its segments being a dilated, lobed,
ornamented lip, like that of the Orchidee, the other two
sometimes very small, or obsolete. Stamen one, inserted
into the tube, opposite to the lip ; its filament mostly di-
lated, and of a petal-like habit, by the diversity of whose
shape Mr. Roscoe has first reduced this order into na-
tural genera, a matter in which preceding botanists had
altogether failed. The anther consists of two parallel
distinct lobes, united lengthwise with the filament, burst-
ing longitudinally, sometimes spurred at the base. There
are usually the rudiments of two abortive stamens, first
asserted to be such by Mr. Brown. Germen roundish,
with a threadshaped style, lodged between the lobes of the
anther, and a dilated, cup-like, often fringed, stigma.

‘To this order belong the Ginger, Cardamoms, Grains
of Paradise, Costus, Galangale and Zedoary of the shops,
all aromatic. We have nothing similar to them in Eu-
rope, except Acorus.”

What Professor Giseke has subjoined to the lectures
of Linneus, relative to this order, is, to say the best of
it, superfluous.

Order 9. SparHacex. “ These are distinguished by
their bulbous root, consisting of a radical bud, formed
from the bases of the last-year’s leaves, which envelope
the rudiments of the future foliage. Ina bud the scales
are expanded into leaves; in a bulb the permanent base
of the leaves becomes fleshy. In this order the leaves are
sheathing at the root, so that they exhibit no instance of
a scaly bulb, but only acoated one. Their leaves are, with
a few exceptions, almost linear, or linear lanceolate. Stem
no other than a scapus, or radical flowerstalk, either round,
two-edged, or triangular. The spatha, or sheath, is a

512

terminal membrane, splitting lengthwise, except in He-
manthus, where it divides into six segments, resembling
an involucrum, and is permanent. The spatha sometimes
contains many flowers, and where it naturally bears but
one, is liable occasionally to produce more. The flowers
are stalked within the spatha; in most instances they are
superior, but not in Bulbocodium, whose corolla is divided
to the very base. This plant therefore has erroneously
been referred to Colchicum. Tulbaghia has a perfectly
inferior flower, but cannot be referred to Hyacinthus, on
account of its many-flowered spatha.” (The nectary, or
crown of the tube, abundantly distinguishes it.) ‘“‘Ad-
lium has invariably an inferior flower, but its spatha shows
that it belongs to the order before us. Some of its spe-
cies bear flowers as big as a Narcissus.”

“‘ The corolla in most of the genera is monopetalous,
inasmuch as the nectariferous tube bears the petals.
Otherwise they might all be denominated hexapetalous,
except Colchicum and Crinum; tosay nothing of Gethyllis,
distinguished from all the rest by its very long tube. Sta-
mens six, except in the genus last mentioned, where they
are twice that number. Pistil one, except Colchicum; but
many have a three-cleft stigma, so that in Colchicum this
part may be considered as only further divided even down
to the germen. Capsule in all of three cells, with many
seeds.” (Hamanthus has a berry.)

“The roots of this tribe grow best if they are dried
after the leaves perish, either artificially, or by the arid
nature of their place of growth. Many of these roots are
nauseous and acrid, therefore poisonous, especially Co/-
chicum. The bulb of a Narcissus will kill a dog. No
analogy holds good between these plants and the Tulip,
whose bulb may be eaten with impunity ; because they
are not of the same natural order. All the species of A/-
lium are impregnated with their own peculiar pungent
flavour, and nature being disposed to expel them with
violence from the stomach, they prove most powerful su-

513

dorifics. Much of the substance of these last-mentioned |
is mucilaginous, which involves and separates their acrid
particles. Hence they are not dangerous in substance,
but their expressed juice, deprived of viscidity, is fatal.”

Order 10. Coronaria. ‘A coronary or garland
flower was anciently such as, on account of its beauty,
was used for ornamental wreaths.”’

*€ Ornithogalum has much in common with Allium, but
wants the spatha. Scilla is so nearly related to Ornitho-
galum, that they are scarcely to be distinguished but by
the breadth ’”? (some say the proportion) ‘‘ of their fila-
ments. Hyacinthus and Scylla are with difficulty distin-
guishable, though the latter has six petals, the former a
monopetalous six-cleft corolla, but this is in some in-
stances so deeply divided as nearly to approach the
latter.”

** In this order the root is either tuberous, a solid bulb,
or, asin Lilium, a scaly one. The leaves of Aloe, Yucca,
Agave, and Bromelia, are, as it were, a bulb above ground,
whose dilated, fleshy, permanent scales remain year after
year; just as the bulb of the Lily consists only of the
perennial bases of the foliage. In the Aloe tribe, not
merely the base, but the whole leaf is perennial. Who-
ever is ignorant of this, cannot fail to go astray in study-
ing the order in question.”

“The stem is simple, often a mere scapus, occasionally
leafy, in consequence of a partial elevation of the radical
leaves.”

“The flower, destitute of spatha or any sort of calyx,
consists of six petals.” (Linneus terms them such, be-
cause they fall off when the flowering is over.) ‘* In
Ornithogalum some species have the under side of the
corolla green, which part therefore is permanent here, as
consisting of corolla and calyx united. In some kinds of
Anthericum, and in Veratrum, the petals are likewise
permanent, but in a faded condition. The stamens are
universally six, three of them interior. Germen superior.

VOL, II. 21

514

In Aloe the pistil is solitary, and three-cleft; but the style
is divided tothe very base into three parts in Me/anthium,
Helonias, Veratrum, and one species of Ornithogalum.
All the tribe have a capsule of three cells, and three
valves, the seeds being placed one above another.”

‘‘ There is no uniformity in the qualities of the Coro-
nari@, there being among them a great diversity of scent.
The nauseous smell of Fritillaria imperialis and Veratrum
indicates a very poisonous quality, of which likewise Aloe
partakes. Lilium is mild; its root inodorous and muci-
laginous ; its qualities therefore are emollient and lubri-
cating. Scz//a maritima is in the highest degree acrid
and diuretic, dissolving viscid humours. The root of Or-
nithogalum umbellatum, as well as of O. luteum, is eatable.
The former appears to be the Dove’s dung, sold for so
high a price during the siege of Samaria, as recorded in
the Second Book of Kings, chap. vi. ver. 25; in the first
place, because it is very abundant in Palestine, whence
the English call it Star of Bethlehem; secondly, because
the flower resembles the dung of pigeons and other birds,
in its greyish and white partycoloured hue, whence also
comes the name Ornithogalum, or bird’s milk, alluding to
the white substance, always accompanying the dung of
these animals ; and lastly, because the root in question is
to this day eaten in Palestine, at least by the poor.” (See
English Botany, t. 130.)

‘‘'Wepfer has proved by many experiments, the very
poisonous nature of the root of the Crown Imperial, which
kills dogs, wolves, and various other animals. The an-
cients relate that the honey of its flowers caused abortion.
No flower, except Melianthus, produces more of this fluid,
yet the bees do not collect it! We-owe this fine plant, now
so common, to Clusius, who more than two hundred years
ago received it, along with the Horse-Chestnut, from the
east. He likewise acquired many other bulbs before un-
known, now become the ornaments of our gardens. From
his time:no one has taken the same pains. Certainly if

515

any person could travel, for this object, into the interior
of Persia and the kingdom of the Mogul, he would be
likely to obtain many superb plants of this order, as re-
cent travellers to the Cape of Good Hope have made us
acquainted with so many novelties among the Izie, An-
tholyza, &c. of which Hermann, Oldenland, &c., their
predecessors, have not mentioned a word. Tulipa Gesne-
riana is so called, because it was procured by Conrad
Gesner, from Cappadocia, whence it has become common
throughout Europe: its endless varieties are the delight
of florists, and some of them fetch a high price.”

Linneus in his own manuscript has, as we have already
said, removed Bromelia, Tillandsia, and Burmannia,
from this order to the Palme, or at least an appendix
thereto.

Order 11. Sarmenracex. ‘‘Sarmenta among the
ancients meant unarmed, prostrate, weak branches, una-
ble to support themselves ; hence this name is applied to
the order before us, many plants belonging to which an-
swer to that character, being of a long, weak, trailing or
twining habit. The Sarmentacee are monocotyledonous.
They differ much in fructification, and may be variously
arranged; either by their calyx and corolla; the number
of their stamens or of their pistils; the nature of their
fruit; or the inferior and superior situation of their ger-
men. Hence it appears that no common character, appli-
cable to the whole order, can be deduced from the fructi-
fication.”

*€ Raiania, Tamus, Dioscorea, Smilax, Cissampelos,
Menispermum and Ruscus, form one assemblage, all ex~
cept the last having the above-mentioned kind of stem,
twining to the left, not to the right, except in one species
of Menispermum. Such a difference is rare between plants
of the same natural order. Smilax supports itself by two
tendrils, springing from near the base of the footstalks ;
all the rest are spiral, and without examination of the
fructification, may easily be confounded. The above are

2L2

516

dioecious, except one or two species of Ruscus.” (Cen-
tella ranged among these in Gen. Pl. is now referred to
Hydrocotyle.)

** Dracena, Asparagus, Convallaria, Uvularia, Glori-
osa and Erythronium, compose another section. The last
is intermediate, as it were, between the present order and
the Coronarie. Gloriosa simplex is a small plant, not
unlike Erythronium, with reflexed petals.” (What Miller,
who is Linnezus’s sole authority for this species, intended,
nobody has ever been able to make out.)

*“ Medeola, Paris and Trillium have whorled leaves,
except M. asparagoides, which scarcely diflers from the
genus Asparagus, except in having three styles instead of
one.”’

Aristolochia, Asarumand Cytinus, nearly akin to each
other, are removed from this order by the author in his
manuscript, to the 27th, Rhoeadee, but not without a
query. In the same place we meet with what may per-
haps prove a solution of the mystery, which Giseke was
so anxious to unriddle, and to which we have already al-
luded in the beginning of this part of our subject. Lin-
nzus has here mentioned Nymphaea, as having in some of
its species one cotyledon, in others two. He notes also
that Menispermum and Aristolochia are dicotyledonous.
Nymphea however appears to be the great secret which
the worthy professor told his pupil that he or some other
person might chance to find out in ten, twenty or fifty
years, and would then perceive that Linnzus himself had
been aware of it. Accordingly, Gertner and Jussieu have
made the same discovery, or rather, fallen into the same
mistake; describing Nymphea as monocotyledonous, and
Cyamus Sm. Exot. Bot. v. i. 59. (their Nelumbo, or Ne-
lumbium), as in some measure dicotyledonous. The ex-
cellent De Candolle, in the Bulletin des Sciences, n. 57,
published in 1802, has first rightly considered both as di-
cotyledonous, and akin to the Papaveracee of Jussieu, the
Linnean Rhoeadee.

517

Linneus, in his lectures, proceeds to observe, that he
‘wanted to make further inquiry into the cotyledons of
his Sarmentacee; for though he knew that several of these
plants were monocotyledonous, he knew two, and did not
doubt there were more, perfectly dicotyledonous. Hence
he suspected the order might be separated into two, in
other respects very closely related.”

** The roots of all this family are oblong and fleshy,
except Erythronium, whose radicles are long and quite
simple ; those of Smilax Sarsaparilla run very deeply into
the ground, and are sometimes so thickened at the ends
as to become tuberous. The stem at first. coming forth
is smooth and leafless, mostly branched, except in Paris
and Trillium; in some prostrate. Leaves in every instance
simple and undivided, sometimes linear, sometimes lan-
ceolate and acute, or heartshaped, uniform, mostly alter-.
nate; except when three or more stand together in a
whorl, and in Dioscorea oppositifolia. It is rare that al-
ternate and opposite leaves occur in the same natural or-
der. Flowers mostly on simple stalks, Smilax excepted,
which has umbels; they are drooping, except in Paris.
Stamens universally six, except in Menispermum. Styles
three, or three-cleft. All the genera, almost without ex-
ception, are deficient in either calyx or corolla. The fruit
is generally of three cells. Inflorescence axillary. in all
except Erythronium, which has but one flower, and Rus-
cus, where it springs from the leaf.”

“‘ Their qualities are to be judged of by the smell. All
of them betray something of malignity, except two in-
sipid ones which are eatable, Dioscorea and Asparagus.
Gloriosa is very poisonous; the dried flowers of Lily of
the Valley cause sneezing, like Veratrum, that is, they
produce convulsions. Paris has always been deemed
poisonous. One kind of Cissampelos, named Pareira
brava, and Smilax, are known by physicians to be highly
diuretic, as well as the roots of Asparagus. Menispermum
Cocculus kills fishes, lice, and men.”

518

“This whole order is entirely without pubescence, even
the prickly Smilaces.”’

Next follow the Dicotyledonous Orders.

Order 12. HoLeRaces, pot-herbs, (erroneously printed
holoracee in Gen. P/l., which has misled several writers).
‘This denomination is given to plants that are tender or
brittle in the mouth, and easy of digestion, like many of
the order before us.” The order is divided into several
sections. Of the first Blitum, Atriplex, Chenopodium,
Salsola, Salicornia, &c. are examples. The second con-
sists of Petiveria, Calligonum, Ceratocarpus and Corisper-
mum. Callitriche was subsequently removed to the 15th
order. In the third section Axyris stands alone. Of the
fourth Herniaria, Illecebrum, Amaranthus, Phytolacca,
may serve to give an idea. The fifth begins with Bego-
nia, (of whose affinity Linneeus candidly confesses his igno-
rance, and to which no botanist has yet found an ally).
Next follow Rumex, Rheum, Polygonum, &c. The sixth
section has Nyssa, Mimusops, Rhizophora, Bucida and
Anacardium; and the seventh Laurus, Winterana and
Heisteria; in both which the fleshy receptacle appears,
where he could trace it, to have guided Linnzus to an ar-
rangement evidently paradoxical, which he labours, with-
out satisfying us, to justify.

Order 13. Succutent#. ‘‘ Bradley wrote on Suc-
culent Plants, by which he meant such as could not be
preserved in a Hortus Siccus. When gathered, vegetables
of this nature will live, often for a whole year, flowering
as they hang up ina house, and throwing out roots after-
wards if planted. All such plants, however, do not enter
into the present order. Stapelia, Euphorbia, and Aloe
are excluded. The Succulente grow, and become very
turgid, in the driest soil, nor are any found in watery
places. If moistened too much they perish, and their
roots decay. They afford, in putrefying, a fine vegetable
mould, whereas dry plants, like heath and fir, scarcely
yield any.”

519

Linneus has distinguished these into four sections. In
the first are Cactus, Mesembryanthemum, Tamarix, and
others. Nymphea, placed here in the Linnean manu-
script, as well as in Giseke’s publication, was afterwards
removed by Linneus to his Rhoeadee. Sarracenia he
conceived to be akin thereto. In his second section are
Sedum and its numerous allies; in the third Portulaca,
Claytonia, &c.; and in the fourth a very different as-
semblage, as we should think, composed of Saxifraga,
Adoxa, &c. and even Hydrangea. Linneus however
thought all these sections nearly related. ‘“‘ They are,”
says he, ‘‘ succulent, insipid, inert, and odorous, there-
fore mere pot-herbs, widely different from the other fleshy
plants, Stapelia, &c. whose fructification is so unlike
them, and whose qualities are so poisonous. We find in
this order, that opposite or alternate leaves is an indiffe-
rent circumstance. These plants have no true spines,
no tendrils, nor climbing stems, neither stipulas nor brac-
teas.” (Giseke well remarks, that Sedum acre is one ex-
ception to their alleged insipidity, though we can scarcely
agree with him that Sempervivum tectorum is anotber.)

Order 14. Gruinates. The best-known genera here
are Linum, Drosera, Oxvalis, Geranium and its relations.
Linneus admits also Quassia, Zygophyllum, Averrhoa,
&c., and his editor inserts, with well-founded doubt,
Sparmannia. Their roots and habits are various. Calyx
usually of five leaves, and corolla of five petals. Sta-
mens various in number and connexion. Pistils mostly
five or ten. Fruits various. Linneus professed himself
unable to define the character of this order. Many of the
plants have acid leaves.

Order 15. INuNDatTm. ‘So called because they
grow in water, many of them under its surface, except
their blossoms.” Potamogeton is the genus most gene-
rally known, to which Linnzus suspected Orontium to be
related, but not correctly. Myriophyllum, Proserpinaca,
Hippuris, &c. are placed here, and even Elatine, notwith-
standing its numerous seeds. . Chara and Najas forma

520

section at the end. Callitriche, Lemna, and even Pistia,
were proposed to be brought hither; with Sauwrurus and
Aponogeton.

“The qualities of the Inundate are very obscure.
These plants are mostly inodorous, except a fishy scent
in some ; nor have they any particular taste ; hence they
are not used medicinally.”

This order is out of its place with respect to the ar-
rangement by the cotyledons, of which Linnzus seems
aware, from the remarks subjoined to it, in his lectures,
concerning that principle. To these we shall hereafter
refer.

Order 16. CatycirLorm. This consists of Osyris,
Trophis, Hippophie and Eleagnus.. No observation re-
lative to itis given in the lectures, except that these ge-
nera are removed elsewhere. A manuscript note before
us indicates a suspicion of its relationship to the 6th sec-
tion of the Holeracee. Linnzus sometimes referred Me-
mecylon to one of these orders, sometimes to the other,
but finally to his 18th ; we should rather presume it be-
longs to the 19th notwithstanding the definite number of
the stamens, which caused Jussieu to range this genus
with the Linnean Calycantheme ; see the next order.

Order 17. Catycanrnemam. ‘‘The title of this order
is precisely synonymous with the last, and is applicable
in a different manner to the different genera of which the
present consists. In those whose germen is inferior, the
calyx bears the flower and enfolds the germen; in those
where the latter is superior, it is unconnected with the
calyx, into which the stamens are, in that case, inserted,
like the Senticose and Pomacee, not into the receptacle.
The germen is inferior in Epilobium, Oenothera, Gaura,
Jussiea, Ludwigia and Isnarda, as well as in Mentzelia
and Loosa” (or Loasa); ‘‘in the rest, Ammannia, Gris-
lea, Glaux, Peplis, Frankenia, Lythrum, Melastoma, Os-
beckia, and Rhevia, it is superior. Some genera have
four, others five or six petals. Glaux and Isnarda have
none. Ammannia and Peplis have occasionally petals,

521

or not, in the same plant. Melastoma has a berry; the
rest a capsule, usually of four or five cells, in some ge-
nera of but two, or one.” Linneus mentions Melastoma
as the only arboreous genus. ‘The rest are herbaceous,
(rarely shrubby,) with opposite or alternate leaves ; sta-
mens from fourto twelve, pistil always solitary, the stigmas
either four or one.

““These plants are mostly inodorous and insipid, ex-
cept a styptic property in the root of Lythrum; none of
them are used in the shdps. It is remarkable in this
order particularly, that some flowers are sessile and axil-
lary, but towards the summit the leaves gradually dimi-
nish, and are finally obliterated, so that the inflorescence
becomes a spike, as may be seen in Epilobium.”’

Order 18. Bicornes. ‘So called,” by Linneus,
‘* from the anthers, which in many of this tribe terminate
in two beaks. The plants are rigid, hard and evergreen,
almost all more or less shrubby ; certainly: perennial.
Diospyros is arboreous. The leaves of this order are al-
ternate, simple, undivided, scarcely crenate, permanent.
Stipulas and bracteas wanting ;” (certainly not always
the latter). ‘‘ Calyx of one leaf, more or less deeply four
or five cleft. Corolla usually monopetalous ; in Pyrola,
Clethra, and their near allies, pentapetalous. Nectaries
none, except in Kalmia.”” (Linnzus can here mean only
the pouches which for a while detain the elastic stamens,
and those are by no means nectaries.) ‘Stamens from
four to ten, answering to the divisions of the corolla, or
twice their number. Pistil 1, except Royena, which is
digynous. Germen in some superior; in others, as Vac-
cinium, inferior. Some have a capsule, others a berry ;
the cells of each four or five; but Diospyros has a fruit of
eight cells. The seeds are either one or many in each
cell, mostly small, chaffy.” Linnzus remarks that “ they
can scarcely be raised in a garden, especially as the
plants are many of them natives of boggy situations ;”
but our English gardeners are masters of their treatment,

522

witness the abundance of Erica from the Cape, now com-
mon in every greenhouse, and many other charming
shrubs, cultivated in a peat soil. He conceived the whole
order to be nearly confined to one meridian, from the
North Cape of Lapland, to the Cape of Good Hope ; but
he is incorrect in saying there are very few in North
America, and none in the East or West Indies.

Halesia, Styrax, Spathelia, Citrus and Garcinia are
subjoined as an appendix to the Bicornes, but there is al-
lowed to be a considerable distance between them, and
the last is erased in the Gen. Plant. as having opposite
leaves. Giseke records, p. 345, that when Linnzus said
no Erica grew in America, he asked him whether Hud-
sonia were not an exception to this? On which he took
that genus from his herbarium, and after contemplating
and replacing it, wrote something, Giseke knew not what,
in his Genera Plantarum. We find what he wrote to be
as follows: ‘‘ Videnda Hudsonia, Empetrum, Ilex, Itea.”
It is interesting to be thus able to trace the thoughts of
such aman. He was moreover correct.as to the genus
Erica itself, of which no species has been detected in
America.

Order 19. HesrperipEx. Of this nothing is said in
the lectures. The original generaare Eugenia, Psidium,
Myrtus, and Caryophyllus ; to which Giseke has added
Calyptranthes and Legnotis of Swartz. Melaleuca also
strictly belongs to this tribe ; though, by a strange error,
referred in the Mantissa to the 40th order, and yet said
to be akin in Ginora, which belongs either to this or the
17th. Philadelphus is subjoined as forming a ‘section
by itself, and still with a mark of doubt. The discoveries
in New Holland have thrown much light on this fine order
of aromatic and elegant shrubs, of which the Myrtle is a
familiar type. Linneus intended to remove Garcinia
hither.

Order 20. Roracem. The lectures are also deficient
as to this order. It consists of T'rientalis, Centunculus,

523

Anagallis, Lysimachia, Phlox, Exacum, Chlora, Gen-
tiana, Swertia, Chironia and Sarothra; to which Ascy-
rum, Hypericum and Cistus stand as an appendix. The
wheel-shaped corolla of many of the above plants, has
evidently suggested the name.

Order 21. Precia. Primula and its elegant relatives
form the basis of this order. ‘“‘ They are all destitute of
stems. Leaves simple. Flowerstalk umbellate, except
in Cyclamen. Flower regular. Calyx, as well as corolla,
five-cleft. Stamens five. Style one. Fruit a simple
superior capsule. The umbel is often accompanied by
an involucrum. They are vernal-flowering plants, and
have, except Cyclamen, nothing malignant in their quali-
ties.” Limosel/a stands alone in a second section of this
order, but rather perhaps belongs to the 40th. Meny-
anthes, Hottonia and Samolus form a third section, at-
tended by amark of doubt. Szbthorpia was once inserted
in manuscript, but afterwards erased.

Order 22. CaryoruyuLe1. The Pink and Campion
tribe. “‘ Root fibrous. Stem herbaceous, scarcely shrubby,
jointed ; its branches commonly alternate. Leaves simple,
more or less of a lanceolate figure, undivided, hardly cre-
nate in any degree, sessile, with no other appearance of
a footstalk than their elongated narrow base, opposite,
obvolute. Stipulas none; neither are there any distinct
bracteas, nor spines, prickles nor tendrils. The plants
are mostly smooth, few are hairy, none prickly or bristly.
Flower rarely sessile. Stamens never numerous, but either
the same in number as the petals, or twice as many.
Pistils from one to five, not more. Fruita capsule, either
of one cell, or of as many as there are styles; the cells
usually with many seeds, Drypis only having a solitary
seed. A few of these plants with separated flowers occur
among the species of Cucubalus, Silene and Lychnis. The
whole order is harmless, without any peculiar taste or
smell, except in the flowers. It contains the flores ca-
ryophyllati of Tournefort, who defined these as having the

524

calyx tubular, and the limb of the corolla flat; but he
referred Statice and Linum hither, which differ widely
from this order, while his character excludes the A/dsine,
or Chickweed, tribe.” Linnzus thought Ve/ezza had been
wrongly placed here by Gerard, and was doubtful re-
specting Cherleria; but he was afterwards satisfied that
both are Caryophylle:. He remarks that ‘the order
consists, as it were, of two leading genera, or rather fa-
milies, the Caryophyllus, or Pink tribe, such as Dianthus,
Saponaria, Gypsophila, Silene, Lychnis, &c.; and the
Alsine, or Chickweed family, consisting of Spergula,
Cerastium, Arenaria, Stellaria, and others. In the first
division, the calyx is tubular, of one leaf ; in the second
of five.”’ A third section of this order has Pharnaceum,
Glinus, Mollugo, Polycarpon, Minuartia, Queria, Or-
tegia, Loeflingia ; to which were afterwards added Gisekia
and Rotala. Holosteum also, having laciniated stipula-
ceous membranes, was intended to have been removed
to this third section. | Scleranthus, by itself, makes a
fourth, but is erased by Linneus, and removed to his 31st
order. Polypremum, with a query, stands at the end.

A most extraordinary remark is subjoined by Professor
Giseke at p. 354; that “ Alsine media and Holosteum
umbellatum are one and the same plant,”’ and that ‘‘ Lin-
neus had no specimen of the former in his herbarium in
the year 1771.” Swartz is cited in confirmation, who
only says in his Obs, Bot. 118, that this Alsine is a spe-
cies of Holosteum. We trust it is better referred to Sfe/-
laria in Flo. Brit., and we can affirm that an authentic
specimen of this common plant, which Linneus had when
he published the first edition of Sp. P/., in 1753, still
exists in his collection. The real Holosteum umbellatum,
a rare English plant, is well delineated in Engl. Bot.
t::27.

Order 23. Trinttatrs. ‘‘So called from its three-
celled, and three-grained fruit, for all the cells are distinct.
Melia however has five cells. The calyx in this order is

525

either of four or five leaves, or of one leaf in fivé deep
segments. Petals four or five. Stamens eight or ten.
Pistil one. One part of the fructification is often dimi-
nished as to number, for instance the petals; and when
they become but four, the stamens are only eight. A
nectary is always present ; hence the corolla is frequently
irregular. The leaves are disposed to be compound, and
are both opposite and alternate. The whole order scarcely
contains anything acrid, except Trop@olum, nor any thing
either fragrant or noxious; on the other hand, the Tri-
coccé, properly so called, are highly poisonous.”

The first section consists of Melia, Trichilia, Guarea
and Turrea ; to’ which Linneus has added, from his 54th
or miscellaneous order, Cedrela and Swietenia. The se-
cond is composed of Malpighia, Bannisteria, Hirea, Tri-
opteris, Acer, and Aesculus. Linneus was inclined to bring
hither, from his 14th order, the genus Fagonia, because
of the likeness of its flower to Malpighia, but he found a
difficulty in the five cells of its fruit. A third section
consists of Staphylea, Sapindus, Paulinia, Cardiospermum
and Tropeolum ; to which Hippocratea is added in ma-
nuscript, and a question subjoined, Whether Staphylea
be not akin to Celastrus? Cavanilles has added many
new genera to this order, but he is surely complimented
to excess by the editor of the Prelectiones.

Order 24. Corypates. ‘The title of this order is
synonymous with Fumaria amongst ancient writers.”

“‘The genera are Melianthus, Monnieria, Epimedium,
Hypecoum, Fumaria, Leontice, Impatiens, Utricularia,
Pinguicula, and perhaps Calceolaria. The calyx is of
two leaves; except in Pinguicula, where it is only cloven;
and Melianthus, where it consists of four leaves. The
flower of Fumaria is remarkable in its throat, and uniform
in that respect throughout the genus; but. the various
species differ widely in their fruit; which in some, as offi-
cinalis, Xc. contains a solitary seed ; in capnotdes, clavicu-
lata, &c. it isa genuine pod; in vesicaria a large inflated

526

capsule.” Monnieria and Melianthus (two very puzzling
genera,) were thought by Linneus to be nearly related to
each other, though differing from the order under consi-
deration, in having several capsules, and a calyx in five
deep divisions. But he judged the ringent corolla of
Monnieria to betray an affinity to Fumaria; while the
nectary of Melianthus is similar to that of Monnieria, the
combined stamens of the latter being exactly those of Fu-
maria. Hence a relationship is traced between Melian-
thus and this order, which, but for Monnieria, could not
have been suspected.

“There is a certain fragility and delicacy of texture
characteristic of the Corydales, with a glaucous hue,
which points out their affinity ; as well as a bitter flavour.
Scarcely any of the order are odoriferous, except Melian-
thus, which is extremely fcetid.”’

Linneus professes his inability to point out any exclu-
sive mark of distinction for this order. ‘‘ The leaves
indeed are alternate in all, Calceolaria excepted ; and
many bear stipulas. Their mode of flowering is spiked,
racemose, or solitary, their stalk naked or leafy, different
in different species. All that we are acquainted with are
smooth and unarmed; a very few of them climbing by
means of tendrils. Melianthus and Monnieria only are
shrubby. All the tribe prefer shady, moist situations,
where the soil is not disturbed.” (Some however grow
in cultivated ground, as the Fumitories.)

“The Melianthus, a Cape plant, produces more honey
than any other plant, so that a tea-spoon full may be col-
lected every morning, from each of its numerous flowers.
But the offensive odour” (of the bruised plant) “indicates
a poisonous quality, as in Cimicifuga.”’

Order 25. PuTaAMINE®. On this order, named from
the strong rind of the fruit in several instances, there is
no commentary in the Prelectiones, nor any manuscript
note in the Gen. P/. The genera are Cleome, Crateva,
Morisona, Capparis ; Crescentia and Marcgravia being

527

added with hesitation. Tanecium of Swartz, and Possira
of Aublet, which last is Rittera of Schreber, are subjoined
by Giseke.

Order 26. Muttisitigu. This consists of four sec-
tions. In the first are Paonia, Aquilegia, Aconitum and
Delphinium, to which Linneus, after much diversity of
opinion, finally determined to add Cimicifuga and Actea.
The second contains Dictamnus, Ruta and Peganum: the
third Nigella, Garidella, Isopyrum, Trollius, Helleborus,
Caltha, Ranunculus, Myosurus and Adonis: and the fourth
Anemone, Atragene, Clematis,and Thalictrum. ‘‘ Most of
the order, with a few exceptions, are of European growth ;
rarely arboreous or shrubby, except such species of Cle-
matis as climb trees. The roots are fibrous, sometimes
tuberous.. Leaves often many-cleft, or compound; but
in a few instances simple; all alternate, except in Clema-
tis integrifolia. There are no stipulas, spines, nor prickles.
One or two kinds of Clematis bear tendrils. Flowers in
no case monopetalous. Stamens always more than eight,
except in the second section. Fruit in some capsular, in
some single-seeded. An acrid taste prevails through the
whole. Their odour is disagreeable, almost universally,
so that none is esculent, and many, if not all, are poison-
ous, though thereis no milky plant among the whole, nor
any one with a twining stem.” Linnzus remarks, that
‘a calyx is very rarely present, and when it occurs, ma-
nifestly originates from the leaves ;”’ but this is not ap-
plicable to Ranunculus and its nearest relations, nor to
any genus in the second section; that section indeed
being a most distinct order of itself, called by Jussieu
Rutacee, but not well defined by him.

Order 27. Ruaapem. The poppy tribe. No remark
on this order is found in the lectures of Linnzus, but he
has made some manuscript notes. He wished to remove
it next to the 24th and to place its genera thus, Argemone,
Chelidonium, Papaver, Podophyllum, Sanguinaria and
Bocconia. Sanguinaria, he observes, has the flower of

528

Actea, which last genus he had once brought hither. He
has finally placed here Aristolochia, Asarum and Cytinus,
as we have mentioned under the 11th order. Nymphea
also is indicated, but afterwards erased, which is unfor-
tunate.

Order 28. Luripm. The gloomy family of nightshades,
henbane and tobacco. ‘“‘ This order is a most distinct and
evident one. All the plants have alternate leaves; a five-
cleft calyx ; monopetalous corolla; stamens four or five ;
pistil one ; germen superior; seed-vessel of two cells, in
some a berry, others a capsule. Their corolla folds in a
plaited manner.”

Digitalis, Celsia, Verbascum, Nicotiana, Atropa, Hy-
oscyamus, Datura, Physalis, Solanum, Capsicum, are ex-
amples of this order. ‘‘They are none of them arboreous,
though some are shrubby. Colour (of the herbage) mostly
dull and lurid; the taste disagreeable, smell nauseous,
hurtful to the nerves, hence tieir generally poisonous
qualities.” Ellisia is properly expunged in the manu-
script, and Nodana with equal propriety removed hither
from the 41st order.

Linneus observes, that ‘‘ the poisonous quality of Ver-
bascum appears in its power of killing fish, if made up
into balls with meal.” ‘‘ Nicotzana rustica,” he says, “ fur-
nishes the Turks with their best tobacco, yet it is not
cultivated by us, though it grows readily. Atropa Man-
dragora, a most poisonous and dangerous plant, becomes,
under proper management, an excellent and powerful
medicine,” for instances of which Linneus referred his
hearers to his lectures on the Materia Medica. These, as
Giseke notices, were never published. On turning to the
manuscripts used by the professor in that course, we find
the Mandragora mentioned as “‘ virose, acrid, bitterish
and nauseous, useful in the gout and colic; the herb boiled
in milk, and applied to scirrhous tumours, more active in
dispersing them than hemlock or tobacco. Three of the
berries boiled in milk, given to a potter, labouring under

529

a dreadful cholic, threw him into a sleep for twenty-four
hours, out of which he awoke cured. The ancients gave
an infusion of this plant in wine, before they amputated
a limb. Its narcotic qualities render it very useful in epi-
lepsy and hysteria, though to be cautiously administered.
Nothing can be more dangerous in a state of pregnancy.
The editor of Hernandez, Hist. Nat. Mexic. Book viii.
chapter 28, speaks of this fruit as eatable, without any
soporific or injurious effect.”

Linneus himself appears to have been doubtful about
Catesbea, which he has marked as akin to his Dumose.
Giseke has subjoined an observation, not well founded,
of the Solandra of Swartz being hardly distinct from Da-
tura.

Order 29. Campanacem. These Linneus has noted
as most nearly allied to the 24th order. ‘‘ They never
form trees, rarely shrubs. Leaves in every instance alter-
nate; calyx and corolla five-cleft; stamens five; pisti.
one, except Evolvulus, which has at least a deeply four-
cleft style, if not four distinct ones. Fruit a capsule.
They are milky plants, at least while young and tender.
Their qualities therefore are purgative, and but slightly
poisonous.”

Convolvulus and Campanula, with their respective al-
lies, constitute this order. To the latter Viola is supposed
to be connected, through the medium of Lobelia. Par-
nassia, though in the manuscript rightly said to be not
milky, stands at the end, its affinity being indicated by
the nature of the flower-stalk, calyx, as well as the seeds
and their situation, but especially the nectaries and stigma.
The anthers come one after another and impregnate the
latter, retiring subsequently in their turns. Their close
application to that part, as Linneus conceived, rendered
the access of extraneous pollen impossible, “‘hence,” says
he, ‘‘no more species of this genus can be produced.”
This alludes to his hypothesis of new and permanent spe-

cies, or even genera, having been generated, from time to
VOL. Il. 2M

530

time, in the vegetable kingdom, by cross impregnation ;
which we are very unwilling to admit, nor do any of his
instances prove satisfactory tous. As to Parnassia, we
now know several American species, as distinct as those
of any other genus.

Order 30. Controrts. “This order derives its name
from the corolla, which,” (in all the species known to
Linneus,) “‘ is twisted in the bud, contrary to the course
of the sun, its limb being wheel-shaped, when expanded,
in such a way that each of its segments, unequally pro-
portioned in their margins, is curved inward under the
next segment, the shorter side of the former being beneath
the longer one of the latter. Europe is very poor in this
tribe, India very abundant. Many of the plants are
milky, and, like most other such, poisonous; some indeed
so violently, as immediately to destroy animals that eat
them. Their medical effects, rightly managed, may be
very great. They have all, naturally, an injurious pro-
perty, even Asclepias Vincetoxicum, though this plant, like
Nerium and Vinca, is scarcely milky, but in its very
youngest shoots.” (It is singularly remarkable that the
fruit of one of this family, at Sierra Leone, the size of an
orange, yields a copious and wholesome milk, used by the
colonists as cream to their tea. See Sm. Introd. to Bo-
tany, ed. 3. 316.)

*‘Many of the order of which we are treating are
shrubby; the leaves opposite and evergreen, except the
species of cold countries. The flower is, in many cases,
intricate in structure, because of the peculiar apparatus
of the nectaries of various genera.”

*‘ The roots are perennial. Leaves all, as far as hi-
therto known, simple and undivided, and, with very few
exceptions, opposite ; sometimes ternate, or quaternate ;
rarely alternate. The inflorescence is often peculiar, in
having its flowerstalk not axillary, but proceeding from
the side of the stem between the insertion of the leaves.
Calyx of one leaf, five-cleft. Corolla of one petal, regular,

531

its segments contorted, as above described, and often
notched in the margin. Nectaries, in many instances,
singularly formed. Stamens five. Pistils two, or one with
a double stigma. Germen superior in all, except Gar-
denia, Genipa, and Macrocnemum,” (all now certainly not
admitted into this order.) ‘‘ The Fruit, in many genera,
as Vinca, Nerium, Echites, Plumeria, Tabernemontana,
Cameraria, Periploca, Apocynum, Cynanchum, Asclepias,
Stapelia, Ceropegia and Pergularia, consists of two di-
stinct follicles, not observable in other plants. This sort
of seed-vessel is like a spatha amongst the other kinds of
calyx, of one valve, splitting longitudinally at the inner
edge. But the seeds are not attached to the suture, there
being a separate thread-shaped receptacle, extending the
whole length of the seed-vessel, over the whole of which
the seeds are imbricated, in a downward position. In all
the above mentioned the seeds are crowned with a soft
hairy tuft, except those of Vinca, which have no such ap-
pendage. The flowers of the Contorte are usually very
handsome, and there is something so singular in the struc-
ture of many of them, especially relative to the nectary
and stigma, that it is difficult to say, in many instances,
whether they have one or two stigmas; especially when
two germens seem to bear but a single style. The corolla
in all is five-cleft, and the stamens five. Jacquin contends
that the latter are really ten. Linnzus from repeated ex-
amination of Asclepias, was confirmed in the former opi-
nion, and especially from the investigation of Periploca,
whose flower, evidently constructed on the same principle
as Asclepias, has, no less evidently, but five stamens.”
Giseke very improperly annexes Embothrium and Rho-
pala to this order, only because their fruit is a follicle ;
nor does any other genus which he, or Linneus, has men-
tioned, really belong to it, except Allamanda, Rauwolfia
and Cerbera of the latter; Gynopogon and Melodinus of
Forster, with Willughbeia of Schreber. The first has a
bivalve coriaceous capsule, as if formed of two follicles
2m 2

532

united, with imbricated seeds ; the rest have pulpy fruits.
Most of the other genera referred hither, as Gardenia,
Cinchona, Portlandia, &c. belong to the great order of Ru-
biacee in Jussieu, of which the Linnean Stellate, No. 47,
make a part. It must be allowed, nevertheless, that the
corolla of Gardenia answers to the character of the Con-
torte. Mr. R. Brown, in the Wernerian Transactions, has
thrown much light on the principal genera of this family,
under the title of Asclepiadee and Apocinee, with the ad-
dition of numerous new ones.

Order 31. Verrecuta#. No explanation of this occurs
in the Prelectiones. The genera are Dais, Quisqualis,
Dirca, Daphne, Gnidia, Struthiola, Lachnea, Passerina,
Stellera, with Thesium, and inthe manuscript Scleranthus
and Santalum. These three last do not properly belong
to the others, which constitute a most natural order of
generally small shrubs, as the name implies. They are
known by their tough branches; silky inner bark; sim-
ple entire leaves; acrid and even burning flavour; and
sweet-scented flowers, whose calyx and corolla are united
into one integument, most coloured within.

Order 32. PapritionaAcem. An extensive and very
natural family, ‘‘ consisting of the Leguminose of Ray ;
which Tournefort,” (following an idea of Baptista Porta),
““called Papilionacee; Rivinus flores tetrapetali irregu-
lares; and Magnol pentapetali. They have not all five
petals, for in many the claw of their keel is simple; in
some the keel is separated towards the base into a double
claw; while in a few only, the whole keel is composed of
two distinct petals, as in Spartiwm.”’

‘¢ Their character is as follows. Perianth of one leaf,
irregular, inferior, generally withering. Corolla nearly
the same in all. Its standard either emarginate or entire,
either reflexed or not at the sides, for the most part very
large, compared with the other petals. Wings, if present,
always two, opposite, frequently large, sometimes, as in
Colutea and Hedysarum, very short. Keel simple, either

533

pointed, obtuse, or abrupt. Stamens ten, nine of which
have their filaments united, more than half way up, form-
ing a membranous sheath to the pistil; the tenth stick-
ing closely under the pistil, and being sometimes in-
serted into the base of the tube composed by the other
nine. Hence arise two divisions of the order, without
attention to which the genera are with difficulty de-
fined. Pistil generally uniform; the style downy or
woolly, either above or below; stigma either acute or ca-
pitate. Legume of two valves, which must not be con-
founded with a Szliqua, or Pod, though old writers have
so termed it, applying that name equally to the fruit of
this order and that of the Tetradynamia class. As these
fruits differ widely in structure, Linneeus has restricted to
the latter the term pod, whose character is to have the
seeds attached to each suture of the valves; whereas in
the legume, or fruit of the class Diadelphia, they are con-
nected with one suture, or margin, only. The name of
legumen indeed originally belonged to the seed itself of
these plants; but for want of a better Word, Linnezus has
applied it to their seed-vessel. The legume is mostly of
one cell, containing many seeds; except Astragalus and
Biserrula, in which one suture is internally dilated, as it
were, so as to make a partition, separating the fruit into
two cells; whilst Phaca has the same part extended only
half the breadth of the legume, rendering the separation
incomplete. Geoffrea has a drupa, which still ought to
be considered as a single-seeded legume, whose pulp is
hardened,” (or rather, whose coat is made pulpy.) ‘‘ The
ripe legume bursts along its sutures, and throws out its
seeds. There are indeed some which do not open in this
manner, but fall off in separate joints, each containing a
seed, examples of which are Hedysarum and Ornithopus.”

“The genera of this natural order so nearly approach
each other, that it is difficult to detect their discriminative
characters. Tournefort, though he distributed other ge-
nera by their flowers, divided and determined these by

534

their foliage. But Hedysarum forms an objection to such
a principle of arrangement, because some of its species have
simple leaves, others ternate, conjugate, or pinnate.”

““ Lathyrus, Cicer, and Vicia are genera most nearly
akin to each other, as are Phaseolus and Dolichos. Coro-
nilla, Ornithopus, Hippocrepis, Scorpiurus, Lotus, and
some species of Trifolium, agree in their umbellate in-
florescence.” (Sophora, and its many new-discovered
allies, ought to make a section, at least, by themselves.)

‘‘ There is no poisonous plant in this whole order, ex-
cept the seeds of Lupinus, with which the Hippopotamus
is killed, and which fowls will not eat. Indigo becomes
poisonous in its preparation, but the plant is originally -
harmless. On the other hand, none of this tribe is medi-
cinal, except Glycyrrhiza. Galega, commended as anti-
pestilential, is not to be trusted. These plants have no
remarkable odour,” (except in the flowers of a few spe-
cies.) ‘‘ Their seeds are flatulent; but afford nourishing
food for labouring people.”

Order 33. LomEentTacem. ‘‘ These are perhaps all
shrubby,” (or arboreous.) ‘‘ Leaves alternate, compound,
at least in the indubitable plants of this order; pinnate or
bipinnate; without a terminal leaflet, Moringa excepted.
Stipulas always large, particularly to be noticed. Calyx
five-cleft. Corolla in some degree irregular, polypetalous,
except Ceratonia, and several Mimose. Stamens differing
in number; mostly ten. Pistil universally single. Fruit
a legume, for the most part having transverse partitions.
The leaves fold together at night, except those of Cerato-
nia, and that in a different manner according to the diffe-
rent species. Many of this order possess a purgative
quality, while some have a virose or nauseous flavour about
them, but this last is not at all the case with Ceratonia.”’

Of Polygala, which stands at the head of this order,
nothing is recorded by Giseke from the lectures of Lin-
nzus, nor has he himself made any note. It surely an-
swers but indifferently to the Lomentacea. Genuine ex-

535

amples of the order are Bauhinia, Hymenea, Casalpinia,
Cassia, perhaps Securidaca; from which Ceratonia, Mi-
mosa, Gleditsia, &c. considerably recede in character,
though less in habit. Cercis ought to be ranged with
Anagyris, Sophora, &c. either in the preceding order, or
rather in a separate one, intermediate between the two.
Order 34. CucursitacrEs. “In this order there are,
properly, no trees. Some of the plants indeed have a
climbing, woody, perennial stem ; others a perennial root
only ; whilst others again are entirely of annual duration.
Leaves in all alternate, simple, always accompanied at
their origin by stipulas. There are mostly glands, either
on the footstalks, at the base of the leaf, or on its disk.
All have tendrils, by which they climb if they have
any opportunity; otherwise they are procumbent. These
plants seem akin to the Sarmentacee, order 11th; but
the latter have a twining stem, these not; they are mo-
nocotyledonous, these dicotyledonous; they are destitute
of tendrils, with which these are furnished. The calyx is
either of five leaves, or five deep segments. Corolla of
one petal, in five deep divisions, but so much cut in many
instances, that it is scarcely possible, but from analogy, to
say whether it consists of one or five petals, The stamens
are inserted, not into the receptacle, but into the interior
surface of the calyx, to which also the corolla is attached.
Their filaments are often five, but frequently so combined
as to appear three only. So also the anthers are often
connected, the summit of one to the base of another, ma-
king a continued serpentine line. The style is of consi-
derable thickness, with three, frequently cloven, stigmas.
Fruit internally of three cells, fleshy, and somewhat juicy.
The seeds are, for the most part, capable of being kept
for a long time, though they appear of a dry nature; but
that they are not really so, is evident from the emulsions
' prepared from some seeds of this tribe. Gardeners think
them better for keeping. The sex of the flowers is, in
several cases, distinct, and either monoecious or dioecious.

536

The whole order is noxious and fetid, hence it affords
some of the most violent medicines, as Colocynth and
Elaterium. Even melons themselves, if taken too plen-
tifully, are said to be injurious, though in ripening they
part with much of their unwholesome quality.” The ge-
nera are Gronovia, Anguria, Elaterium, Sicyos, Melothria,
Bryonia, Cucurbita, Cucumis, Trichosanthes, Momordica,
Feuillea, Zannonia, Passiflora. ‘‘ The last affords some
of the most beautiful of all flowers; many of them are
fragrant.”

Order 35. Senticosm. The briar and bramble tribe.
The genera are Alchemilla, Aphanes, Agrimonia, Dryas,
Geum, Sibbaldia, Tormentilla, Potentilla, Comarum, Fra-
garia, Rubus, Rosa. Poterium and Sanguisorba are in-
serted at the head of this list, inthe Linnean manuscript.
See the following order.

Order 36. Pomacrex. The apple and plum kinds,
consisting, in the first section, of Spirea, Ribes, Sorbus,
Crategus, Mespilus, Pyrus; in asecond, of Punica; and,
in a third, of Chrysobalanus, Prunus and Amygdalus.
These two orders are treated of together, in the Prelec-
tiones, it is not said for what reason, though their strict
affinity cannot be overlooked. ‘‘ Many of these plants,”
says Linneus, “ are shrubs, most of the whole are peren-
nial, very few annual. They are rarely smooth. The
leaves are alternate, mostly compound. Stipulas always
two, large. None of the plants properly climb, though
some brambles support themselves on their neighbours.
Their distinguishing character principally consists in the
receptacle of the stamens being equally that of the ger-
men, but raised, at the sides of the calyx, above the ger-
men. Hence, the calyx bearing the stamens, they are
calycanthemi. The fruit is either superior or inferior, there-
fore that distinction is not always important. In Rosa, for
instance, the part in question seems inferior, but is in fact
the contrary, for the seeds are really inserted into the in-
ner side of the calyx, exactly as in Mespilus, with this

537

difference only, that in the latter they are imbedded in
the pulp, which fills the calyx. The segments of the ca-
lyx are mostly in a double series, the innermost largest,
the outer alternate therewith, and smaller, answering to
the petals. Stamens for the most part numerous, but
Sibbaldia, Alchemilla, and Aphanes form an exception,
the first having five stamens, the two last only four,” (or
even fewer). ‘‘ The pistils vary in number. There is
nothing acrid in the whole order, nor much fragrance ;
there is much of a styptic, little of a mucilaginous qua-
lity; nothing poisonous; so that if the fruits are worth
tasting, they may certainly be eaten with impunity.”

Order 37. CoLuMNIFERS. ‘So called, not because
the author meant to express, in the name, the essential
character, but in allusion to some distinguished examples
of this order, whose stamens are united into a columnar
form. Linneus was really the founder of the order in
question, though Tournefort endeavoured to keep together
as many of the same plants as possible, under his Mono-
petal Campaniformes. But the corolla has five petals,
though they all fall off in one body, being connected with
the combined stamens. Some have been denominated
akin to Malvacee ; indeed many of the class Monadelphia
belong to this tribe.”

“* The root in all these plants is fibrous, in no instance
bulbous or tuberous. Stem often herbaceous, but there
are many arboreous, and amongst others the kinds of
Bombax, or Silk Cotton, almost the largest trees in the
world. Some of these only bear spines ; but some spe-
cies of Hibiscus are prickly. There is scarcely a perfectly
smooth plant in the whole order. They have all stipulas,
in pairs. The leaves are alternate, never opposite ; in
numerous instances stalked ; plaited in the bud; and,
what is remarkable, many of them have glandular pores
under the rib. No tendrils are found in the order. The
inflorescence is various. Calyx in several simple and five-
cleft, but in some genera double, as Malva, Alcea, Al-

538

thea, Lavatera, Malope, Gossypium and Hibiscus. Petals
generally five, but as they often adhere to the united fila-
ments, the corolla seems monopetalous. This adhesion
contradicts the opinion of Vaillant, who has said that
stamens are never inserted but into a monopetalous co-
rolla. Their connected claws often form a nectary be-
tween them. The corolla is somewhat abrupt, and twisted
contrary to the sun’s motion. Pistils usually correspond-
_ ing in number to the parts of the fruit; as do the stigmas,
where the style issimple. Turnera has as many styles
as there are cells in the capsule. The fruit is always su-
perior, but differs in different genera. Malva, Alcea, Al- ~
thea, Lavatera and Malope, have numerous capsules,
ranged like a wheel round the base of the style ; nor is the
latter placed upon, but in the midst of, them, as in the
Asperifolia, order 41. Each capsule is single-seeded,
and falls off with the seed ; which is likewise the case in
Urena; such seed-vessels might perhaps rather be named
arilli, or tunics, as they burst at their inner side. Many
of this order have solitary seeds in their cells, or capsules,
like the above, and the genus Ayenia; but many others
are polyspermous, as Bombax, Hibiscus, Theobroma, &c.
A few of the genera produce woolly seeds, as Bombax and
Gossypium; in the place of which appendage, Adansonia
has a mealy powder. Some bear a capsule of five cells,
containing many seeds; which in Hibiscus Malvaviscus,”
(now constituting the genus Achanza,) ‘‘ becomes pulpy.
It is curious that Hibiscus Moscheutos bears its flower-
stalk upon the footstalk, like Turnera; a rare circum-
stance in the whole vegetable kingdom.”

“* Hermannia has hooded petals, in a corolla twisted
like that of Malva. They are auricled and dilated below,
forming a nectary by their involution, as the true Malva-
cee do by the cohesion, or approximation, of their petals.
The calyx is tumid. Capsule of five cells. All the species
are shrubby. The flowers are so alike in all, as hardly
to be distinguishable from ene another; and hence per-

539

haps it may be presumed, that the various species, all
natives of the Cape of Good Hope, may in this, as well as
other genera, have been produced from the hybrid im-
pregnation of some original one. H. pinnata has the only
compound leaves in this order.” We must protest against
this extensive speculation, of the production of permanent
mule species, having seen many arise from such a cause,
but none continue to propagate itself for any length of
time. It is not the least curious particular, in the struc-
ture of the genus before us, that the flowers, which com-
monly grow together in pairs, have the corolla twisted in
an opposite direction to each other.

The second section of this order, composed of Camellia,
Thea, Gordonia, Stuartia, Tilia and Kiggelaria, are at
least nearly akin to the foregoing genera.

‘** This whole order contains no disagreeable or hurtful
plants, nor are they esculent. None are fcetid, but some
agreeably fragrant. Many of the flowers are beautiful.
Their quality is generally mucilaginous, particularly Al-
thea, Malvaand Alcea. The ancients made considerable
use of Mallows in their food, but these plants are now out
of use in that respect.”

Order 38. Tricoccm. ‘ Botanists apply this term to
plants whose fruit is, in a manner, composed of three
nuts, combined together like that of Thea. In the order
under consideration, the seed-vessel is generally a round-
ish three-cornered capsule, rounded on all sides, with
single-seeded cells, which bursting elastically, with con-
siderable force, scatter the seeds to a distance. It must
be observed, however, that as in this order some genera,
like Mercurialis and Cliffortia, are dicoccous” (having
only two cells, or lobes), ‘so there are tricoccous plants”
(as Thea, and many more,) ‘‘ that do not belong to it.”

“The plants of this order bear alternate, mostly sim-
ple, leaves, often furnished with glands. Many afford a
most acrid milk; they are generally offensive, nauseous,
purgative, or poisonous. The style is in several highly

540

remarkable, being more or less deeply three-cleft, and
each of its branches divided. The calyx, as well as co-
rolla, have always something unusual in their conforma-
tion, or in their nectary ; and many of the genera are mo-
noecious or dioecious.”

‘* Euphorbia, as a familiar and most distinct genus,
may serve asa principalexample. It is certainly no less
singular than extensive. The calyx of one inflated leaf
has four or five marginal teeth, and terminates in as many
abrupt coloured glands. The latter are remarkably situ-
ated on the teeth themselves; but these teeth seem, to-
gether with their glands, to be rudiments of petals. In
Euphorbia corollata the glands are actual petals, as thin,
expanded, and delicate, as those of Flax ; but scarcely
another instance is known, of petals originating in teeth
of a calyx.”

“* Plukenetia, a very rare plant, has a four-cleft flower,
and four-celled fruit, with a climbing stem.”

There are numerous genera besides. Rumphia and
Trewia are added to the list in the Linnean manuscript.

Order 39. Sitiquosm. ‘‘ All botanists have acknow-
ledged the common affinity of the genera constituting
this order, and have denominated them Siliquose and Si-
liculose. Tournefort called them cruciform flowers ;
Linneus, Tetradynamia. These plants have mostly in-
versely-heartshaped cotyledons, except some Cresses, in
which those organs are three-cleft; the rest agree with
the genus Convolvulus ; so this character is no proof of
affinity.”

“The stems are herbaceous, except some species of
Alyssum, and one Vella. There is no real tree among the
whole. The roots are all fibrous, none bulbous or tu-
berous,” (except perhaps Dentarie.) ‘‘ Leaves univer-
sally alternate, without stipulas, tendrils, prickles, or ve-
nomous stings. Inflorescence usually a corymbus, which
gradually elongates itself into aracemus, so that the flowers
are corymbose, and fruit racemose. Calyx always of four

54]

leaves, deciduous, except in A/yssum ca‘ycinum and Bras-
sica Erucastrum. Petals four, with claws ; some species
of Lepidium and Cardamine only having flat, or straight
petals. The receptacle in most, but not in all, is furnished
with ‘glands. Stamens six, the two opposite ones shorter,
or at least more spreading.” (A very few species have
only four or two stamens.) ‘‘ Fruit commonly a pod,
with two valves, two cells, and many seeds. A few ge-
nera, have a solitary seed, either imbedded in pulp, as
Crambe ; or in a lamellated flat seed-vessel, as Isatis ; or
in an angular one, as Bunias.”

“The plants of this order are distinguishable into S-
liquose and Siliculose, the former having an oblong, the
latter a rounded pod. But it being difficult to define the
precise limits of each, Linnzus refers to the Siliquose
such as have a stigma without a style, and to the Silicu-
lose such as have astyle to elevate the stigma, which
character is conspicuous in every instance, except in
Draba, where the style is but short.”

‘* It is of importance to observe whether the calyx in
the present order be closed or spreading ; that is, whether
the leaves composing that part be parallel, so that their
sides touch each other, or horizontally distant.”

“The nature of a Sidiqua, or Pod, appears from what
has been already mentioned. It differs from a Legume,
in having the seeds attached to each suture, or margin.”

‘‘ All these plants have a more or less acrid watery
juice; hence their external application excites redness in
the skin, and their internal. use irritates the finer fibres.
Nature therefore is solicitous to expel them, and, in con-
sequence of their watery nature, by the kidneys, hence
they are all diuretic. Salt, being of a corrosive quality,
produces scurvy ; but salt is secreted from the body by
the promotion of urine, though it must first be dissolved
in a watery menstruum ; consequently the herbs in ques-
tion rank among the chief antiscorbutics, especially water-
cresses and scurvy-grass. They ought never to be used

542

in a dried state, as their acrimony and medical virtues are
destroyed by drying. Boiling likewise is destructive of
acrimony, especially in these plants; they ought there-
fore to be taken recent. Their diuretic powers render
them eminently serviceable for evacuating water in the
dropsy. Yet their use ought not to be too long conti-
nued, as their acrimony abrades the minuter fibres, ren-
dering the vessels, and the intestines, in a manner, cal-
lous. This appears from the rigidity and torpidity of
stomach induced by too much use of mustard.”

“There is scarcely any thing odoriferous about these
plants, except in their flowers. When they are bruised,
indeed, something volatile ascends, of an acrid, rather
than odorous nature, irritating the coats of the nerves,
and inducing spasms, which do not originate in the me-
dullary substance of the nervous system, but in its coats.”

No alteration or addition respecting the genera of the
Tetradynamia occurs in the Linnean manuscript.

Order 40. PERsonata. There is no commentary
on this order in the lectures of Linneus. Giseke has
given a synoptical arrangement of the genera, according
to the shape of the corolla, which is not in every part pre-
cisely correct. He justly expresses his doubts respecting
Melaleuca, of which we have spoken under the 19th
order; and he truly observes that there is no order in
which so many genera are named after botanists as in the
present.

The only manuscript additions or corrections, which
occur in the Genera Plantarum of Linneus, are the fol-
lowing : Martynia, Craniolaria, Torenia and Scrophu-
laria are pointed out as akin to Pedalium, in order 28th ;
Hyobanche, Lindernia, Pederota, Manulea, Premna and
Calceolaria are inserted, with a question, certainly not
well founded, whether the latter should not rather be re-
ferred to the 24th order. Brunfelsia also is placed among
the Personata, at the suggestion of Van Royen.

Order 41. Asperirouie. ‘‘ These plants were first

543

collected into an order by Cesalpinus, and received the
above appellation from Ray, because of their generally
harsh or rough habit. Their root is fibrous. Cotyledons
two. Stem branched ; the branches alternate and round.
Leaves alternate, simple ; neither divided nor compound,
for the most part nearly entire, rough with rigid scattered
hairs; convolute before they expand. Stipulas none;
nor are there, except very rarely, any other fulcra, or ap-
pendages. Common flowerstalk having the flowers ranged
along one side. Before flowering it is rolled spirally -
backwards, gradually expanding as the flowers are ready
to open, and divided into two parts, each bearing the
flowers on its back, in the form of an unilateral spike.
Calyx in five divisions. Corolla inferior, of one petal,
regular except in Echium, five-cleft ; its mouth either fur-
nished with vaulted valves, or crowned with teeth, or
naked. Stamens five, equal; in Echzwm only they are
unequal. Fruitsuperior. Germens four, naked, except
in Cynoglossum, Tournefortia, and Nolana ; inserted in o
the receptacle by their base; hence the lowest part of
each seed is of a tapering form, as if artificially rounded.
Pistil one. Style not standing upon the germens, but
occupying the central space between them ; often divided
into two equal parts ; not one longer than the other as in
the class Didynamia. Seeds four, rarely combined into
two; butit is singular that Nolana has five seeds.” Lin-
nzus has, as already mentioned, removed this genus to
his Luride, order 28th.

‘The Asperifolie are distributed according to the
mouth, or throat, of their corolla, which is naked, or per-
vious, in Echium, Pulmonaria, Lithospermum, Heliotro-
pium, Cerinthe, and Onosma ; toothed in Symphytum and
Borago ; closed with vaulted valves in Cynoglossum,
Asperugo, Anchusa, Lycopsis, Myosotis, and Tourne-
fortia.”

In the Gen. Plant. Messerschmidia, Coldenia, Hydro-
phyllum, and Ellisia are inserted’ in manuscript. ,

544

‘All the Asperifole are mucilaginous, and act only
as such. The ancients selected their four cordial flowers
out of this order, seeming not to have been aware that
the motion of the heart depends upon the nerves, which
therefore must be strengthened if the force of the heart
is to be increased. This end however is not to be at-
tained by either the flowers or the herbs of this tribe,
which nevertheless have long been used for the purpose.
The leaves may be eaten as food, by which their small
medical use may be estimated. The root is perennial
and mucilaginous ;” (we would rather say, ‘‘if perennial,
is mucilaginous,”’ which perhaps were the original words
of the lecture.) ‘Among the whole, Symphytum abounds
most with mucilage, equalling, in quantity as well as
quality, the monadelphous plant Althea in this respect.
Symphytum tuberosum has been recommended in the
gout. Possibly its mucilaginous quality may hinder the
crystallization of the gouty matter. The root in almost
all the Asperifolia is red, but for the most part externally
only. The root of Lithospermum tinctorium, now Anchusa
tinctoria, is used for its colouring properties. Of all
plants, the herbs of this order yield the largest proportion
of ashes. There is hardly an odoriferous, nor one fra-
grant, herb in the whole tribe ; though Cynoglossum has
a somewhat foetid scent. Their taste is nothing, the
great quantity of mucilage involving the stimulating par-
ticles. These herbs are esculent, especially when young
and tender, although their rough surface renders them
less agreeable to delicate palates. They generally grow
in dry mountainous situations ; and it is singular that in
proportion as they are found nearer to water, they become
smoother.”

Order 42. VerticitLaTe. ‘Ray, in constructing
his system, founded three classes, which all succeeding
botanists hitherto have approved, the Sted/ate, Asperi-
folia, and Verticillate; but he was unable to give proper
characters of the genera. Hermann subsequently, esta-

545

blishing a system upon the fruit, called the Verticillate
of Ray Gymnotetrasperme, plants with four naked seeds,
but he could not by this means distinguish them from the
Asperifolie, which have the same character. The gene-
rality of Asperzfolie, in fact, differ from the Gymnotetra-
sperma, in their corolla, which in the former is regular, in
the latter irregular, though likewise monopetalous. But
Echium, though it belongs to the Asperifolia, has still an
irregular corolla. The Asperifolie have alternate leaves,
the Gymnotetrusperme opposite ones. These classes
might therefore be distinguished from each other, accord-
ing to Hermann’s method, were not Echium an obstacle.
Linnzeus, however, that he might avoid all confusion be-
tween the orders in question, has borrowed a character
from the stamens, and has referred to his class Didynamia
such plants as have two stamens longer, and two shorter.
He has moreover divided that class into two orders, the
first of which comprehends Hermann’s Gymnotetrasperme,
whose stamens easily distinguish them from the Asperi-
folie. But the consideration of the stamens has further
obliged the author of the sexual system to refer certain
genera, of the natural order under our present considera-
tion, to his class Diandria. These are Verbena, Lycopus,
Amethystea, Ziziphora, Cunila, Monarda, Rosmarinus,
Salvia, and Collinsonia; of which Verbena and Collin-
sonia perhaps ought rather to be placed in the other order
of the Didynamia, called Angiospermia.” This:is cor-
rect with regard to Verbena only.

“<The calyx of the Verticillate is of one leaf, inferior.
Corolla of one petal, irregular, in most instances gaping,
with two lips, the uppermost of which was called by Ri-
vinus the galea, or helmet, the lowermost the barba, or
beard. Stamens four, except in the several genera just
mentioned, where they are only two, inflexed, ascending
under the upper lip. Germens four, from between which
the style arises, as in the Asperifolie, which is wavy, so-

VOL. II. 2N

546

litary, except in Perzla, where there are two, and bearing
two acute stigmas. Seeds four, naked, Prastwm excepted,
whose seeds have a succulent skin, causing them to re-
semble berries. A berry, properly speaking, is a seed-
vessel ; but in Rosa it is the calyx, in Fragaria the re-
ceptacle, and in Prasium the skin of the seeds.”

‘* Many of this order are humble shrubs, none are trees,
most of them are annual or perennial herbs. The stem
is generally square. Leaves in every instance opposite,
simple, mostly undivided. None of the plants are fur-
nished with tendrils, nor of a climbing nature. The scent
of nearly all of them is highly fragrant, the odoriferous
matter being contained in minute cells, which, when the
leaves are held against the light, appear like numerous
perforations.”

‘The flowers usually stand in whorls, encircling the
stem as with a ring. When these whorls approach very
closely together, the stems appear spiked, as in Ori
ganum.”

‘‘ This order is in the highest degree natural ; whence
arises great difficulty in determining the genera. Lin-
neus has derived a character from the calyx, according
to which the whole order is divided into two sections.”

“The first of these comprehends such as have a five-
cleft calyx, that is, where all the teeth of this part are
nearly of equal size and shape. The second consists of
those with a two-lipped calyx, which is indeed five-cleft,
but its two upper segments are, in a manner, united into
one, which might almost be termed emarginate only ;
while between these two united segments and the remain-
ing three, there is so deep a fissure, at each side, that the
calyx is nearly divided into two parts, or lobes. Linneus
has bestowed great attention in searching for the essen-
tial characters of genera in this natural order, and has
detected several, which are marked in the Systema Vege-
tabilium with a sign of exclamation.”

547

Order 43. Dumosm. ‘“ Dumus and nemus are syno-
nymous, meaning a thicket ; or wood consisting of shrubs,
not of large trees. All the plants of this order are shrubby,
but none of them, except in the genera of Siderorylum
and Chrysophyllum, grow to large trees.”

““ Rhamnus is supposed to be familiar to everybody.
Its calyx is tubular, five-cleft at the margin, occasionally
coloured, like a corolla, but not perforated at the bottom.
A monopetalous corolla falls off, with a perforated tube ;
which is not the case here. But betwixt every two seg-
ments of the calyx is stationed a delicate little scale, which
any person might easily take for so many petals. The
stamens however, being placed under each scale, are
therefore alternate with the divisions of the calyx; whereas
if-these scales were real petals, the stamens ought, by a
general rule, to be alternate with them, and not with the
parts into which the calyx is divided. Some species, as
the Buckthorn, R. catharticus, have four-cleft flowers,
but they are mostly five-cleft. This last-mentioned, like
R. alpinus, is divecious ; Zizyphus is polygamous. The
stigma in some Rhamni is emarginate, in others three- or
four-cleft. The fruit of this genus is various ; a berry in
some with four seeds, in others, as Paliurus and Alaternus,
with three ; in others again it has a single seed with two
cells, as in Zizyphus. Paliurus has not, properly, a berry,
but a depressed, bordered, shield-like capsule. The stem
in some is thorny, in others prickly, in others unarmed.”

“‘French botanists have recommended the dividing of
this genus into several, a measure which appears highly
proper to those who have not seen the Indian species. If
such genera are to be distinguished by their fruit, species
most resembling each other will be put asunder, and widely
different ones brought together, as any person making the
experiment will find. Besides, the structure of the flower,
and the habit of the plants, are respectively so alike in
all the species in question, and so different from all the

2N2

fe.

548

rest of the order, that any peasant might perceive their
affinity.”

“* Phylica agrees in almost every point with Rhamnus,
except that its flowers are aggregate, and florets superior.
This genus is so nearly akin to Brunia, that without see-
ing the fruit, which very rarely occurs, they can scarcely
be distinguished. Phylica radiata therefore, universally
esteemed a Phylica, proves, on the detection of its fruit,
to be a Brunia.”

*“ Ceanothus, with its three-lobed fruit, like that of
Rhamnus Alaternus, agrees in every character with Rham-
nus ; but the scales of that genus are here drawn out into »
vaulted petals, supported by long claws.”

“€ Buttneria differs in hardly any respect from Ea
nus, except its anthers; for the calyx, prickles, and every
thing else, answer so eel: that at first sight one would
decidedly take it for a species thereof.”

“ Sideroxylum has a five-cleft calyx, and at the same
time a monopetalous corolla; but between all the seg-
ments of the latter stands a little serratéd tooth, analogous
to the scales of Rhamnus. The flowers are likewise ses-
sile on the stem, but the berry has only one seed.”

“ Chrysophyllum is so nearly akin, and so similar, to
Sideroxylum, as hardly to be distinguishable by its ge-
neral aspect; but its fruit contains many seeds, though
indeed they are disposed in a circle.”

“ Achras differs from Chrysophyllum in having a six-
cleft flower; and to this genus Prinos is very nearly re-
lated, differing in the flat form of the corolla, and fewer
cells of the fruit.”

““ Ilex so nearly accords with the last-mentioned genus,
that the only Prinos then known was originally taken for
an Ilex; but the flower of I/ex is four-cleft, not six-cleft.”

“ Tomex and Callicarpa only differ from Ilex in having
a single style, and not four stigmas. The berry of Cadli-
carpa is like that of Ider. In Tomewx the stamens are in-

549

serted into the receptacle, whereas in Callicarpa they are
attached to the tube of the monopetalous corolla.” These
genera have since been united by the author himself.

*“ Euonymus is so nearly allied to Tomex, as scarcely
to be distinguishable, except by having a capsule instead
of a berry. Its seeds moreover have a pulpy tunic.”

* Celastrus, though differing from Euonymus in having
alternate leaves, is so much akin to that genus, as to
have been called Ewonymus by all systematic writers.
Yet its fruit differs in number and proportion from Ewo-
nymus, just as Peganum does from Ruta. The tunic of
the seeds however, though not pulpy, confirms the affinity
to which we allude. Some botanists, especially the
French, are unwilling to admit plants with opposite leaves
and alternate ones into the same natural order, and they
are right; yet this character is not absolute, for such a
difference often occurs in one and the same genus.”

** Viburnum and Cassine come so near together, that
there is rather a question respecting the distinction of the
genera themselves, than of their natural order. Cassine
has three seeds, Viburnum one, which seems two com-
bined. The former is akin to Sambucus, and, like that
genus, emetic in quality. Concerning the affinity of Vz-
burnum to Ilex and Callicarpa, any person, who considers
their fructification and habit, can have no doubt. Thus
far therefore the matter is clear.”

“* Sambucus may excite some mistrust, because of its
inferior fruit; yet this is the case in Phylica, about which
nobody has ever doubted. The leaves, aspect, and sti-
pulas indeed seem to indicate something extraneous, and
leave us in uncertainty.”

“So Rhus has much the same sort of fructification,
and a berry with one seed ; as well as the closest affinity
to Sambucus, insomuch that if Sambucus be kept in this
order, Rhus must accompany it. So also must the sister .
shrubs Schinus and Fagara.”

“The Dumose all agree in malignant qualities. They

550

are either purgative, or altogether poisonous, as Siderory-
lum is known to be at the Cape. Nor are the species of
Sambucus clear of this charge, for their qualities are either
nauseous or fcetid, and therefore sudorific, especially the
berries and flowers. The bark, taken internally, is either
emetic, or powerfully purgative, as its vinous infusion
proves in the dropsy; externally it is a powerful repellent.”

“ Rhus is the most venomous of trees, particularly its
American three-leaved species, called Toxicodendra, or
Poison-trees. Their fumes in burning are said to have
proved mortal, and their effluvia to have blinded an artist
who was at work upon some of the wood. Those who,
being in a perspiration, hold a branch of one of these
shrubs in the hand, are seized with an eruption over the
whole body.”

“The bark of Rhamnus Frangula is our best indigenous
purge, and a syrup of Rhamnus catharticus is safely used
for children.”

‘In this tribe, therefore, some have opposite, others
alternate, leaves, nor is any general character to be de-
rived from the parts of fructification. The corolla affords
none, being either of one or five petals, or altogether ab-
sent, as appears from a contemplation of the characters of
the different genera. No mark is to be obtained from
the nature of the fruit, that being either a berry, drupa,
or capsule. The seeds in some instances are solitary, in
others numerous, though never more than one in each
cell; and it is well worthy of observation that they are
attached, as in the Gymnotetrasperme, by their base.
These plants betray some affinity to the Tricocce, but can
never be referred to the same order.” '

In the Linnzan manuscript before us, Diosma and Har-
togia are introduced between Callicarpa and Euonymus ;
—see our remark on the 26th order. Staphylea is also
subjoined, near Celastrus, but with two marks of doubt,
and a note of its having a nectary, as well as opposite
leaves.

55]

Order 44. Sepraria. “ All these are shrubby or ar-
borescent. Leaves opposite, with scarcely any evident
stipulas. Flowers disposed in a more or less dense pa-
nicle. Calyx four-cleft. Corolla four-cleft, regular. Sta-
mens two. Pistil one, with a cloven stigma. Fruit either
a drupa, with one, two, or many, seeds, or a capsule.”

No manuscript remark occurs here, nor is there any
observation worth copying in the lectures, except that
Olea is said by Linneus to be scarcely a distinct genus
from Phillyrea.

Order 45. UmBetiat2. “The name of this order is
derived from the form of its inflorescence, whose stalks
all spread from a centre, like the ribs of an umbrella.”

“* These plants are either perfectly umbellate or not.
The former are required to have acompound umbel, each
stalk, or ray, of which ends in a receptacle, producing
other stalks bearing flowers, or florets ; the latter havea
simple umbel, whose stalks are not subdivided. The lat-
ter constitute a separate section in Tournefort’s system.
They are comprehended by Linneus in one natural order
with the former.” ;

“An umbel is properly a receptacle of a compound
flower, elongated into stalks; which manifestly appears
in Eryngium, whose florets are united into a head, just
like the proper compound flowers,—see the 49th order ;
nor are they supported by elongated stalks. Hence an
umbel may accurately be considered as a compound
flower. Those who controvert the opinion of Linneus in
this point contend, that many umbellate plants, having
male and hermaphrodite flowers in the same species,
ought to be placed in his class Polygamia. But this is
a mistake; for no other plants ought to find a place in
that class, than such as have distinct male, or female, as
well as hermaphrodite, flowers, in the same species. This
is not the case with the Umbellate, in which all the flo
rets of one universal umbel, that is, the whole umbel it-
self, constitutes but one flower, and this flower is never

592

altogether barren, that is, its florets are never entirely
male. On the contrary, these florets are to be considered
as the parts of a compound flower; and there being male
and hermaphrodite ones intermixed, is exactly a parallel
case with the polygamy of the Syngenesious class.”

“This order is eminently natural, though all plants
which bear umbels do not belong to it, but only those with
five stamens, two styles, and two seeds.”

‘‘ The germen is inferior, simple, solitary, separating,
when arrived at maturity, into two equal naked seeds ;
each of which is furnished with a thread, inserted into its
summit. These two threads combine to form a very slen-
der receptacle, at the top of the stalk of the floret. Each
floret has a superior perianth, with five teeth, which is
often so small as scarcely to be discerned, even with the
help of a magnifier. Petals five, caducous, often unequal ;
hence Rivinus referred these plants to his class of penta-
petalous irregular flowers. Stamens five, inserted into
an elevated annular or circular receptacle, that surrounds
the pistils, deciduous. Styles two, often very short, and
hardly visible. Seeds naked, without any seed-vessel.”

‘‘The stem is mostly hollow, sometimes filled with
spongy pith; rarely shrubby, very rarely arboreous, of
which last character Phyllis is the only example,—see
order 47. Leaves generally alternate, and repeatedly
compound. Root mostly quite simple; in Oenanthe tu-
berous, in Buniwm Bulbocastanum globose.”

“* Nothing is more arduous than to distinguish the ge-
‘nera of umbelliferous plants by appropriate characters.
Tournefort himself, who excelled in the knowledge of this
tribe,” (perhaps Linnzus meant rather to say, in the dis-
crimination of genera, but his auditors did not take his
words accurately,) “‘ has distributed them according to the
shape and size of their seeds. But this is a very falla-
cious mode, as the seeds often differ much in proportion,
though not in any other respect. Morison wrote an entire
book on umbellate plants; but with little success, their

553.

genera not being, as yet, established. Artedi first paid
attention to the involucrum, which is either universal ‘as
well as partial, or only partial, or entirely wanting. This
principle has likewise been adopted, as fundamental, by
Linnezus, and his three primary divisions are regulated
accordingly. The inequality of the petals affords him a
principle for his leading subdivisions, some of the umbel-
liferous family having the outermost petals of their exter-
nal florets larger than the rest; while in others all the
petals are equal. The former are termed radiant flowers.
Another subdivision is taken from the sex of the florets.
Some of these, having no germen, are furnished with sta-
mens only; and such florets are termed abortive ; others,
having both germen and stamens, bring their fruit to per-
fection, and are therefore denominated fertile.”

On these principles Linneus has arranged the umbel-
late plants, as may be seen in his works. Nothing occurs
in his manuscript, except the insertion of Hermas next to
Eryngium.

Order 46. HepERAcE®. The lectures give no new
information concerning this order. The six genera stand
as in the Genera Plantarum; Panax, Aralia, Zanthory-
lum, Hedera, Vitis, and Cissus.

Order 47. Sreiitatrz. “‘ This order was founded by
Ray, and received its name from the leaves of most of the
plants which compose it being placed, four, six, or eight
together, in the form of a star, round the stem. It is un-
usual to see more than two leaves opposite to each other,
nor is it the case here. For two of these only are pro-
perly leaves, the rest being no other than stipulas, grown
to the size of leaves. This appears evident in several
Indian plants of the present order, as Knoxia, Diodia,
&c. which have only two opposite leaves, though between
these some small acute stipulas are found, being the same
.that in the rest of the order attain the magnitude of leaves.
Ray believed all the plants of this order to have whorled
leaves, which is generally the case, as far as regards those

554

of European growth, but rarely with the Indian ones, of
which few were known in his time.”

‘* In this order there is no tree, unless perhaps Lippia ;
there are very few shrubs, most of the tribe being small
herbs, growing in barren earth, or coarse sand.”

‘‘ The roots are in many instances perennial. Leaves
opposite, horizontal, mostly rough. Stipulas of the form
and aspect of leaves, so that it is impossible to say whe-
ther they be truly such or not, hence the leaves appear
whorled; but this does not hold good universally. In
those however which have uno leafy stipulas, there is found,
at each side, a sort of toothed membrane, connecting the
leaves together, and occupying the place of stipulas.”

“‘ The stem is jointed, with mostly tumid knots. Co-
rolla of one petal, either flat, wheel-shaped, or funnel-
shaped; in one genus bell-shaped; mostly. four-cleft,
sometimes almost down to the base; rarely five-cleft.
Stamens four, never eight, though sometimes five or six,
in which case the corolla has a parallel number of seg-
ments. Pistil solitary, divided ; in Richardia three-cleft,
because that genus has a six-cleft corolla, six stamens,
and a three-grained fruit, its parts of fructification being
all augmented in a similar proportion. Those parts are
not augmented with the same regularity in genera fur-
nished with a three-cleft corolla, and five stamens, for
their pistil is still bifid, and their fruit two-grained, as is
the case with such as have a four-cleft corolla and four
stamens.

“‘ The fruit is, for the most part, inferior; though su-
perior in Houstonia; and in Crucianella superior with re-
spect to the calyx, though inferior to the corolla.” This
is incorrect, for Crucianella has a real superior perianth,
like the rest of the order, though so small as to be hardly
discernible ; what Linneus here terms calyx, being an in-
volucrum, or perhaps bracteas. ‘‘ The sexes are rarely
separated in this order, though Va/antia, which is poly-
gamous, can by no means be excluded from it. Many of

555

the genera have a two-grained fruit, of two cells, with a
solitary seed ineach. But in Hedyotis and Oldenlandia
the cells contain many seeds; while in Cornus both cells
are united into one seed, which, nevertheless, has two cells.
The fruit has a green, fleshy, but not juicy, coat, nor does
it usually become coloured in ripening; though in Rubia
the fruit is a perfect berry.”

(Of the remarks on particular genera, we find nothing
to extract except the following. )

‘f Asperula tinctoria is used in Glotbband: instead of
Madder, and is preferable.”

‘* Sherardia has an oblong fruit, which the permanent
calyx renders toothed, or crowned with three points. It
was the fate of William Sherard, a man worthy in the
highest degree of botanical honour, to have two different
genera distinguished by his name, both which were after-
wards referred to others. Pontedera, Vaillant, and Dil-
lenius each published, at the same time, a Sherardia.
Ponteédera described his plant so very obscurely, that it
was ten years before Linneus made it out to be his own
Gallenia. Vaillant called the two-seeded Verbene by the
name of Sherardia, but he was to blame in separating
them from their proper genus. Dillenius named a She-
rardia, from among the Stedlate, which Linneus has re-
tained, though not very certainly distinct. Being unwill-
ing that so meritorious a botanist should remain without
a memorial, Linnzus declined referring the plant in ques-
tion to Asperula; especially as the three teeth, at the top
of each seed, may serve, if not very satisfactorily, to keep
it separate.”

‘ Valantia was so named by Tournefort; but Vaillant,
perceiving it to be the same with Tournefort’s Cruciata,
thought it a bad genus, which could not support itself.
He therefore wished to abolish all generic names, given
in honour of botanists, because he supposed his own was
untenable. But Tournefort confounded several genera
under the appellation of Cruciata, so that Linneus has

556

been enabled to establish a Valantia from among them,
referring the rest to their proper places.”

Order 48. Accrecata. ‘ These constitute a natural
order, first established by Vaillant in the Memoirs of the
French Academy of Sciences. They agree so far with the
Composite, that they have generally a common calyx, as
well as receptacle, containing many sessile flowers, each
of which has always an inferior germen. But there is a
total difference with respect to the remaining parts of
fructification, nor can these two orders be, by any means,
united.”

“* The calyx, as we have just said, is common to many
flowers. Common receptacle either rales villous, hairy,
or scaly. In the place of a partial calyx is the corolla,
generally of one petal, regular or irregular, in four or five
divisions, rarely polypetalous. Stamens four, with sepa-
_rate anthers. Germen inferior. Fruit single-seeded. The
flower is therefore complete in this tribe, except only Va-
leriana, whose calyx is scarcely apparent. The leaves are
often opposite, and the stem shrubby.”

Order 49. Composit. ‘* A compound flower gene-
rally consists of a common calyx, containing several florets.
But this definition is not sufficiently discriminative, for
there are certain flowers termed Aggregate, which though
they have numerous florets in one common calyx, are con-
nected by no affinity whatever with these ; witness Cepha-
lanthus, Dipsacus, Scabiosa, Knautia, Allionia. Hence
botanists have tried to discover an appropriate and distin-
guishing character for a compound flower, but they have
scarcely succeeded. There are indeed flowers of this
order, furnished with solitary florets in each calyx, as
Seriphium, Corymbium, Strumpfia. All of them have a
monopetalous corolla, but so has Scabiosa and others.
Most have five stamens, but some have only four. The
greater number bear their anthers united into a cylinder,
but Kuhnia, which belongs to them, has separate anthers ;
while Jasione, Viola and Impatiens, which do not, have

557

combined ones. The united anthers burst internally, by
which means their pollen is communicated to the stigma ;
but the anthers of Kuhnia open at the extremity, and re-
semble the corolla of an Aristolochia. All the florets are
superior, but this holds good likewise in Scabiosa. Hence
it appears that no essential character of compound ‘flowers
is to be detected, though no order can be more natural
than that before us.”

** Tournefort first divided the compound flowers into
three sections, according to the shape of their partial co-
rollas. These are either ligulate or tubular. Such as
consist of ligulate florets only, are called by this writer
semiflosculosi; such as are formed only of tubular ones,
flosculosi ; while those which have ligulate florets in the
radius, and tubular ones in the disk, are denominated ra-
diati. This division seems natural enough, and yet is
notso. For it refers both the discoid and capitate com-
pound flowers of Linneus to the flosculosi, which never-
theless are too dissimilar to be possibly admitted into the
same section. The discotdei of Linneus, Ray’s aggregati,
having aggregate florets, seated on a hemispherical recep-
tacle, are, in fact, more allied to the radiati; while the
capitati, such as Thistles, are widely different, so as ne-
cessarily to constitute a division by themselves.”

** Vaillant attempted a new botanical system; but it
is to be lamented that we are possessed of no more of his
labours, than what concerns the compound flowers. In
this performance, published in the Memoirs of the Pari-
sian Academy for the years 1718, 1719 and 1720; he
has displayed an extensive knowledge of species, and has
treated the subject admirably. As the Memoirs of the
Academy are not within the reach of every body’s purse, a
German named Von Steinwehr has collected the anato-
mical, chemical and botanical papers, into an octavo vo-
lume, published in 1754 at Breslaw. In this Vaillant’s
treatises are preserved entire,” (but in the German lan-
guage.)

558

‘‘ The florets of compound flowers are threefold with
respect to sex, being either hermaphroditi, perfect, having
the organs of both sexes; female, destitute of anthers ;
or neuter, deprived of both organs, and barren.”

“‘Tournefort, Vaillant, Ray, and almost every botanist
who has treated of this tribe, divide it into three or four
orders, some of them adding the aggregate flowers to the
compound ones, whence arises the fourth order. But they
have not fixed limits to their orders, such being scarcely
discoverable. The semiflosculosi and capitati, for instance,
though apparently widely different, are proved nearly akin
by Scolymus and Elephantopus. The former of these has
all the habit of a Carduus, and yet all its florets are ligu-
late; the latter is intermediate between the semiflosculosi
and capitati, nor are we certain to which of these divi-
sions it belongs. Perdicium, anew genus, connects Inula,
whichis radiated, with the semiflosculous genus Hieracium,
so that accurate limits are hardly to be drawn between
them. Most of the semiflosculost are milky, but Lapsana
and Cichorium want this quality.”

“Section 1. Semiflosculosi; all the florets ligulate.”

‘These genera are distributed, first by their recep-
tacle, which is either chaffy, villous, or naked. In the
next place, they are subdivided by the down of their
seeds, pappus, which is either absent, or bristle-shaped,
or hairy, or feathery. Thirdly, a peculiar distinguishing
character is borrowed from the form or nature of their
calyx.”

‘<The quality of the Composite in general is innocent ;
but some of the present section are milky, which secretion
proves, by experience, somewhat of a poisonous nature.
So Lactuca virosa, in a wild state, is as poisonous as
opium; yet by culture it becomes esculent and culinary,
though still causing sleep by its debilitating power.”
Linneus surely could not mean that this and the garden
lettuce are one species. It is possible his hearers mis-
took him.

559

*‘ There are no trees, and few shrubs, among the sem-
Jlosculosi; no bulbs, scarcely a tuberous root, except in
some species of Hieractum. Their flowers are mostly
yellow; sometimes red underneath, as in Leontodon, Hi-
eractum and Crepis;” (very rarely pink, in Geropogon
and Crepis;) sometimes blue, in Cichorium and Cata-
nanche; never white.”

‘Section 2. Capitati; all the florets tubular, assem-
bled into a head, in one common calyx.”

“* All these are prickly or spinous, and vulgarly called
Cardui, Thistles. If however they were all considered
as one genus, such a genus would prove too ample ;
hence it is best to separate them into several, though the
task is very difficult. Centaurea belongs to them, though
necessarily referred, in the sexual system, to the order
Polygamia-frustranea. Its calyx, always tumid, and often
Spinous, proves its affinity. The most extensive genera
of this section, Carduus, and Serratula, are the most
difficult to distinguish; hence it is best to study the
rest, in the first place, that those puzzling ones may prove
easier.”

“Vaillant divided this capitate tribe by the spines of
their calyx, whether simple, spinous, or leafy. But the
gradation is so imperceptible, that no accurate principles
of discrimination are hence to be obtained. No plant of
this section is milky, or poisonous, or arboreous. Some
of the Serratule are shrubby ; many of the herbs are
destitute of stems, as in Carlina, Atractylis, Onopordum,
Carduus, and Centaurea.”

_“ Atractylis has a radiant flower, and the florets of the
radius have each both stamens and pistil, a solitary in-
stance among compound flowers, rendering the genus very
distinct. The elongated and coloured scales of the calyx
in Carlina have misled Tournefort to rank it among ra-
diant flowers.”

‘* The capitati have a character peculiar to themselves,
in the dilatation, or inflation, of the tube of each floret,

560

just below the limb, which causes their florets to project,
in a more elongated manner, than inthe discotdez, or other
compound flowers.”

“Section 3rd. Discoidei. The first subdivision of
these, polygami equalis,” (consisting of such as have all
the florets furnished with stamens and pistils, and all pro-
ducing seed,) ‘‘are distributed according to the receptacle,
whether naked, chaffy or hairy, and their seed-down, like
the semiflosculosi.”’

“The second subdivision, polygamia superflua, have
female florets in the circumference, but these are tubular,
not ligulate or radiant. So that the flowers, though they
have a marginal series of female florets, cannot be called
radiated.” We have here extracted the ideas of Linnzus
from his remarks on Artemisia, which seem to refer to
the whole of this subdivision, and are certainly correct,
though they interfere with the distribution of the order
before us in the Genera Plantarum, and seem to have
been unintelligible to the editor of the Prelectiones ;—see
his note in p. 539 of that work.

“Section 4th. Radiati.” (Marginal florets radiant.)
’ “ The first subdivision is polygamia superflua,”’ (all whose
florets are capable of producing perfect seed, though the
marginal radiant ones have no stamens.)

These are distinguished by the presence or absence of
seed-down, or of a membranous border to the seed, and
by the nature of their receptacle, whether naked or
chaffy.

The second, polygamia frustranea, have imperfect or
defective female or neuter florets in the circumference,
producing no seed. These in Centaurea are tubular, and
neuter; in the rest ligulate, furnished with rudiments,
more or less evident, of a pistil.

The third, polygamia necessaria, have effective seed ;
bearing female florets in the circumference only.

“Section 5th. Monogamia.” (Such as have but one
floret in each partial calyx.)

561

Seriphium, Corymbium, and Strumpfia.

“None of the Composite are poisonous, except Ta-
getes, Doronicum, and Arnica; the latter is more so than
Doronicum. They contain much of a bitter flavour;
hence many of the order are medicinal and strengthen-
ing. Some, less bitter, as Arctium, Cynara, Carduus, are
therefore esculent. | Many semiflosculosi are used as food,
though furnished with a milky juice, which in them is not
poisonous,” (see a remark under Order 30th.) ‘‘ except
Lactuca virosa, whose juice as above mentioned, has the
quality of opium, and LL. sativa has a soporific virtue.
Boiling entirely destroys the power of this, as well as of
the other semiflosculost.”

Order 50th. AmenTAcEm. ‘“‘ An amentum, catkin, is
a species of calyx, and very like a spike, consisting of a
common receptacle, drawn out like a thread, on which
the flowers stand in alternate order, subtended by scales
or bracteas. Such a calyx is found in the plants of this
order, whence Linneus gave it the above name. They
are all either trees or shrubs, with alternate leaves, and
separated ‘male and female flowers, being either mono-
ecious or dioecious. Many of them produce but one seed
from each flower; but Salix and Populus beara seed-
vessel of two valves, with many seeds. The styles are
usually two orthree. The flowers come before the leaves,
that the latter may not hinder the access of the pollen of
the male to the female blossoms.”

““Monoecious genera are Betula, Carpinus, Corylus,
Quercus, Juglans, Fagus, and Platanus.”

* Dioecious ones Pistacia, Myrica, Populus, and
Salix.”

Order 51st. Conirerm. ‘‘ These are generally ever-
green trees of cold climates. In the Indies almost all
the trees are evergreen, and have broad leaves; but in
our cold regions most trees cast their foliage every year ;
and such as do not, bear acerose, that is, narrow and
acute, leaves. If they were broader, the snow which falls

VOL, Il. 20

562

during winter would collect among them, and break the
branches by its weight. Their great slenderness prevents
any such effect, allowing the snow to pass between them.
This precaution is unnecessary in India, where snow is
unknown, Nevertheless, Liguidambar is to be referred
to this order, though it bears no such slender, but rather
broad, foliage ; nor is it a native of a cold country.”

“The plants of the present order are denominated Co-
nifere, because they bear Strobili, which the older bota-
nists called Conti, Cones. A cone and a catkin are closely
related to each other. The latter bears several imbricated
flowers about a common receptacle or axis. Under each
flower a membranous scale or bractea is attached, which
if it hardens and becomes woody, the catkin becomes a
cone. Hence a cone is nothing more than a permanent
or hardened catkin.” |

“All the Conifere properly bear cones, though in
some instances their fruit seems of a totally different na-
ture. For instance, the fruit of Juniperus has all the ap-
pearance of a berry, and is universally so called. Yet it
is no other than a strobilus, whose scales are replete with
pulp, and do not split asunder ; being in fact six fleshy
united scales, in each of which is concealed a solitary
seed. Taxus has a berry, which is merely a fleshy re-
ceptacle, dilated so as nearly to cover the seed, so that
the apex of the latter only appears. Lequidambar has a
singular kind of fruit, which nevertheless is a strobilus,
whose scales are combined, each of them containing se-
veral seeds ; whereas in other instances one or two seeds
only belong to each scale.”

“Some have united this order with the last, but they
differ essentially. The Conifere have not only hardened
scales, but likewise monadelphous stamens, the filaments
of all of them being combined at the base.”

“*The fruit in this whole order, Liquidambar excepted,
is biennial. It is produced in the spring, remaining in
an unripe state through the summer, and till the following

563

spring, when it gradually ripens, and the gaping scales
allow the seeds to escape.”

Order 52nd. Coapunatr#. On this order there is no
observation in the lectures. Jllicitum is added in manu-
script to the genera in Gen. Pl.

Order 53rd. Scasrip#. Here also the lectures are
silent. orskohlea and Trophis are added in the manu-
script. é

Order 54th. MiscetnaAnem. Here, although no re-
mark is preserved in the lectures, great corrections are
made in the manuscript. The genera in the second sec-
tion, Poterium and Sanguisorba, are referred to the 35th
order, immediately before Agrimonia. Pistia and Lemna,
constituting the 3rd section, are transferred to the 15th
order. The six genera which compose the 5th section,
are sent to the 4th section of the Holeracee, order 12th.
Nymphea and Sarracenia, the only plants of the 6th
section, are referred, as already mentioned, first to the
27th order, but finally, not without a doubt, to the 11th.
See the observations under those orders. Cedrela and
Swietenia, which make the 7th section, are removed to the
Trihilate, order 23rd. Corrigiola, Limeum and Tele-
phium, the 8th and last section, are transferred to the 5th
section of the 12th order, Holeracee. No genera there-
fore remain in this 54th order, but Reseda, Datisca, Cori-
aria, and Empetrum.

Order 55th. Fiuices.
56th. Musci.

—— 57th. Ate.
58th. Funer.

Nothing occurs here, either in the Prelectiones or the
manuscript, to the purpose of our present inquiry, con-
cerning the ideas of Linneus on natural classification.
These orders are all natural, and acknowledged as such
by all systematics. His particular observations on each,
although in many points curious, are now superseded by

202

564

the advanced state of botanical knowledge in the crypto-
gamic department.

From the foregoing copious exposition of the general
principles, and many of the particular opinions of Lin
nus, respecting a natural classification of plants, it will
appear how far he was from considering his performances,
in this line, as complete. His leading ideas may, never-
theless, be traced, and they will often be found to throw
great light upon the subject. It must be remembered
that he never thought his own, or any other, scheme of
natural classification, could or ought to interfere with
his artificial system, nor does he ever advert to the one
in treating of the other. It is evident, likewise, that he.
studiously discouraged any attempt at an uniform defini-
tion, or technical discrimination, of his several orders.
He perceived that plants were not yet sufficiently known
to render such a scheme practicable. Possibly he might
be aware that the accomplishment of that scheme at pre-
sent would only turn his natural system into an artificial
one.

The authors of most plans of botanical classification
have, on the other hand, seldom considered the questions
of natural and artificial arrangement, as opposed to each
other. The system of every such author seems to have
appeared to himself the most consonant to nature, as well
as the most convenient in practice ; yet nothing betrays
a more absolute incompetency to the subject than such
an idea, wherever it makes itself manifest. To pretend
that the elaborate speculations of a proficient, on a sub-
ject of which he can see but a part, and on which his
knowledge must necessarily be inferior to that infinite
wisdom which planned and perfected the whole, should
be an easy and certain mode of initiation for a learner,
evinces no more than that the professor wishes his pupil
should not be wiser than himself. To teach composition
without a grammar, or philology without an alphabet,

would he equally judicious. Plants must be known be-
fore they can be compared, and the talent of discrimina-
tion must precede that of combination. Clearness and
facility must smooth the path of the tyro ; difficulties,
exceptions, and paradoxes must be combated and unra-
velled by an adept. The knowledge of natural classifica-
tion therefore, being the summit of botanical science,
cannot be the first step towards the acquirement of that
science. No person surely, who has published a natural
system, without knowing all the plants in the world, will
suppose that he has removed every present obstacle, much
less anticipated every future obscurity, so that no insu-
_perable difficulty can occur to the investigator of plants
by such a system. Neither can any artificial system
claim such perfection. But they may combine their
powers, and cooperate in instruction. The one may trace
an outline which the other may correct and fill up. The
first may propose, and the second elucidate; the former
may educate and improve the memory and observation,
for the use of the latter. When they oppose each other,
their several defects and weaknesses appear; by mutual
assistance they strengthen themselves.

Whether the leaders of natural system in the French
school of botany have thought with us on this subject, it
might seem invidious to inquire too nicely. It were too
much to expect that every one of their pupils, half learned
and half experienced, however commendable their zeal
and enthusiasm, should have done so. Nor is science in
any danger if they do not. They must improve the sy-
stem of Jussieu, before they can overturn that of Linnzus ;
and if this were accomplished, the nomenclature and de-
finitions of the learned Swede would still form an impreg-
nable fortress, before which they must perish, or seek
for shelter within. This dilemma has been, long ago,
but too clearly perceived by the rivals of the fame of Lin-
neus, particularly by such of the French school as have
been actuated by a truly contemptible national partiality,

566

instead of a disinterested love of science and truth. Hence
the so often repeated exclamations against Linnzus, as a
mere nomenclator, Of his didactic precision, and philo-
sophical principles of discrimination, such critics were
not jealous, for they could not estimate the value nor the
consequences of these. But they could all feel that the
nomenclature of Tournefort was giving way, and that
their efforts to support it were vain. ‘The writer of these
remarks has perceived traces of this feeling in almost
every publication and conversation, of a certain descrip-
tion of botanists. He has likewise perceived that it would
gradually subside, and that the interests of science were
secure. The nomenclature of Linneus has in the end
prevailed, and it were unjust now, to the greatest botanists
of the French school, to deny them the honour of liberality
on this head.

It is time for us to close this article, with a view of the
principles, upon which the eminent systematics, to whom
we have so often alluded, have planned and executed
their schemes of botanical classification.

Here the learned and truly estimable Bernard de Jus-
sieu, the contemporary of Linneus in the earlier part of
his career, first claims our notice. This great practical
botanist, too diffident of his own knowledge, extensive as
it was, to be over anxious to stand forth as a teacher, did
not promulgate any scheme of natural arrangement till the
year 1759, when the royal botanic garden at Trianon
was submitted to his direction. His system was pub-
lished by his nephew in 1789, at the head of his own
work, of which it makes the basis. It appears in the
form of a simple list of genera, under the name of each
order, without any definition, just bke the Fragmenta of
Linneus, at the end of his Genera Plantarum.

In 1763 a very active and zealous systematic, M.
Adanson, made himself known to the world by the publi-
cation of his Familles des Plantes. In this learned and
ingenious, though whimsical and pedantic, work, the great

567

task of defining natural orders by technical characters is
first attempted. His affected orthography and arbitrary
nomenclature render it scarcely possible, without disgust,
to trace his ideas ; which however, when developed, prove
less original than they at first appear. His work is written
avowedly to supersede the labours of Linneus, against
whom, after courting his correspondence, he took some
personal displeasure; and yet many of his leading cha-
racters are borrowed from the sexual system. The dis-
criminative marks of his 58 families are taken from the
following sources—leaves, sex of the flowers, situation
of the flowers with respect to the germen, form and situ-
ation of the corolla, stamens, germens, and seeds. Every
family is divided into several sections, under each of which
the genera are in like manner synoptically arranged, and
discriminated by their leaves, inflorescence, calyx, corolla,
stamens, pistil, fruit, and seeds. In the detail of his sy-
stem, Adanson labours to overset the principle, so much
insisted on by Linnzus and his school, and to which the
great names of Conrad Gesner, and Cesalpinus are chiefly
indebted for their botanical fame, that the genera of
plants are to be characterized by the parts of fructifica-
tion alone. The experienced botanist knows that this is
often but a dispute of words ; Linneus having, in arrang-
ing the umbelliferous plants, resorted to the inflorescence,
under the denomination of a receptacle;—see his 45th
natural order. But it appears to us that the characters
deduced from thence are in themselves faulty, being often
uncertain, and not seldom unnatural; and that the plants
in question may be better discriminated by their flowers
and seeds. Adanson however prefers the inflorescence,
even in the Verticillate of Linneus ; for no reason, that
we can discover, but because Linnzus has so much better
defined the genera of those plants by the calyx and co-
rolla. It were aneedless and ungrateful task to carp at
the mistakes of this or any writer on natural classification,
with regard to the places allotted for difficult genera, be-

568

cause the human intellect must falter in unravelling the
intricate mysteries of Nature. But surely, when Plan-
tago is placed with Buddlea in one section of the Jas-
mine@, and Diapensia with Callicarpa in another ; when
the most natural genus of Lavandula is divided and
widely separated ; when Cassytha is ranged with Statice,
Eriocaulon, and the Proteaceae, in one place; Geoffrea
with Melia, Rhus, Sapindus and Ruta.in another, we may
be allowed to wonder, and to doubt whether we are con-
templating a natural or an artificial system. It does not
appear that Adanson made many proselytes. He haunted
the botanical societies of Paris in our time, without asso-
ciating with any ; nor was his extensive knowledge turned
to much practical account. Linneus has made but one
slight remark, that we can find, in his own copy of the
Familles des Plantes, nor could he study deeply what was,
undoubtedly, very difficult for him to read. He certainly
never noticed Adanson’s attacks, unless the satirical
sketch of the Botanophili, at the end of his Regnum Ve-
getabile, (see the beginning of Syst. Veg. ed. 14.) be
partly aimed at this author. To apply the whole of it to
him would be unjust, though much is very characteristic.

The study of botany had never been entirely neglected
in France since the days of Tournefort ; because one de-
partment in the Academy of Sciences was allotted to that
and other branches of Natural History, and the seats in
the Academy being pensioned places under government,
there was something to be got by an apparent attention
to such pursuits. Buffon and his pupils engrossed
Zoology. Botany was allowed to exist, so far as not to
interfere with his honours ; but nothing of foreign origin,
and above all, nothing Linnean, dared to lift up its head.
Something of true science, and practical knowledge, did
nevertheless imperceptibly work its way. Le Monnier,
and the Marechal de Noailles, corresponded, as we have
already said, with Linnzus, and acquired plants from
England, of which they dared to speak, and to write, by

569

his names. A most able and scientific botanist and cul-
tivator, Thouin, was established in the Jardin du Roi, who
studied the Linnean system, and even ventured, though
secretly, to communicate new plants to the younger Lin-
neus when at Paris. Cels, an excellent horticulturist,
was unshackled by academic trammels. L’Heritier,
Broussonet, and others came forward. An original letter
of Rousseau, the idol of the day, in which he paid the
most flattering homage to botany and to Linnzus, was
published in the Dovel de Paris, and had a wonderful
effect on the public mind, and on the conversation of lite-
rary circles. In short, a Linnean party had been, ‘for
some time, gaining ground; and every thing was done by
party at Paris. The old French school was roused from
its slumbers. Of the family of the Jussieus one individual
remained, who, though he venerated the names and the
pursuits of his uncles, had never devoted himself to their
studies any further than to sit in their professorial chair.
He. possessed however an inherent taste for Botany ; he
had leisure, opulence, and eminent talents; and though
his religious principles, and his rather strict devotional
habits, might interfere, which they still do, with his credit
in certain philosophical circles, and his predilection for
animal magnetism might exclude him from the Royal So-
ciety of London, yet he has risen above all such obstacles,
to the summit of botanical fame and authority in his own
country ; and his name stands conspicuous, as the leading
teacher of a natural classification of plants. The most
indefatigable study for about five years, and the constant
assistance and encouragement of numerous pupils and
correspondents, enabled Professor Antoine Laurent de
Jussieu to publish, in 1789, his Genera Plantarum se-
cundum ordines naturales disposita. This octavo volume
was received by acclamation throughout Europe, and
hailed as the most. learned botanical work that had ap-
peared since the Species Plantarum of Linneus.

Before we enter into systematic details, we must remark,

570

that the author of the work before us has judiciously
availed himself of the mode of defining genera, by short es-
sential characters, as introduced by Linnzeusin the 1 Oth edi-
tion of his Systema Nature, and since adopted by Murray,
Willdenow, and the generality of botanists, instead of the
full or natural, characters, of the Linnean Genera Plan-
tarum. ‘These short characters however are not servilely
copied by Jussieu, but wherever he had materials they are
revised and studied, so as to acquire all the merit of ori-
ginality. Secondary characters and remarks are subjoined,
in a different type, illustrative of the habit, history, or affi-
nities, of the several genera. In his nomenclature Jus-
sieu almost entirely follows Linnzus, retaining only here
and there a name of Tournefort’s, in preference, and
swerving from classical taste and correctness principally
with regard to the new genera of Aublet, whose intolera-
bly barbarous names are nearly all preserved. But a note
in the preface, p. 24, informs us, that this adoption is
only temporary, till the genera themselves shall be per-
fectly ascertained and defined. Where Jussieu differs
from Linneus, in certain generic appellations, it is prin-
cipally because the latter fails in respect for his own laws ;
as in the use of adjectives, like Gloriosa, Mirabilis, Im-
patiens. The inordinate abuse of generic names in ho-
nour of botanists, of which Linnzus is, too justly, charged
with setting the example, meets with due reprobation from
the French teacher; but he has not as yet stemmed the
muddy torrent, nor prevented a great additional accumu-
lation of subsequent impurities. His commendation of
Linneus, as the author of a new and commodious system
of specific nomenclature, as well as of technical definition,
on the best principles, is liberal, manly and just, no less
honourable to the writer, than to the illustrious subject of
his remarks. The whole preface of Jussieu is a concise
and learned review of the physiology and distinctions of
plants, more particularly explaining the progress of the
author’s ideas and principles of botanical classification.

574

The main end of the whole book, besides defining the
characters of all known genera, is to dispose them ina
natural series, in various classes and orders, whose tech-
nical distinctions are throughout attempted to be fixed
and contrasted. With this view, copious explanations
and commentaries accompany each other. We learn more
from the doubts of Jussieu, than from the assertions of
Adanson. The latter has presented us with a finished
system, where every genus is referred, at all hazards, to
some place or other. Jussieu, on the contrary, has not
only a large assemblage of Plante incertae sedis, at the
conclusion of his system, hke Linnzus ; but at the end of
most of his individual orders we find some genera classed
as akin thereto, without answering precisely to the cha-
racter, or idea, ofeach. This circumstance, though highly
creditable to the candour and good sense of the author,
greatly interferes with the practical use of his book, ex-
cept for the learned. His judicious doubts, critical re-
marks, and especially the laxity, and consequent feeble-
ness, of his definitions, though eminently instructive to
those who want to define, or to class, a new, or obscure
genus, could only bewilder a learnerof practical botany. A
person must already be deeply versed in plants, before he
could, by the work of Jussieu, or by any book, that we have
seen, classed according to his method, refer any genus to
its proper place, or detect any one that may be there de-
scribed. Nor does the difficulty to which we allude con-
sist so much in the intricacy of the subject, as in the
uncertainty, hesitation, and insufficiency of the guide ;
because that guide, learned as he is, chooses to conduct
us by a path, to which neither he nor any other mortal
has a perfect clue. His index indeed must be the re-
source of a young botanist ; who, if he knows a Rosa, a
Convolvulus, or an Erica, may, by finding their places and
their characters, trace out the allies of each, and proceed
step by step to acquire more comprehensive ideas. The
analytical mode of inquiry, which serves us in the artificial

system of Linneus, is here of no avail but to an adept.
This will abundantly appear as we trace the leading prin-
ciples of this celebrated method, of which we shall now
attempt a concise exposition.

THE SYSTEM OF JUSSIEU

Consists of fifteen classes, which are composed, all toge-
ther, of one hundred orders. The characters of the classes
depend first on the number of cotyledons; next the num-
ber of petals, and the situation, or place of insertion, of
the stamens and corolla.

The author uses the term stamina hypogyna for such
stamens as are inserted into the receptacle, or below the
germen, which therefore we shall call znferior stamens ;
stamina perigyna, (around the germen,) are inserted into
either the corolla or calyx, the germen being superior ;
these we must denominate perigynous; stamina epigyna,
superior stamens, are inserted above the germen, which
latter is therefore, in Linnean language, znferior. Thesame
terms apply to the corolla, which when inserted into the
calyx is denominated perigynous. The following table will
show the characters of Jussieu’s Classes :

Cotyledons none.
Class 1st.
Cotyledon one.

Class 2nd. Stamens inferior.
3rd. Stamens perigynous.
—— 4th. Stamens superior.

Cotyledons two, (or more).

Class 5th. Petals none. Stamens superior.
—— 6th. —— -—— Stamens perigynous.
—— 7th. —w— Stamens inferior.
—— 8th. Corolla of one petal, inferior.
—— Oth. » perigynous.

573

Class 10th. Corolla of one petal, superior. Anthers com-
bined.

——- 1lth. > ————. Anthers di-
stinct.

—— 12th. Corolla of several petals. Stamens superior.

—— 13th. —. Stamens inferior.

—— 14th, ———— ——-—_——. Stamens perigy-
nous.

-——- 15th. Stamens and pistils in separate flowers.

In the first place, it is evident that the great hinge, on
which this system turns, is the number of the cotyledons.
The importance of this character has, from the time of
Cesalpinus and Jungius, been much insisted on. Lin-
neus, in his Prelectiones, p. 329, declares his opinion,
that ‘the monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants
are totally different in nature, and cannot be combined ;”
and that ‘‘if this distinction falls to the ground, there will
never be any certainty. Not that characters should be
taken from hence, but sections when formed should be
confirmed by the cotyledons.” So jealous was this great
man of any definition of his natural orders! He subjoins
an exception to the above rule, in Cuscuta and Cactus,
which having no leaves, he supposes have no occasion for
cotyledons. Linnzus proceeds to observe that “‘ the ger-
mination of parasitical plants requires investigation, but
that he should greatly wonder if they have any cotyle-
dons.” We have already, under the 11th of his natural
orders, pointed out other exceptions, made by himself, to
the rule just mentioned ; but in these he was partly, as
we have shown, mistaken; and had he been explicit
about the Sarmentacee, he probably would have proved
himself in an error likewise with respect to them. So
Adanson asserts the Juncus to have two cotyledons,
though the rest of its natural order have only one. But
Gertner has demonstrated this genus to be monocotyle-
donous. Adanson mentions Ovobanche and Cuscuta as

574

monocotyledonous, which answers to the opinion of Lin-
neus, but we know not how far this is just.

It appears that the line is distinctly drawn by nature
between plants with a simple or no cotyledon, and others
with two, or more, and that, so far, the principle of Jus-
sieu’s Classification is correct. Whether all the genera
that he has considered as monocotyledonous be truly so, is
another question, which does not at all.invalidate the di-
stinction. Some have not been examined, and seem prin-
cipally to be referred to that tribe, because, like others
that indubitably belong to it, they are aquatics ; or, at
least, because of the apparent simplicity of their general
structure. Doubts are expressed on this subject by Jus-
sieu himself respecting Valisneria, Cyamus (his Nelum-
bium), Trapa, Proserpinaca, and Pistia. Some other
genera, ranked as acotyledonous, are involved in similar
uncertainty.

But with regard to the bulk of the Acotyledones, com-
posing the first of Jussieu’s classes, there seems to us much
greater difficulty. Of his first three orders, Fungi, Alga,
and Hepatice, nothing indeed is correctly known, except
perhaps what Hedwig has published concerning Marchan-
tia and Anthoceros, and that is hardly sufficient for our
purpose. With the fourth order, Musci, this great ery-
ptogamist has made us so well acquainted, that they
prove to be any thing else than acotyledonous, or monoco-
tyledonous ; at least if his idea of the parts be nght. The
parts which he takes for cotyledons are peculiarly nume-
rous and complicated; but we are ready to allow with
Mr. Brown, at the conclusion of the preface to his Pro-
dromus Flore Nove Hollandia, that these organs are of a
most uncertain nature, rather subsequent to germination
than its first beginning, like what has been judyed the
cotyledon of Jussieu’s 5th order, the Filices. Yet hence
a new difficulty arises. The parts in question so complex
in Musci, are simple in Filices, insomuch that no analogy
between these orders, otherwise so nearly akin, is to be

575

traced in those parts. On the other hand, it cannot be
concealed that the plants termed monocotyledones have no
cotyledon at all analogous to those of the dicotyledones ;
what Jussieu and others call such, being the albumen of
the seed, absorbed in the first stage of vegetation. The
minute plants assumed to be acotyledonous, must be pre-
sumed to be furnished with something analogous, or we
cannot conceive how vegetation can take place. By all
these observations we mean only to show, that the pri-
mary divisions of Jussieu’s system are at least totally in-
sufficient to answer that practical purpose, which a student
has a right to expect from any methodical arrangement.
If the learned be still uncertain, whether the distinctions,
on which such divisions are founded do, in a great number
of cases, really exist, how can a beginner regulate his first
inquiries thereby? We are not the less ready to confess,
that the difficulty in question is rather a philosophical spe-
culation, than of any great practical importance. It gives
a venerable air of mystery, which may procure respect
for other parts of a system, that are more intelligible and
more useful, though not free from exception. We allude
to the next subdivision of the method of the great French
teacher, founded on the petals. This should seem to be
obvious and certain, but we soon find ourselves bewildered
- in an old labyrinth of dispute, concerning the difference
between a calyx and a corolla. We ave obliged to submit
to a sweeping decision, which allows no corolla to mono-
cotyledonous plants; a decision which we cannot safely.
combat, because of the difficulty of deciding what are
such, but which shocks our senses and our judgement,
and seems refuted in many instances by Nature herself,
as decidedly as any of her laws can be established. Nor
do we get clear of this perplexity among the declared di-
cotyledonous tribes, where the evident corolla of the Mar-
vel of Peru is assumed to be an inner calyx, there being
a real perzanth. besides, subsequently indeed called an
involucrum. Yet we are at a loss to discern why the ter-

576.

minology here used, should have been different from that
applied to the next order, Plumbagines. We are ready,
most unreservedly, to admit the great difficulty of deci-
sion in these cases, as well as in others, occurring in Jus-
sieu’s 5th, 6th, and 7th classes; but that very difficulty
evinces the precariousness of making any thing connected
with this most disputable of all questions, a primary guide
in a system of methodical arrangement. When we pro-
ceed a step further, and come to the insertion of the sta-
mens, the convenience and clearness of the system indeed
improve upon our view; but we must not hope to escape
exceptions or inaccuracies, the connection of the filaments
with the corolla being, by no means, uniform or constant,
in the orders so characterized, nor even in all the species
of particular genera, classed upon that principle. So
likewise the insertion of the stamens into the calyx is at-
tended with such inveterate difficulties, that one of the
warmest promulgators and defenders of Jussieu’s system,
Mr. Salisbury, has thought it easier to deny the existence
of any such insertion, than to make it subservient to prac-
tical use. We are indeed satisfied that the characters
throughout the celebrated method of classification now
under our contemplation, are attended with as much dif-
ficulty and exception as those of any other system; and
we cannot but agree with Mr. Roscoe, Trans. of the Linn.
Soc. vol. xi. 65, that it forms several as unnatural as-
semblages as even the professedly artificial system of
Linneus. With regard to practical facility, no person of
judgement has ever attempted to invalidate the superiority
of the latter.

Having fulfilled the invidious task, which truth has
required of us, let us turn to the more pleasing one of
pointing out some of the great practical advantages of the
labours of Jussieu. We do this with the more readiness,
because we conceive that his real merits are better un-
derstood in England than any where else. The writer of
this cannot disclaim the honour of being the first who

577

announced to his countrymen the performance of his il-
lustrious friend and correspondent, as one of the most
learned books ever published. He humbly conceives that
few persons, in any country, have studied the work more,
or applied it so much to practice. If he has been fortu-
nate in establishing genera, which have not been contro-
verted, he allows his obligations to Jussieu, as much as
to Linneus. The treasures of neither lie on the surface,
nor are they to be appreciated by a superficial observer.
The foolish contentions of party can neither exalt nor
invalidate the reputation of such men; nor is it the count-
ing of stamens and pistils, nor the enunciation of the
names of natural orders, implying ideas which do not
always exist in the mind of the speaker, that can entitle
a pedant or coxcomb to rank as the pupil of either.

We confess ourselves somewhat partial to the Linnean
notion, of conceiving the idea of a natural order in the
mind, rather than to the Jussieuan attempt at very pre-
cise technical limitation of its characters. :If we contem-
plate the generality of Jussieu’s orders in this light, we
shall be struck with his profound talents for combination,
as well as discrimination ; and as we peruse his critical re-
marks, subjoined to several of these orders, we shall profit
more by his queries and difficulties, than by those defi-
nitions, at the head of each order, which are, too often,
so clogged with exceptions, as to bewilder rather than
instruct a student, however intelligible they may be to an
adept.

The uninformed reader may, possibly, be surprised to
see how great a conformity there is between most of the
Natural Orders of Linneus and those of Jussieu. This
will appear by a cursory view of the latter, which, after
the detail we have given of the former, will more elucidate
the subject than any other explanation that our. limits
will allow. We shall take the orders of Jussieu in their
regular series.

VOL. II. 2P

578

Crass l.

The first five orders, Fungi, Alga, Hepatice, Musci,
and Iilices, are the same in both systems, except that
Linnzus does not separate the Hepatice from Alge.

6. Naiades are analogous to the Inundate, ord. 15, of
Linnzeus.

Crass 2.

7. Arotdee answer to the Linnean Piperite, ord. 2,
though Piper itself is removed far away, to the Urtice.

8. Typhe consist of Typha and Sparganium, two genera
first referred by Linneus to .Calamaria, then to Piperite.

9. Cyperoidee are the Linnean Calamarie, ord. 3.

10. Graminee are the Gramina, ord. 4, grasses, an
order about which there cannot be two opinions, nor do
these authors differ, except in the denomination of the
integuments of the flower; Jussieu ‘calling the calyx a
gluma, and the corollaa calyx.. This alteration is made,
chiefly that he might not allow a corolla to monocotyle-
donous plants.

Ciass 3.

11. Palme, palms, necessarily the same in both sy-
stems.

12. Asparagi answer to the bulk of the Birimensilbeir,
ord. 11.

13. Junciagree less exactly with Tripetaloidee, ord. 5,
both being liable toexceptions, and having undergone sub-
sequent corrections by their respective authors.

14. Lilia consist of the latter portion of Linneus’s
Coronaria, ord. 10, with the beginning of his next order
Sarmentacee.

15. Bromelia embrace some others of the Cor onarie,
about which Linneus had his doubts to the last, nor is
Jussieu satisfied with this order.

16. Asphodeli are likewise chiefly Coronarie, except
Allium.

17. Narcissi are Linnean Spathacee, ord. 9. We say

579

nothing of anomalous or doubtful genera, subjoined to this
or any other order, and which are sometimes numerous,
not unfrequently paradoxical. In the present instance
they are Hypoxis, Pontederia, Polianthes, Alstroemeria,
and Tacca, concerning which, the intelligent reader will
readily concur with the learned author, that they are
“‘ genera Narcissis non omnino affinia.”
18. Irides—Linnean Ensate, ord. 6.

Cuass 4.

19. Muse—consist of Musa, very mistakenly referred
by Linnzus to his Scitaminee; with Heliconia and Ra-
venala, Schreber’s Urania, both nearly akin to Musa.

20. Canne@ are the Scitaminee of Linnzus, ord. 8.

21. Orchidee are his Orchidee, ord. 7.

22. Hydrocharides are an assemblage of water plants,
having little elseincommon. Valisneria, Hydrocharis, and
Stratiotes, make a sort of appendix to the Linnean Palme.
For Nymphea and Nelumbium (now called Cyamus), see
our remarks on the 11th, 54th, and 27th, of the Linnean
orders. Trapa, Proserpinaca and Pistia close the list.
Linneus has the two last in his Inundate, ord. 15.

Crass 5.
' 23. Aristolochi@ compose the end of the Linnzan Sar-
mentacee, but were afterwards removed to the Rhocadee,
ord. 27. They are surely best by themselves, and con-
stitute a very natural order, not detected by Linneus.
Cuass 6.

24, Elegagni consist of Linnean Ca/yciflore, ord. 16,
with various genera besides, referred to almost as many
different orders by Linnzus, so that here the two systems
exhibit but little analogy, nor is this one of Jussieu’s best
orders.

25. Thymelea, Veprecule of Linneus, ord. 31, (the
Daphne tribe,) are very clearly defined.

26. Protee, an order scarcely known to Linneus,
though an extremely natural one. It makes a part of his

2P2

580

Aggregate, ord. 48, in the establishing of which, a sort
of artificial character, expressed in the name, has led him
into unnatural combinations; a fault which Linnzus, more
than any other writer in this department, has generally
avoided.

27. Lauri, a very good order, not perceived by Lin-
neus. We cannot say much for the genera of Myristica
and Hernandia annexed to it.

28. Polygonee make a part of the Linnean Holeracee,
ordi a2. vie

29. Atriplices, another portion of the same.

Crass 7.

30. Amaranthi, these, originally a part of the Miscel-
lanee, ord. 54, were also referred subsequently to the Ho-
leracee. They are supposed to differ from Jussieu’s two
preceding orders, in having the stamens inserted into the
receptacle, not into the calyx, hence forming a separate
class. But there is no instance perhaps in which his sy-
stem proves more artificial, and at the same time more
uncertain in character. Mr. Brown has anticipated the
latter part of our remark in his Prodromus, 413, nor
could it fail to strike any one who ever considered the
subject.

Linnzeus has no orderanalogous
to these. Yet he has left manu-
script indications of his perceiving
the affinity of some of the genera.

31. Plantagines.
32. Nyctagines.
33. Plumbagines.

Crass 8.

34. Lysimachie embrace many of the Rotacee, ord.
20, and Precie, ord. 21. Globularia, Tozzia, Samolus,
Utricularia, Pinguicula, and Menyanthes, subjoined as
allies, not indeed without many doubts, appear to us
greatly misplaced. The first of these is allowed to indi-
cate an order not yet defined.

35. Pediculares, an important order, which Jussieu
has well selected out of the Linnean Personate, ord. 40;

581

though we are somewhat startled at finding Polygada at
the head of the list, which Linneus, not more happily
perhaps, ranges with his Lomentacee, ord. 33.

36. Acanthi are a few more of the Personate.

37. Jasminee are precisely the Linnean Sepiaria,
ord. 44,

38. Vitices consist of more Personate, separated with
judgement from the rest. Linneus having, in the con-
templation of his 40th order, been again seduced by arti-
ficial principles, and by the usage perhaps of considering
his Didynamia Angiospermia as of itself a natural order.

39. Labiate are precisely the Verticillate, ord. 42, of
Linneus, a tribe about which no two systematics could
differ, and which it is one of the greatest evils of the arti-
ficial sexual system to be obliged to disjoin.

40. Scrophularie are more of the Personate, ranged
here, after the Labiate, on account of the close affinity
of several of them to the next order. But it must be con-
fessed that the Labiate thus come awkwardly between
what are strictly akin, and that this intrusion is.a great
flaw in the natural character of the system ; insomuch
that we should gladly remove them to another place, be-
tween the Solanee and Borraginee hereafter mentioned.

41. Solanee consist principally of Luride, ord. 28, to
which a few more of the Personate are subjoined as allies.

It is remarkable that, in his characters of the seven last-
mentioned orders, Jussieu admits those marks, derived
from the stamens, on which the classes:of the Linnean
_artificial system depend. The intelligent reader will easily
observe, that the distinctions thence deduced, form a lead-
ing principle in the respective positions of these orders
and the following. This is the more curious, as the French
school is entirely obliged to Linneeus for bringing the organs
in question into notice, for the purposes of arrangement,
Tournefort and his pupils having never adverted to them.
42. Borraginee, these are the Asperifolia, ord. 41, of
Linneus, surely better placed by him between his Perso-

582
nate and Verticillate. The order is very natural, and
Jussieu’s criticism upon it excellent.
{ To these Linneus has no analogous

43. Convolvuli. | order, most of the genera in the two

44, Polemonia. < first being referred to his Campana-

45. Bignonie., | cee, order 29, and of the last to Per-

Lsonate.
In this instance we cannot but admit the superiority of
Jussieu’s arrangement.

46. Gentiane—a very natural and distinct order, con-
founded by Linnzus with his Rotacee, ord. 20, to which
it has but little relationship.

47. Apocinee—precisely the Linnean Contorte, ord.
30, a most distinct and curious tribe, though both the
great authors, of whom we are treating, have been mis-
taken in referring hither a genus or two, which do not at
all belong to it. See our remarks on this 30th order of
Linneus.

48. Sapote—an order of which Linnzus had no per-
ception. Some of its genera find a place among his Du-
mos@, ord. 43, an assemblage which, he ingenuously
confesses, did not satisfy himself.

Crass 9.

49. Guaiacane. Of this also Linnzus had no distinct
ideas. Some of the genera he places with his Bicornes,
ord. 18. Yet some pupils of Jussieu have refined upon
this and the last, and he himself has founded an order of
Ebenacee, upon the first section of his Guaiacane ;—see
Brown’s Prodromus, 524.

50. Rhododendra.

51. rice.

These two collectively answer to the Bicornes, ord. 18,
of Linneus, an error or two, on either part, excepted.

52. Campanulacee nearly correspond with the genuine
Campanacee, ord. 29, of Linneus, from whence, as we
have before hinted, Convolvulus and its allies are well se-
parated in the system of Jussieu.

588

Crass 10.

53. Cichoracee, a most natural order, the Composite
semiflosculose, ord. 49. sect. 2. of Linneus. The es-
sential character of this 10th class is adopted from the
artificial system of Linnzus, the united anthers, anthere
connate; a circumstance never adverted to by any syste-
matic weds, before him. Yet it is not absolutely without
exception; witness the genera of Kuhnia, Sigesbeckia, and
Tussilago.

54. Cinarocephale answer nearly, at least in principle,
to the Composite capitate, ord. 49. sect. 1.

55. Corymbifere embrace all the remaining Composite,
including the last section of that order, nucamentacee,
some of which Jussieu terms Corymbifere anomale ; such
as Iva, Parthenium, Ambrosia, Xanthium, and even Ne-
phelium.

Crass 11. Distinguished from the last Class, only by
having separate anthers.

56. Dipsacee consist of some of the Linnean Agegre-
gate, ord. 48. See our remark under Jussieu’s 26th
order. There is ample room for speculation on the affi-
nities and distinctions between these Dipsacea, the Pro-
tee, ord. 26th, and the whole of Jussieu’s 10th class last
mentioned. Their contemplation involves questions at
any time sufficient to excite a botanical war—such as,
what belongs to the inflorescence, and what to the flower?
what is a calyx, and what the crown of the seed? what
is superior and what inferior insertion ? what a simple and
what a compound flower?

57. Rubiacee, a vast and important order, composed,
not only of the Linnean Stedlate, ord. 47, but also of
numerous tribes of shrubby plants, very few of which had
been referred to the Ste//ate, and many of them had not
fallen under the notice of Linneus at all. Jussieu shines
in the elucidation of this order, and has well indicated
certain characters in the habit, especially that. of the in-
trafoliaceous sheathing stipulas.

584

58. Caprifolia are nearly equivalent tothe 4th, or last
section of Linneus’s Aggregate, ord. 48, except Vibur-
num and its allies, with Cornus and Hedera; the former
placed, without much reason, in the Linnean Dumose ;
Cornus with the Stellate ; and Hedera in Hederacee, ord.
46, nearly agreeing with Jussieu’s 59th next mentioned.
Cornus and Hedera, being both allowed to be polype-
talous, really belong to the next class, as the author could
not but perceive. Indeed Jussieu’s 1 1th and ] 2th classes,
however distinct in theory, naturally slide into each
other.

Crass 12. °

59. Aralia answer to the Linnean Hederacee, ord. 46,
Hedera, Vitis and Cissusexcepted, which Linneus himself
appears to have had some idea of removing from Panaz,
Aralia, &c.

60. Umbellifere of course correspond with the Umbel-
late, ord. 45, of Linneus, one of the most natural of the
whole.

Crass 13.

61. Ranunculacee answer to the Linnean Multisili-
que, ord. 26. The authors differ in the denomination of
the parts of the flower, Jussieu’s calyx being sometimes
the corolla, and his petals the nectaries, of Linnzus.

62. Papaveracee are, except Hypecoumand Fumaria,
Linnean Rhoeadee, ord. 27.

63. Crucifere the Linnean Siliquose, ord. 39, so na-
tural an order, that we can scarcely say to which it is next
akin.

64. Capparides mostly Linnean Putaminee, ord. 25,
with some very anomalous genera subjoined as related
thereto, Reseda, Drosera and Parnassia, not without
great and well-founded doubts of the author.

65. Sapindi. These are comprehended in two of

66. Acera. | sections of the T7rihilate, ord. 23.

67. Malpighia. | of Linneus.

68. Hyperica. Ascyrum and Hypericum, the only real

585

genera of this order, are, with Cistus, subjoined to the
Linnean Rotacee, ord. 20; certainly with no very evi-
dent reason.

69. Guttifere constitute a well-marked order, to which
Linnzus has nothing analogous. Most of the genera that
compose it, are either left by him.unarranged, or con-
sidered as of dubious affinity to any others. Indeed they
are generally tropical trees, respecting which he had but
slight information.

70. Aurantia. Of this likewise Linnzus seems to
have formed noidea, since he refers Citrus to his Bicornes,
and leaves Limonia undetermined. Camellia and Thea,
subjoined by Jussieu, with some other genera, to this
order, as connecting it with the next, appear to us of very
dubious affinity to the Awrantia ; nor are they much bet-
ter annexed by Linnzus to his Columnifere, ord. 37.

71. Melieconstitute a good order, comprehended, not
very judiciously, under the Linnean Trzhilate, ord. 23,
above mentioned.

72. Vites, consisting only of Cissus and Vitis, we have
already mentioned, ord. 59, as included amongst the He-
deracee, ord. 46, of Linnezus.

73. Gerania make a part of the Linnean Gruinales,
ord. 14, but Tropeolum, a puzzling genus, which Jussieu
labours to prove in many respects related to them, is re-
ferred by Linnzus, as reasonably perhaps, to his Trihi-
late.

74. Malvacee are almost exactly analogous to the Co-
lumnifere, ord. 37.

75. Magnolie form an order certainly as little con-
nected with the preceding as any two could be in the most
artificial system. See the following.

76. Anone. The leading genera of this and the Mag-
nolie compose the Linnean Coadunate, ord. 52.

77. Menisperma are referred by Linnzus to his Sar-
mentacee, ord. 11, by their habit more than any just

’ character.

586

78. Berberides constitute a curious order, though lia-
ble to some exceptions, of which its author was aware.
It entirely escaped the penetration of Linnzus,

79. Tiliacee a good order, likewise overlooked by him,
or partly confounded with his Columnifere, to which it
betrays some affinity.

80. Cisti. Cistus which makes this order, is placed by
Linneus, after Hypericum, at the end of his Rotacea,
ord. 20. The reader may wonder to find Viola considered
as related to Cistus, or at least to those species which
Jussieu separates therefrom, by an incorrect character,
and a faulty name, Helianthemum. He attributes to these
a capsule of one cell; but one of them at least, Cistus
thymifolius, has three cells. Viola, an anomalous genus,
29, with which it seems to have more points of agree-
is ranged by Linneeus at the end of his Campanacee, ord.
ment.

81. Rutacee. This isa very natural, and now become
a very extensive order, of which the genuine idea is con~
fined to Jussieu’s second section, and likewise to the se-
cond section of Linneus’s Multistlique, ord. 26. The
plants which compose it have alternate leaves, without
stipulas; their herbage abounding with aromatic acrid
essential oil, lodged in pellucid cells, as in Jussieu’s Au-
rantia, ord. 70. Calyx four- or five-cleft. Petals four
or five, alternate therewith. Stamens usually twice as
many as the petals, distinguished by something elaborate
or peculiar in their structure, by which the genera are
often well defined. Germen lobed. Capsule mostly of
four or five cells, each lined with a bivalve elastic tunic,
containing one or two polished seeds. -Diosma and Em-
pleurum, subjoined as akin to Rutacee, are genuine spe-
cimens of the order, though the latter has a capsule de-
ptived of three or four of its lobes or cells, and wants
petals. Melianthus has no business here. It ranks with
the Linnean Corydales, ord. 24, much more properly,
though a very puzzling genus. The students. at Paris,

587

in our time, used to amuse themselves with the idea, that
the Professor would not allow this fine plant a place in
the garden, because he knew not where to class it in his
system. _

82. Caryophyllee are exactly analogous, except a few
rather doubtful genera at the end, to the similarly named
22nd order of Linneus. But between this very natural
tribe and the last, Rutacee, there is a hiatus valdé defien-
dus, as to any natural affinity ; the present order being
much more related, as Jussieu candidly indicates, to the
Amaranthi, ord. 30, and proving that the presence or ab-
sence of a corolla, is no more infallible than any other
character, for a general principle of arrangement,

Crass 14.

83. Sempervive are the second section of Linnzus’s
Succulenta, ord. 13.

84. Savifrage are chiefly the fourth section of the
same.

85. Cacti consist merely of Ribes and Cactus, as arti-
ficial a combination as most in the.sexual system itself.
The former Linnzus ranks with his Pomacee, ord. 36 ; the
latter is the first genus of his Succulente.

86. Portulacee are selected out of the first and third
sections of the Succulente.

87. Ficoidee consist of more of the same.

In this part of their respective systems, we find it more
difficult than usual to follow the ideas of the learned au-
thors. Habit seems to have guided Linnzus ; but Jussieu
tracing, in his last five orders, nearly the same affinities,
has somewhat strained his technical characters to confirm
them.

88. Onagre accord, in the main, with the Linnean
Calycantheme, ord. 17. They well connect the five pre-
ceding orders with the following. Backea belongs to the
Mortis x

89. Myrti are the Linnean Hesperidee, a very natural
family, much amplified by Jussieu from recent discoveries.

588

90. Melastome are not distinguished by Linnzus from
his Calycantheme.

91. Salicarie are in the same predicament. Jussieu
has considerably the advantage here.

92. Rosacee embrace the Senticosa, ord. 35, and Po-
macee, ord. 36, of Linnzus, nor can there be a more na-
tural assemblage.

93. Leguminose comprehend, in like manner, two
Linnean orders, Papilionacee, the 32nd, and Lomentacee,
the 33rd, which we should be disposed to keep distinct,
however nearly they must be considered as akin. The
Linnean characters, though often termed artificial, serve
Jussieu for the distinctions of his sections.

94. Terebintacee, on order learnedly sketched out, ra-
ther than completed, by Jussieu, which seems entirely to
have escaped the perception of Linnzus. It brings to-
gether many things which he either did not pretend to ar-
range, or which clogged some of his orders.

95. Rhamni constitute a very natural order, of which
the Linnean Dumosa, ord. 43, are but a sketch, confess-
edly imperfect.

Crass 15.

96. Euphorbie are Linnean Tricocce, ord. 38.

97. Cucurbitacee agree, in name as well as idea, with
the 34th of the Linnean orders.

98. Urtice are nearly analogous to Scabride, ord. 53,
except that Piper is mentioned as related to them, instead
of being referred to a monocotyledonous order with Arum,
Pothos, Acorus, &c. Yet its germination is rather hinted
at than determined, nor does any thing positive seem to be
known on that subject.

99. Amentacee are mostly what Linneus has, under
. the same appellation, in his 50th order.

100. Conifere are his 51st, bearing the same name.

“As Linneus enumerates, at the end of his Natural
Orders, }16 genera, which he could not then satisfac-

589

torily refer to any one of them; so Jussieu, at the conclu-
sion of his System, reckons up 137, which, as we have
already observed, he denominates Plante incerteé sedis.
These are disposed synoptically, by their petals, germens
and styles. It is remarkable how nearly, allowing for
new discoveries, Jussieu accords with Linnzus in the
number of such genera. These lists have both beengreatly
diminished by.subsequent consideration, or more complete
information.

The attention of botanists, first directed by Gertner,
to the minute and curious diversities of structure in the
parts of the seed, has greatly assisted Jussieu and his
followers in correcting and improving the details of his
system. Hence he has been led to favour the world with
several essays on particular families, or orders, in the An-
nales du Museum d’ Hist. Nat., some of which have ap-
peared in the very valuable Annals of Botany, published
by Dr. Sims and Mr. Konig. In these, several of the dif-
ficulties, which originally embarrassed their author, are
lessened or removed, but on these it is not our purpose to
enter. A new edition of Jussieu’s Genera Plantarum,
which has long been preparing, cannot fail to prove al-
most a new work ; more valuable perhaps for the abun-
dant information which it must afford, concerning the cha-
racters and affinities of particular genera, than for any
thing concerning a general natural system, to perfect
which the scientific world has not, as yet, sufficient ma-
terials.

As we cannot here undertake to detail Jussieu’s own
corrections or improvements of his system, neither can
we explain what has been attempted, with the same de-
sign, by the late ingenious M. Ventenat, or by those ex-
cellent living botanists, M. DeCandolle, or Mr. Brown.
We shall only observe, that Ventenat, too servile to Jus-
sieu, explicitly contends for the natural method of classi-
fication, as superseding the artificial one, and that he
aims at proving this to have been the intention of Lin-

590

neus. Yet nothing can be more positive to the contrary
than the remarks of the latter, in the preface to his Or-
dines Naturales at the end of his Genera Plantarum. He
there declares that his “ artificial method is alone of use
to ascertain plants, it being scarcely possible to find a
key to the natural one.”” “Natural orders,” he continues,
““ serve to teach the nature of plants, artificial ones to
distinguish one plant from another.” If it be said that
Jussieu, having invented a key, or a set of distinctive cha-
racters, to his orders, has removed this objection, we
would ask, What becomes of his doubtful genera, as nu-
merous as those of Linneus? or moreover, How is any
student, using his system analytically, to make out a
single unknown plant? That the pupils of Jussieu have
ever been aware of this, the writer of the present essay
very well knows. He has always found them, in conver-
sation, aiming compliments at their illustrious master,
by contending for the great difficulty and uncertainty of
the Linnean artificial system ; by which palpable absur-
dity they betrayed their secret opinion of Jussieu’s. On
the other hand, the intelligent and candid DeCandolle,
adopting the just opinion of Linneus, that plants are allied
to each other rather in the form of a table, or map, than
in a linear series, actually proposes such a series as neces-
sarily artificial, in his Theorie Elementaire de Botanique,
213. Concerning the precise disposition of the genera
in this series, we believe scarcely two botanists would
agree; nor might their contentions be unprofitable ; but
they would never teach, either a tyro or an adept, to as-
certain an unknown plant. We will venture to go further,
and to declare our opinion, founded on long observation,
that botanists who are thus perpetually intent on the abs-
tract theory of classification, scarcely attain any excel-
lence in the technical discrimination, or definition, of
what are really founded in nature, the species or genera
of the vegetable kingdom. Those err greatly who seek
to improve the system of Jussieu, or any other, by refining

591

too much on his distinctions, and subdividing his orders ;
than which nothing is more easy. Judgement and exten-
sive knowledge are displayed in tracing out the most es-
sential points of agreement in natural objects; ‘not in
exalting into unmerited importance the most minute dif-
ferences. Hence the very conciseness of Linnzus gives
perspicuity to his descriptions and definitions. These
afford the most instructive study, whatever mode of clas-
sification we may think most convenient.

The French school has been much. flattered by our
able countryman Mr. Brown, having classed his Prodro-
mus of the New Holland plants after the method of Jus-
sieu; and many a botanist enjoys this national triumph
who is certainly not competent to appreciate the merit of
that work. The plants of so novel a country could not,
at this time of day, have been presented, with so much
advantage, to a philosophical botanist, as in some natural
arrangement, however imperfect; nor will many students
travel thither, to make them out by methodical investiga-
tion. The touchstone of our learned friend’s book how-
ever will be the Plante incerte sedis, nor can it be judged,
as to the merit of the system employed, till it arrives at
that conclusion. He himself will surely not reckon it
complete without a Linnean index,

“To give the precious metal sterling weight.”

To the President of the Linnean Society of London.

Sir, Surat, January 11, 1810.

'Azsovut three years back the exigence of professional
duty led me to a sequestered province of Malabar, where
the Cardamomum minus was indigenous, and engaged a
very large proportion of the industry of the natives, and
was productive of much revenue. As the period of my
visit coincided with the season of fructification, I availed

592

myself of the occasion to attempt its botanical descrip-
tion; and having a good draughtsman, I caused him to
delineate as scientifically as I could its various parts, and
in the different stages of fructification. This drawing,
with an account of the culture, as performed by the na-
tives, was the subject of a tract,—however inadequate in
the execution, interesting from the erroneous and. discre-
pant descriptions which had hitherto been published
either by botanists or others,

Of the merit of my labours I shall only predicate, but
with a confidence founded on the fact, that the delinea-
tion of the parts of fructification is most accurate, and
that I witnessed every thing I advanced relative to the
crops, their culture, and collection. The result of my es-
say was intended by my much lamented friend Dr. James
Anderson, of Madras, whose approbation it obtained, for
presentation to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta; and this
hint was conveyed to Lord William Bentinck, to whom
the tract and drawing was sent; but the commotions
which occupied and agitated the Governor's leisure during
the latter months of his administration, prevented all fu-
ture reference to a matter relatively so unimportant.

With this preamble for your information, I consign the
essay and its merits to your better judgement and de-
cision. ;

I am, with much respect, Sir,
Your obedient and humble servant,
Davip Waite, M.D.
Superintending Surgeon,
Province of Guzerat.

POND Ex:

7

A.

Aspzort, Rev. Charles, letter
from, ii, 84.

Acharius, E., letter from, i. 497.

Acrel, Professor, i. 238, 92, 93;
letters from, i. 98, 103, 110, 122,
124; honourable conduct of,
a 127.

Acrostichum flagelliferum, ii. 259.

Marante, ii. 44.

Adanson, i. 329. ~

Addison, Travels of, i. 231.

Adiantum Capillus-V eneris, i. 439.
li. 162.

Aegiceras majus, ii. 254.

Aeginetia, ii. 245.

Afzelius, Dr., ii. 49; letters from,
54, 61.

Agaricus betulinus, i. 43.
deliciosus,,i. 58.
quercinus, i. 43.

— viridis, i. 58.

Agrostis littoralis, i. 534.

- minima, i. 184.

Aiton, Mr. ii. 58.

Aix, its fountains, i. 193.

Ajuga Hyoscyami, ii, 254. °

Albertus Magnus, i. 166.

Alchemilla alpina, i. 57.

Aldobrandini, villa, i. 222.

Allamand, Professor, i. 149, 152,
328.

Allerton, ii. 306.

Allioni, Professor, i. 215, 336.

Almeyda, Chevalier, ii. 206.

Almorah, country of, ii. 85.

Aloes, improperly called American,
z 196." *

Alopecurus alpinus, ii. 274, 276.

Alstroémer, Baron, i. 102, 271.

Altamont, Lord, ii. 126.

VOL. II.

Amaryliis lutea, i. 518.
ornata, li. 54.
Ampelis garrulus, ii. 13.
Anagallis arvensis, ii. 86.
tenella, i. 432.
Anchusa officinalis, i. 435, 437.
Ancram, Lord, i. 44.
Andrea del Sarto, i. 228 ; peculi-
arity in his painting, ii. 352.
Andromeda Dabeecia, ii. 125.
ovalifolia, ii. 258.
Anemone sylvestris, i. 40.
Anethum foeniculum, i. 436.
Anguillaria, ii. 256.
Anthemis maritima, i. 485.
Anthericum calyculatum, i. 57.
serotinum, i. 433.
Antibes, i. 196.
Antirrhinum Cymbalaria, ii. 135.
Apollo Belvidere, i. 208. .
Arabis stricta, ii. 145.
Aralia, ii. 16, 18, 21.
Arbutus Andrachne, i. 27.
Arbuckle, Mr. ii. 135.
- Uva-Ursi, i. 516.
Arduino, i. 337.
Arenaria multicaulis, i. 27.
saxatilis, i. 44.
Argali, ii. 86.
Argiolus, i. 447.
Aristolochia Pistolochia, ii. 22.
Artocarpus incisa, ii. 288.
————_ integrifolia, ii. 288.
Arundo Bambos, i. 382.
epigejos, i. 58.
Asjogam, i. 410.
Aspidium Oreopteris, ii. 162.
thelypteris, i. 590.
Asplenium adiantum nigrum, ii.
142.
Astragalus leucopheus, ii. 41.
monspessulanus, ii, 13.

2a

594

Astragalus uralensis, i. 57, 432.
Astrantia major, i. 320.
Athamanta Libanotis, i. 181.
—— Oreosel. i. 131.
Atriplex laciniata, i. 184.
serrata, i. 184.
Atropa Belladonna, i. 439, 482.
li. 268, 269.
Avernus, Lake, i. 220.
Avignon, i. 192.
Azalea procumbens, i. 57.

B.

Bacon, Lord, i. 53 (note).

Baker, Mr. Wynne, ii. 129.

Baldus, Mount, i. 242.

Banisteria fulgens, i, 372.

Banks, Sir Joseph, i. 92, 135 ; let-
ters from :—

1. Introduction of Sir James to
Professor Allamand, i. 149.

2. Introduction to Sir W. Ha-
milton, i. 207.

3. Of Solander’s death, i. 236.

4. Of the bread fruit tree, i. 269.

5. On “ Review of Modern Bo-

tany,”’ i. 498,

. Of Flora Greca, i. 548.

. Effects of severe frost, ii. 79.

. Of Hermodactyls, ii. 187.

. Of the Abbé Corréa, ii. 207.

Barbauld, Mrs., ii. 112, 175, 180.

Barrington, Hon. Mrs., i. 290.

Basle, i. 255.

Batty, Dr.,i. 46, 51, 75, 77.

Bauer, Mr. Ferdinand, i. 457.

Bauhinia corymbosa, ii. 259.

racemosa, li. 259.

Beattie, Professor James, letter
from, i. 441.

Beauclere, Lerd Aubrey, his epi-
taph, i. 477.

Bedford, Duke of, letters from, ii.
111,196; hiscollection ofheaths,
ii. 281; kindness to Mr. Sinclair,
ii. 280.

Bellardi, Dr., i. 336.

Belvidera, Mrs. Siddons in, i. 355.

Ben Lomond, i. 57. ii. 136.

Berberis pinnata, ii. 255.

Bergsma, C. A., letter from, ii.
290.

SOND

Bernoulli, i. 338.

Besborough, Lord, ii. 151.

Beta maritima, i. 435.

Bicheno, Mr., i. 422.

Bigelow, J., letter from, i. 185.

Bisham Abbey, ii. 342.

Black game, scarcity of, ii. 83.

Blandford, Marquis of, letter from,
i. 434.

Blumenbach, Professor, : letter of,
i. 418.

Blundell, Mr., ii. 303.

Boccaccio, fine one of Mr. Coke’s,
ii. 353. :

Boccone, i. 156."

Bohun Upas, i. 133. .

Bois de la Tour, Madame, i. 181.

Boletus lucidus, i. 461.

perennis, i. 27.

Bologna, i. 231.

Bonaparte, ii. 94, 190, 341.

——, Madame, ii. 102, 103,

105.

Bonnet, M. i. 278, 338.

Boothby, Sir Brooke, i. 401; his
daughter’s tomb, ii. 309.

Boott, Dr. F., letter from, i. 485.

Borghese Palace, i. 266.

Borone, Francesco, i. 270, 457,
462, 463. ii. 65, 175 (note).

Bosc, Louis, letter from, i. 386.

Bostock, Dr., letter from, ii. 328.

Botany, “‘ Review of the Modern
State of,” ii, 442.

Botrychium xeylanicum, ii. 259.

Bourbon, Abbé de, i. 210.

Braganza, John de, Duke de La-
foens, ii. 202, 217, 234.

Brignoli, Sardinian Minister, ii.
239.

Brodie, James, Esq., letter from,
ii. 83.

Brougham, Mr., public dinner
given to, ii. 347 ; song ona ball
at Liverpool, ii. 351.

Broussonet, A., i. 51, 188, 331. ii.
308 ; letter from, ii. 198.

Brown, Robert, Esq., i. 459, 497,

- 501, 592, 602. ii. 261; letter
from, i. 518.

Browne, Dyr., author of Nat. Hist.
of Jamaica, ii. 126.

Bruce, Arthur, letter from, i. 482.

595

Bruce, James, the Abyssinian tra-
veller, ii. 298.

Bryant, Rev. Henry, i. 18; letters
from, i. 33, 61, 137.

Bryum rigidum, i. 26.

Bucentaur, i. 241.

Buchan, Ear! of, i. 38; letter from,
i. 67.

Buchanan, Dr. F., letter from, ii.
85.

Buckingham, House of, i. 598.

Buckinghamshire, Countess of, her
beauty, i i. 173.

Bulliard, i. 215, 216, 331.

Bulstrode, the Nymphea Nelumbo
flowering there, 1. 44.

Buonvicino, i. 315.

Burleigh House, fine pictures in,
li. 309.

Burman, i. 155. ;

Burns, Robert, ii. 123, 156.

Bursa Pastoris, i. 518.

Bute, Earl of, i. 402. ii. 72.

Bute and Arran, mountains of, ii.
136.

Butini, Dr., i. 278.

Butomus umbellatus, i. 517.

Butt, Rev. Thomas, letters from,
i. ‘435, 437.

Byssus rubra, i i. 58.

C. :

Cacalia alpina, i. 319.

Cactus grandiflora, ii. 16.

Cakile egyptiaca, ii. 186.

Caldwell, Andrew, Esq., i. 13; cor-
respondence of, ii. 123.

1. Of the Dublin Botanic Gar-

den, ii. 128.

. Travelling disasters, ii. 131.

. Congratulations, ii. 133.

. Tour in Ireland and Scotland,

ii. 134.

. Rebellion in 1797, ii. 137.

in 1798, ii. 138.

. Excursion into Wales, ii. 140.

. Visits Yarmouth, ii. 144.

. Of Flora Britannica, ii. 146.

. Of the Loxia curvirostra, ii.
150.

11. Excursion in Yorkshire, ii. 154.

12, Death of Mr. Mangin, ii. 155.

—_—
SOBNAM PO

13. Of his visit to Cambridge, ii.
158.
14. Of Johnes’s “ Froissart,” ii
165.
Caldwell, A. Esq., his death, ii.
166.

Callicarpa arborea, ii. 256.
——-_ macropiylila, ii. 256.
Callitriche aquatica, ii. 186.
Cambridge, ii. 385.

Campanula latifolia, i. 571.

rotundifolia, ii. 137.

Camphor, ii. 282, 328.
Cannabis sativus, il. 86.
Cannes, i. 196.
Cantharis miniata, i. 183.
Capo di Monte, i. 220.
Capra Ammon, ii. 87.
— caucasia, ii. 87.
Cards, habitual playing of, ii. 56.
Card-tables on a Sunday in Hol-

land) 1: P51:
Carex binervis, i. 442.
- capillaris, i. 320.
——- curta, 1. 439.
—- Davalliana, i. 443.
—-- fulva, i. 443.
——- indica, i. 466.
——~- levigata, i. 442.
——- leporina, ii. 7.
——- Micheliana, i. 441.
- strigosa, i. 439, 466.
Carlisle, Bishop of. Correspond-
ence with Sir J. E. Smith :—
. Passage from his first letter,

i. 134.
2. Of the age of vegetables, i. 153.
3. Excursion to Maldon, i. 183.
4. Death of his daughter, i. 185.
5. Hastings’s trial, i. 211.
6
7
8

_

. Old Nat. Hist. Soc., i. 266.
. Commendations of Sir James’s
Tour, i. 445.
. Of Introduction to Botany, i.
473.
9. Of Lapland Tour, i. 491.
10. Of Grammar of Botany, i. 501.
11. Of the blue shark, i. 525.
12. To Sir James on his marriage,

i. 526.

13. To the same on leaving Lon-
don, i. 527-

14, Of Mr, Salisbury, i. 533.

2Q2

596

15. Of Carices, i. 538.

16. Willows, i.°539.

17. Carices, i. 540.

18. Of his Deanery, i. 541.

19. Flora Britannica, i. 548.

20. Criticisms, i. 545.

21. Title of Flora Greca, i. 552.

——_—_———-,, i. 553.

23. Of his preferment at Boxley,
i, 556.

24. Prodromus Fl. Grec., i. 558.

25. Of Aristotle and Linnezus, i.
560.

26. Made Bishop of Carlisle, i. 562.

27. Yellow carnation, i. 565.

28. Plants near Rose Castle, i. 570.

29. Of the old Duchess of Portland,
i. 573.

30. Saying of Philip of Macedon,
i. 575.

31. Of Castalia, i. 578.

32. Flora Greca, i. 581.

33. Of Ethulia,i. 582.

34. Parliamentary anxieties, i. 584.

35. Duke of Portland's character,
i. 585.

36. Criticisms, i. 585.

37. Fuci, i. 587.

38. Of Bulstrode, i. 588.

39. Excursion to the mountains, 1.
589.

40. Mr. Dryander’s death, i. 591.

41. ————_—_———-.__ character, i.
592.

42. Linnzan anniversary, i. 593.

43. Death of his daughter, i. 596.

44, Of the Holkham library, i. 597.

45. And sheep-shearings, 1. 598.

46. English Flora, i. 599.

47. American serpent, i. 600.

48. Domestic disasters, i. 600.

49. Of accentuation, i. 603.

50. DeCandolle, i. 605.

51. Of wasps and swallows, i. 607.

52. Politics, i. 607.

53. A cold summer, i. 608.

Carlisle, Bishop of, his death, ii.

299.

Carpenter, Lady Almeria, i

Cassytha filiformis, ti. 288.

Castle Bourke, il. 126.

Castle Kenedy, ii. 135.

Catacombs, i. 220,

209:

Catesbea, ii. 17.

Catmandu, ii. 86.

Caucalis daucoides, i. 156.

Cavanilles, Abbé, letter from, i.
369.

Cavendish, Mr., ii. 170.

Cavolini, Don F., i. 339.

Cenis, Mont, i. 277, 315, 318, 320.

Centaurea Cyanus, i. 13.

Cerastium alpinum, ii. 27.

Cercis Siliquastrum, i. 570.

Ceres, i. 143 (note). ii. 2425 co-
lossal bust of, ii. 159, 327.

Cetraria cucullata, i ii. 238.

Chamerops humilis, i. 153.

Chantilly, i. 176.

Chara fewilis, i. 184.

Cheiranthus sinuatus, 1. 435.

Chenopodia, place of, ii. 27.

Cherleria sedoides, i. 321.

Chironia Centaurium, i. 435.

- pulchella, i. 434.

Chlora perfoliata, ii. 143.

Chronique d’Hénault, richly illu-
minated one, ii. 353.

Chrysanthemum atratum, i. 321.

cl rng Fe oats pa iperane i.

557.

Cicada aurita, i. 2672

Cicero’s villa, 1. 222..> (2 :

Cichorium Intybus, i. 13.

Cigna, i. 337.

Cimex personatus, i. 153.

Clanbrassil, Lord, ii. 135.

Clarkson, Mr., ii. 55.

Clematis smilacifolia, ii. 258.

Clinton, De Witt, sir, “yc il.
240. fs

Cloncurry, Tord ii. 145.

Cobbold, Mrs., letter from, ii. 175.

Coigny, ‘Duke of, ii. 202.

Coke, Thomas William, Esq., i.

351, 598, 605. ii. 243, 275,

301. Correspondence of :—

. Of Mr. Roscoe’s visit, ii. 354.

. Of Leo X. and Mr. Roscoe, ii.
355.

. Of an excursion with Sir J. E.
Smith, ii. 356.

4. Of his manuscripts, ii. 357.

5. Purchase of pictures, ii. 358.

6. Discovery of Lord Chief Justice

Coke’s MSS., ii. 367.

nore

co

597

7. Of his tour in Scotland, ii.
376.
Coke, Miss, ii. 275, 351, 352.
Colchicum autumnale, i. 482. ii.
187.
Colebrookea oppositifolia, i. 256.
Coliseum, i. 204.
Columba root, ii. 120.
Columna’s Ecphrasis and Phyto-
basanos, i. sae ii. 322,
Combe, Dr., i. 135.
Combretum Aaleaion: li. 260.
Commersonia echinata, ti. 256.
Compendium Flore Britannica, i.
455.
Condé, Prince of, i. 176.
Conferva rosea, ii. 96.
Conium maculatum, li. 192.
Royeni, i. 156.
Connarus, ii. 260.
Conops calcitrans, i. 462.
Constantine, Arch of, i. 205.
Consul, First, ii. 94.
Convallaria verticillate, i, 432.
Convolvulus persicus, i. 461.
Soldanella, i. 435.
Conway, ii. 141.
-, General, ii.
Corby Castle, i. 567.
Corchorus, ti. 195.
- capsularis, i. 410.
- olitorius, i. 410. :
Corfu, island of, its plants, ii. 293
—298.
Cornegliano, a sea-side palace of
the Durazzo family, i. 246, 260.
Cornus aggregata, ii. 258.
herbacea, i. 57.
oblongifolia, ii. 258.
Correa virens, ii. 212.
Corréa, Abbé, i. 204, 333; corre-
spondence of, ii. 198.
1. Of the Inquisitor-general of
Portugal, ii. 204.
. To Sir J. E. Smith in Norwich,
ii. 208.
. Of the Cyamus Nelumbo, ii.
209.
. Of Mr. Salisbury’s ‘“ Prodro-
mus,” li, 213.
. Of Cape Protea, ii. 215.
. Of La Billardiére, ii. 219.
. Of his persecution, ii. 220.

213.

NID oo tb

. Corréa, Abbé, death of, ii.

8. From America, ii. 221.
9. His return to Lisbon, ii. 223.
224;
his idea concerning regular and
irregular flowers, ii. 332.
Correggio, his finest paintings at
Parma, i. 243.
Corrie, Mrs., letter from, i. 500.
Corrigiola littoralis, i, 131.
Corsini, Princess, ii. 238.
Courland, Madame, ii. 94.
Coutinho, Don Rodrigo de Sousa, i.
337; letters from, i. 360; ii. 218.
Cowper, ii. 101.
Cremorne, Viscountess, i. 290.
Crepis biennis, 1. 557.
Cromford, i. 352. _
Crotolaria juncea, i. 411.
Crowe, James, Esq., i. 16, 17; let
ter from, 1. 535.
Cullean, ii. 136.
Cullen, Dr., i. 66.
Cullum, Sir John, i. 135.
, sir T. G., letters from :—
1. Anecdote of Gerard’s Herbal,
i, 482.

2. Of English Flora, i. 512.

3. Of Lady Cullum’s recovery, ii.
266.

4. Of New Pharmacopeia,ii. 281.
Cunnamara, ii. 148, 151.
Cupressus pendula? ii. 258.
Curculio paraplecticus, i. 154.
Currie, Dr., ii. 157.

Cusson, i 332.

Cuvier, Baron, letter from, i. 511,
Cyamus egyptius, ii. 209.
hellenicus, li. 209.
Nelumbo, ii. 228.
Cyathea montana, ii. 6.

Cycas revoluta, ii. 81.

Cyrilli, Dr., i. 339.

Cytinus hypocistus, ii. 288.
Cytisus Cajan, ii. 209.

D.

Da Costa, i. 267.

Dacre, Lord, i. 44.

Dactylis stricta, i. 606.

Dalrympela pomifera, ii. 256.

Dana, J. P.M., i. 337; letter of, i.
385.

598

Dance of Death, i. 258.

Dante, MSS. of, at Holkham, ii.
346.

Daphne cannabina, ii. 257.

Gardneri, ii. 257.

pontica, i. 461.

Darea, ii. 287.

Darwin, Dr., letter from, i. 401.

Datura, ii. 268, 269.

Davall, Edmund, Esq., letter from,

i. 313.

Correspondence of, ii. 1.

. Sketch of his own history, ii. 2.

. Of Ampelis garrulus, ii. 18.

. His pursuit of botany, ii. 17.

. Diapensia lapponica, ii. 21.

. Of his marriage, ii. 23.

. Requesting his friend to be
godfather to his child, ii. 30.

. Of Mr. Schutz’s death, i. 33.

. His love of nature, ii. 38.

. Of his garden, ii. 40.

11. Death of his child, ii. 44.

12. Conduct of the French at Ge-

neva, li. 50.

13. Death of his aunt, ii. 56.

14. Of English Botany, ii. 59.

15. Of Mr.Smith’s and F. Borone’s

_
oof “ID Orb Co to

death, ii. 66.
16. His last unfinished letter, ii.
69.

D’Aubenton, i. 329.

Davies, Rey. Hugh, letter from, i.
433. li. 141, 302. .

Davy, Dr., Master of Caius, ii. 369;
letter Se li, 405.

Sir H., two letters of, i. 531;
paper of, upon hydrogen and ox-
ygen gas, i. 586.

DeCandolle, Professor, i i. 514, 518,
604, 606. ii. 248, 284, 285, 286,
291; letter from, ii. 195.

De la Cepede, i. 329.

Delany, Dr., ii, 128.

De Lug, i. 337.

Dernidoff, Mr., ii. 94.

Desfontaines, i. 331;
i. 379, 455.

Devonshire, Duchess of, ii. 57.

Dianthus virgineus, ii. 267, 269.

Diapensia lapponica, ii. 22, 31.

Dickson, Mr. J ames, letter of, i.
26; his epitaph, ii. 254.

letters of,

e

Didymocarpus aromatica, ii. 253.

Dioscorides, celebrated MS. of,
i. 456, 576, 579, 580.

Dodecatheon Meadia, i. 383.

Doge, his marriage with the sea,
i. 241.

Dombey, i. 519.

Domo D’ossola, i. 247.

Dorthes, i. 331. a6 ;

Drake, Rev. W. F. i. 489. ii. 314.

Dryander, Mr. Jonas, i, 94, 127.
ii. 21; letter from, i. 165; his
eminent talents, i. 165 ; hisdeath,
i. 591; his place filled by Mr.
R. Brown, i. 592; diversity of
his talents, i. 593; of Mr.
Roscoe’s Essay on Monandrian
Plants, ii. 329, 330.

Dryas octopetala, i. 277.

Dua Bunga, ii. 87.

Dumbarton, i. 44. ii. 136.

Duncan, Mr. P., i. 511.

Dunlop, Mrs., ii. 157.

Duppa, Mr., ‘letter from, ii. 125
(note).

Durazzo, Marquis Ippolito, letters
from, i. 237, 271; description
of the palace in Strada Balbi, i.
259; family, encouragers of sci-
ence, i. 339; the senator, i. 259.

Durham, Bishop of, letter from, i.
473.

E.

East, Sir William, i.
from, ii. 108.

, Lady, i. 592.

Easter Sunday, i. 229.

Eau médicinale, ii. 170.

Edinburgh, i. 20—26.

Egremont, Earl of, i. 20.

Elater cupreus, i. 367.

pectinicornis, i. 567.

Elatime Alsinastrum, i i. 27.

Elettaria, ii. 282.

Elk horns, ii. 127.

Ellis, Mr., i. 310.

Elymus arenarius, 1. 27, 59.

philadelphicus, i. 27.

Emeralds at Loretto, i. 234.

Emodu Ghiry, the Emodus of the
ancients, ii, 8.

588; letter

599

Empeirum nigrum, i. 590.
English Flora, i. 507.
Epidendron moschatum, ii. 260.
Erasmus, i. 255, 256.

Eriocaulon, ii. 148, 149, 169.

Ermenonville, i. 176.

Ervum hirsutum, ii. 86.

tetraspermum, 1. 599.

Erythrea Centaurium, i. 517.

littoralis, i. 517.

Essex, its plants and insects, i.
183.

Ethulia, i. 582.

Exotic Botany, Dedication of, i.
520 ; passages from, ii. 228, 322,
324, 327.

Eugenia, ii. 88.

Euphorbia Characias, ii. 191.

———— hiberna, ii. 161.

Eyre, Mr., i. 382.

i F.

Fabroni, i. 333.

Fabroni pusilla, ii. 237.

Feroni, Marquis, ii. 238.

Ferrara, i. 240.

Festuca decumbens, ti. 22.

Ficus pumila, ii. 200.

repens, li. 200.

Filial piety, its value, i. 251.

Fitzwilliam, Earl, ii. 36.

Fleming, Mr., ii. 88, 120.

Flora Britannica, i. 449.

English, i. 507, 602. ii. 407.

— Gallo-Provincialis, i. 193.

—. Greca, i. 456, 550,554,555.
li. 298.

— Lapponica, i. 444.

Oxoniensis, i. 458, 460.

Flore de Malmaison, ii. 110.

Portugaise, ii. 344.

Florence, Gallery of, i. 202.

Foligno, i. 233.

Fontana, Abbé, i. 203, 332; letter
from, i. 397.

-, Gregorio, i. 335.

Forster, Mr., speaker of the Irish
house of commons, ii. 128.

yee ee eg. i. - 4962) ii.

369.

, Edward, Esq.,ii. 278,369.
Fountain, Andrew, Esq., ii. 349.

Fox, Right Hon. C. J., i. 20.
France, King of, instance of his
politeness, i. 164.
; Queen of, i. 292.
Frankland, Sir Thomas, i. 533;
letters from :—
1. Of Flora Britannica, i. 450.
2. Of @nanthe crocata, ii. 95.
3. and its poisonous effects, ii.
96.
4. Describes a tour to the High-
lands, ii. 167.
5. Letter, ii. 172.
6. Of woodcocks, and tearing out
likenesses in paper, ii. 271,
Franklin, Benjamin, i. 354.
Fraxinus floribunda, ii. 260.
Frejus, i. 195.
French ladies, i. 162.
literary societies, i. 256. —
wine, i. 268.
Frith of Clyde, ii. 136.
Frogmore, i. 290. ii. 53.
Froissart, ii. 112, 165.
Frost, severe one, ii. 80.
Fuchsia coccinea, ii. 14.
Fucus fastigiatus, ii. 42.
Fumaria officinalis, ii. 86.
Fungus pulverulentus, i. 42.

G.

Gabrielle d’Estrées, i. 179.

Gage, Sir Thomas, letters from, ii.
235, 264.

Gainsborough, Henry earl of, ho-
norary member of the Linnzan
Society, i. 345.

Galitzin, Princess, ii. 93.

Galium Aparine, ii. 254.

asperifolium, ii. 254.

elegans, ii. 254.

erectum, i. 61.

pusillum, ii. 60, 61.

Gallo, Marquis de, ii. 95.

Ganganelli, Pope, monument te,
i. 230.

Garden, Dr. i. 135.

Garth, Dr. i. 199.

Geneva, i, 246, 270. ii. 51.

Genoa, i. 194, 197, 237, 244, 250,
252, 258, 271, 282.

Gentiana campestris, ii. 21.

600

Gentle Shepherd, ii. 157.

Gerard of Cottignac, i. 195, 265,
332; letter from, i. 374.

Gerebtzoff, Comtesse de, ii. 93.

Geum and Dryas, nice distinction
between, ii. 609.

Giant's Causeway, ii. 132.

Giddy, Davies, Esq., letter from, i.
450.

Giesek, Dr., ii. 74, 304.

Giorgione, Venetian Lady and Son
by, ii. 358.

Giorna, Esprit, i.
from, i. 363.

Girardin, Marquis de, i. 177.

Glasgow, Earl of, i. 44.

—, city of, i. 54. ii, 136.

Glaucium fulvum, ii. 172.

Gleggs, Miss, ii. 303.

Gloucester, Duke and Duchess of,
i. 198, 204, 209.

Gnaphalium alpinum, i. 57.

luteo-album, i. 216.

margaritaceum,i. 437.

Goitres, i. 249.

Goldsmith, O., i. 199.

Goodenough, Dr.: see Carlisle.

Gordon Castle, ii. 167; length of,
li. 169.

———-, Duke of, extent of his
estate, ii. 169.

Gottingen, i. 132.

Gouan, Dr. i. 331.

Govan, Dr.G., ofthe botanic garden
at Sahrunpore, ii. 248.

Gouille & Vassu, li. 39.

Grafton, Duke of, i. 20.

Grains of Paradise, ii. 373.

Granier, Mr., i. 191.

Gratiola, ii. 173.

Gray, Mr., ii. 112, 382.

Greece, its climate not healthy, ii.
147.

Griffiths, Mr., ii. 303.

—, Mrs., i. 587.

Grotto del Cane, i. 220.

337; letter

H.

Habenaria bifolia, i. 516.
Hemanthus multiflorus, ii, 54,
Hague, i. 160.

Haller, Albert, i. 186; anecdotes

concerning him, ii. 436; his un-
marked grave, i. 278.

Haller, Theophilus Emanuel, ii.
338.

Hamburgh, poor of, ii. 73.

Hamilton, Sir W., i. 209, 222.

Hardwicke, General, letter from,
ii. 118.

Harewood, Lord, ii, 36, 270.

Harris, Rev. Dr., i. 513.

Hawkins, J. Esq., i. 458, 463,
466 ; letters from, i. 468, 469,
568.

Heekberry, i. 571.

Hedwig, Dr., letter from, ii. 97.

Hedychium angustifolium, ii. 200.

————— carneum, ii. 250.

— coccineum, ii. 250.
coronarium, ii. 200.

— ellipticum, ii. 250.
flavum, ii. 250.

—————- spicatum, ii. 250.

Hedyotis gracilis, ii. 258.

Flelvella planis, i. 34.

Henry IV. of France, i. 167; wax
bust of, i. 181.

Herculaneum, i. 221.

Herman, Professor, i. 339.

Hermodactyls, ii. 187.

Heynea trijuga, ii. 259.

Hieracium alpinum, ii. 26, 41.

————- montanum, ii. 41. «

Hill, Miss, i. 544, 587. Tc

fippuris lanceolata, i. 216. fe

Hister quadrimaculatus, ii. 13, 14+

Hoffmansegg, Count, ii. 344.

Hohenzollern, Prince, ii. 94.

Holbein, i. 255; Last Supper by,
i. 256; Passion of our Sayiour
by, i. 256 ; portrait of Erasmus, .
i. 256. y

Holkham, epigram on, ii. 352.

—— Hall, ii. 346, 354.

Holmshkioldia sanguinea, ii. 256.

Holy week, i. 228.

Hooker, Professor W. J., i. 496 ;
letters from, ii. 283, 408.

Hope, Dr. John, i. 20—23, 54;
letter from, i. 146; death of, i.
196.

Hopea, ii. 89.

Hortus Malabaricus, ii. 20.

- Hoya viridiflora, ii. 260.

601

Hudson, Mr., i. 131, 135.

Humboldt, Baron, letters from, i.
483. ii. 193.

Hume, Sir A. and Lady, ii. 48,
316.

Humea elegans, ii. 324.

Hunter, Dr., i. 89.

Hutton, Dr., i. 45.

Hydnum imbricatum, i. 42.

Hyeres, i. 194.

Hymn by Mrs. Barbauld, ii. 180.

Hymn to the Apollo Belvidere, i.
284.

Hymns by J. E. Smith, ii. 400,
401, 402.

Hypocheris pontana, ii. 41.

|

Iberis rotundifol. ii. 41.

Ilam, in Derbyshire, i. 439. ii. 283.

Ilex japonica, ti. 255.

Incarvillea dubia, ii. 253.

Indigofera caerulea, i. 409.

Inga, li. 259.

Insects, list of Linnzeus’s, i. 111.

Ionian Isles, umbelliferous plants
of, ii. 298.

Ipomea grandiflora, i. 411.

Irwin, Mr. Eyles, i. 81.

Italy, a journey through, compared
to the stages of life, i. 224.

Ixora lanceolata, ii. 255.

J.

Jack, Mr. W., ii. 249, 262.

Jacquier, Father, i. 333.

Jacquin, ii. 25.

Jansen, Cornelius, ii. 352.

Jardin de Cels, ii. 104, 105.

Jatawansi, the real Spikenard, i.
412.

Jebb, Dr. J., i. 358, 355.

Jervis, Sir John, his friendly con-
duct, i. 124.

Johnes, Thomas, Esq., i. 301;
letters from, i. 309. ii. 78,112;
of his extensive planting, ii. 76.

Miss, i. 306; death of, i.

309.
Joinville, ii. 112. _
Jones, Sir William, 1.410, 412,520.

Jones, Mr. William, letters from,
i. 174, 224, 261, 446.

Jonesia Asoca, i. 410.

Juglans pterococea, ii. 259.

Julus, i. 461.

Juncus spicatus, i. 57.

triglumis, i. 57.

Jussieu, A. L. de, i. 329; letters
from, i. 358, 367, 455.

Jussieu, Bernard de, i. 423.

K.

Kaimes, Lord, i. 67.

Katmandu, ii. 244.

Killarney, ii. 160.

Kinderley family, i. 4—7.

———__, N. E. Esq., letter to,
i. 72; letter from, i. 80.

Kirby, Rev. William, letter from,
i. 394. 2

Klopstock, Mrs., ii. 112.

Koom-Koom, ii. 253.

Koster, J. T. Esq., letters from, ii.
200, 201.

Kursberchtolfgaxen, ii. 60,

L.

La Chenal, i. 279, 338. ii. 28,
45.

Lafoens, Duke of: see Braganza.

Lake Corrib, ii. 126.

- Mask, ii. 126.

Lamarck, De, i. 330.

Lambert, A. B. Esq., letters from,
li. 124, 293.

Laocoon, i. 208.

Laserpitium simplex, ii. 41.

Lathyrus amphicarpos, i. 265.

Latin classics, beautifully illumina-
ted MSS. on vellum, ti. 353.

Laura, i. 192.

Laurus Camphora, ii. 282.

Le Breton, Mr., i. 163.

Lecture, introductory one, i. 323.
ii. 390, 398, 411.

Lee, Mr., James, letters from, ii.
117, 183.

Leicester, Earl of, his collection of
historical Italian MSS., ii. 353.

Le Monnier, physician to Louis
XV., i. 328.

602

Leonardo da Vinci, Head of Christ,
and Holy Family, by, ii. 358.
Leo X., Mr. Roscoe’s History of,
ii, 318, 321,323, 324, 325, 327,

328, 350, 355.

Leonurus Cardiaca, i. 61.

Lepraria iolithos, ii. 288.

Lessert, De, family, i. 265.

Leyden, i. 150; siege of, i. 157;
fine walks, i. 159.

L’Héritier, i. 331.

Liberty, the love of, i. 343; a
virtuous one, li. 57.

Lichen chrysoleucus, ii. 42.

ceruleo-nigricans, i. 57.

crinitus, i. 57.

cucullatus, li. 14, 19, 27,

32, 42.

deustus, i. 42.

encaustus, li. 42.

ericetorum, 1. 57.

horizontalis, i. 43.

miniatus, i. 42.

parellus, i. 43.

polyphyllus, i. 57.

pullus, i. 43.

pyxidatus, i. 58.

torrefactus, i. 57.

ventosus, 1. 57.

Lightfoot, Rev. Mr., letter from,
i. 135.

Ligusticum cornubiense, i. 588.

Ligustrum napalensis, ii. 258.

vulgare, ii. 439.

Limodorum Tankervillia, ii. 25.

Limosella, i. 570.

Lindsey, Rev. Theophilus, the
candour and benevolence of his
reasoning, ii. 378.

Linnea borealis, i. 432. ii. 59.

Linnean Society, foundation of, i.
341; first list of its members, i.
345; charterof,i.419; twentieth
anniversary of, i. 419.

Linneus, i. 91; his collections, i.
92; some account of, i. 94; on
the study of Nature, i. 137;
hundredth anniversary of his
birth, i. 419; eulogy and féte at
Upsal, in honour of, i. 48); birth-
day of, ii. 9; his permanent love
of science, ii. 391 ; his piety, ii.
394; on the surname of, ii. 429.

Lippia citriodora, i. 519.
Livy, fine MS. one, in Mr. Coke’s
library, ii. 353.
Loch Lomond, i. 55.
Locke on Education, i. 8.
Loranthus bicolor, ii. 256.
europeus, i. 460.
Loretto, i. 232.
Loring, Archdeacon, ii. 246.
Mrs., ii. 261, 264.
Louvre Gallery, ii. 89.
Lowth, Professor, i. 339.
Loxia curvirostra, ii. 153.
Luxemburg, Duke of, ii. 202.
Lychnis flore rubro, ii. 142.
Lycoperdon coliforme, i. 42, 58.
— epiphyllum, i. 58.
fragile, i. 58.
— fraxinum, i. 58.'
— pedunculatum, i. 27,

58.
stellatum, i. 58.
Lycopodium alpinum, i. 590.
———- clavatum, i. 590.
— Selago, i. 590.
Lysimachia thyrsiflora, i. 59.
Lythrum orixensis, i. 409.

M.

Malacarna, Dr., i. 337.

Malmaison, Jardin de, ii. 102—
105.

Marcus Aurelius, fine bust of, i.
203.

Marseilles, beauty of the town and
its situation, i. 193.

Marsham, Mr., i. 262, 344.

Martial, translation from, ii. 321.

Martinea, ii. 17. ‘

Martyn, Professor of Botany, letters
from :—

1. His Dedication of his work on
the Language of Botany, i.
406.

2. Of the “Grammar of Botany,”
i. 501.

3. On the “Correspondence of
Linneeus, &e.” i. 507.

4. On botanical terms, ii. 113.

5. Of lectures at Cambridge, ii,
386.

Mascagni, Dr., i. 204.

603

Masson, Mr., ii. 117, 1838, 215.

Maton, Dr., letters from, ii. 121,
405.

Mazeutoxeron, ii. 213, 219.

Medici family, sepulchres of, i.
2058.

Melampyrum cristatum, ii. 61.

Melopepon, ii. 248.

Menyanthes nympheoides, i. 517.

Menzies, Mr. Archibald, i. 467.
ii. 272.

Menziesia coerulea, ii. 272.

Mercurialis annua, ii. 191.

Mespilus, ii. 258.

Michael Angelo, his statue of
Moses, i. 208; bas-relief in the
chapel of the Albergo, i. 283 ;
chiar’ oscuro, in My. Coke’s col-
lection, ii. 358.

Micropus erectus, ii. 19.

Middleton, Dr. Conyers, i. 263.

Millin, Mr., ii. 89.

Milton, his opinions upon the sub-
ject of education, i. 24; prose
Works of, i. 140; Dr. Channing’s
remarks upon, i. 142; effect of
moral purity as the inspirer of
intellect, i. 143.

Milton, Lord, ii. 36.

Minerals, list of Linnzeus’s, i. 112.

Mirbel, letter from, ii. 110.

Miserere, exquisite music of, i.
229.

Misseltoe, i. 460.

Monandrian Plants, Mr. Roscoe’s
Essay on, ii. 328, 330.

Monboddo, Lord, i. 21.

Monotropa Hypopitys, i. 588. ii.
342.

Monstrelet, ii. 112.

Montpellier, Place de Perou there,
i. 190.

Moorcroft, Dr., ii. 248.

Morung, country of, ii. 85.

Mucada, valuable timber tree, i.
408.

Muhlenberg, Rey. H., letter from,
i. 403.

Musca bombylans, i. 154.

mystacea, i. 154.

pellucens, i. 154.

Myrtus Cumini, ii. 88.

N.

Naples, i. 208, 209, 219, 221.

Narcissus Tazxetta, i. 459.

Natural History Society, i. 44,
214.

Nepal, ii. 85.

Nepenthes, ii. 249.

Nice, i. 196.

Nismes, amphitheatre at, i. 189.

Noailles, Marechal de, i. 163, 164,
329; honorary member of the
Linnzean Society, i. 345.

Norwich, Bishop of, letter from, ii.
355.

Nuphar minima, i. 517.

Nymphea Nelumbo, ii. 209, 232.

O.

Oak leather, i. 402.

Obituary in Philosophical Maga-
zine for May 1828, passage from,
ii. 409.

Odours, vegetable, paper on, i. 63.

(Enanthe crocata, ii. ‘95, 96. 7

Oneida county, ii. 241.

Ophrys arachnitis, ii. 300.
Orange, William, Prince of, i. 159;
his cabinet of insects, i. 174.

Orbis eruditi Judicium, ii. 277.

Orchis abortiva, i. 7.

— coriophora, ii. 7.

—— gigantea, ii. 251. /

— latifolia, ii. 152. ~ ©

Orford, Lord, character of his let-
ters, li. 79. :

Oriani, Abbé, i. 236, 334.

Oriolus. Galbula, ii. 18.

Orleans, Duke of, his pictures, i.
167.

Ormosia dasycarpa, ii. 257.

Orobanche elatior, ii. 162.

Orobus sylvaticus, ii. 432.

Osmunda lunaria, i. 438.

regalis, ii. 162.

Ossian, imitation of, ii. 306.

Ovis, ii. 87.

Yr

Pacifico, N., i. 339.
Padella, i. 447.

604

Paley, Archdeacon, an observation
of, ii. 407.

Pancratium amboinensis, ii. 16.

Panzer, G. W. F., letter from, ii.
272.

Papaver cambricum, ii. 142.

Paris, i. 162, 166, 176, 264, 276.

Paris polyphylla, ii. 256.

Parnassia palustris, i. 590.

Pavetia tomentosa, ii. 255.

Pavon, J. A., letter of, ii. 183.

Peck, Professor, letter from, i. 476.

Pellidea venosa, i. 516.

Penchienati, Professor, i. 337.

Pennant, Thomas, Esq., letters of,
i. 300, 448; his death, ii. 144.

Pestel, Mr., his Fundamenta Juris-
prudentie Naturalis, i. 328.

Petrarch, i. 192—199; translation
from, ii. 309.

Peucedanum Silaus, i. 61.

Phaca alpina, ii. 41.

— frigida, ii. 41.

, australis, ii. 41.

Phalena Geometra,sambucaria, i.
154.

Phellandrium Mutellina, ii. 41.

Piozzi, Mrs., i. 353.

Pisa, i. 200.

Pitcairn, Dr., i. 91.

Pitchford, Mr. John, i. 17; letters
from, i. 41, 107, 128.

Place de Perou, i. 190.

Plantagenets, interred at Bisham,
li, 342.

Plants ofthe Highlands, i. 57; rare
English, i. 435; rare maritime,
i. 434.

Platt, Thomas, Esq., i. 569.

Poetry, its character, i. 142, 144;
and object, i. 287.

Polygonum viviparum, i. 57.

- pensylvanicum, i. 58.
Polypodium montanum, ii. 42.
fastigiatus ? ii. 42.
Pompeii and Portici, i. 221.

Pont St. Esprit, and Pont du Gard,
i. 189. :

Pope, blessing the people, i. 228.

Portland, Duke of, his character,
i, 585.

-- Margaret duchess of,

i. 135; a remark of hers, i. 573.

Portlandia, ii. 17, 44.

Potamogeton obtusum, ii. 40.

‘* Press,” a poem by M’Creery, ii.
319.

Primula farinosa, i. 588.

Pritty Narain, rajah of Gorka, ii.
85.

Procellaria Puffinus, i. 462.

Prodromus Flore Grece, i. 472,
552, 558. ii. 341.

Professors, foreign, list of, i. 327.

Protea, ii. 19.

mellifera, it. 25.

Pteris crispa, i. 590.

Pucci, Marquis, ii. 238.

Pulteney, Dr., letters of, i. 299,
401.

Pyrenees, i. 190.

Pyrola, ti. 19.

secunda, ii. 169.

rotundifolia, ii. 516.

Pyrus Aria, ii. 84.

- domestica, i. 439.

v R.

Radi, Mr., ii. 237.

Raffles, Sir Stamford, ii. 249, 262.

Rafflesia Arnoldi, ii. 249.) ,

Ramsay, Allan, ii. 157. ~~ ~~

Ramsay, Rev. E. B., i. 422, 451;
letter from, i. 510; observations
of, ii. 407.

Ranee-Govindha, ii. 253.

Ranunculus parnassifolius, ii. 41.

-- rutefolius, ii. 41.

———-- Thora, ii. 41.

Raphael, Holy Family by, ii. 327.

Raphael ware, remarkably fine, ii.
349.

Raynal, Abbé, i. 194.

Red snow, ii. 288.

“ Reflexions on the Study of Na-
ture,” translation of, i. 137; ob-
servations upon, 1. 161.

Reid, Dr., i. 63.

Relhan, Mr., i. 131.

Repton, H., Esq., letter from, ii.
189.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, i. 203.

Rhododendron arboreum; ii. 257,

Ribes alpinum, ii. 13,

Riccia fluitans, i. 61.

605

Riecia Targionia, i. 61.

Rockingham, Marquis of, i. 20.

— Marchioness of, i.

427; letter from, i. 428.

Correspondence of, ii. 7.

2. Of the Marquis of Rocking-

ham’s taste for botany, ii. 8.

3. Of Mr. Dayall, ii. 11.

4. Of Wentworth House, ii. 15.

5. Of Mr. Afzelius, ii. 49.

6. Of Mr. Aiton, ii. 58. ;
Rome, i. 201, 219, 224, 226, 230.
Rosa centifolia, i. 461.
tomentosa, li. 84.
unifolia, ii. 138.

Roscoe, William, Esq., letters from,
1. Of Sir James’s Tour, i. 314.
2. Of Exotic Botany, i. 521.

Correspondence of, ii. 301.

3. Of Mr. Shepherd, ii. 311.

. Ist of January 1804, ii. 317.

. Of Mrs. Martin, ii. 323.

. Of Leo X., ii. 325.

. Of Roscoea, ii. 331.

. Of his election, ii. 333.

- His retirement from _parlia-

ment, ii. 337.
10. Of the Flore Portugaise, ii.
343.
11. Dinner in honour of Mr.
Brougham, ii. 347.
12. Of his picture of Leo X., and
song, il. 350.
13. Liverpool Institution, ii. 359.
14. Of Drs. Wallich and Carey,
li. 362.
15. Life of Pope, ii. 364.
16. Of Monandrian Plants, ii. 371,
17. Of the Malaguetta Pepper, ii.
373.

18. On the death of Sir J. E. Smith,
ii. 405.

Roscoe, Wm., Esq., death of, ii.
407.

Roscoea, ii. 250.

Rose, Mr. Hugh, i. 17.

Rotterdam, i. 159.

Roussea, it. 19.

Rousseau, J. J., i. 176—182; his

herbarium and letters on botany,
i. 280; character of, i. 293; pas-
sage from his 7th Promenade, i.
297 ; remarks on his Heloise, i.

SOONDAR

356 ; his remark concerning sci-
ence, i. 474.

Roxburgh, Dr., ii. 87, 88; Jetters
of, i. 408, 409, 411.

Rubia alata, ii. 254.

- cordifolia, ii. 253.

- Munjistha, ii, 253.

Rubus Chamemorus, i. 57.

Russell, Lady John, ii. 84.

S.

St. Germain-en-laye, i. 163.

St. John, Raphael's picture of, i.
203.

St. Mark, the Horses of, ii. 89.

St. Paul, his advice to Timothy, i.
175; church of, at Rome, i.
230.

Salix fragilis, ii. 111.

herbacea, i. 57.

pentandra, i. 571.

repens, i. 571,

Russelliana, ii. 111.

Sandifort, Professor, i. 150, 328.

Sanguisorba officinalis, i. 571.

Satyrium repens, ii. 169.

Saussure, i. 273, 338.

Saxifraga autumnalis, i. 57.

- Hirculus, ii. 7.

hypnoides, i. 57.

- ligulata, ii. 255.

- mutata, ii. 67.

- nivalis, i. 57.

————- oppositifolia, i. 57.

- stellaris, i. 57.

Sayers, Dr. Frank, letters of, ii.
224, 226.

Scarpa, Professor, i. 366; letters
from, i. 395, 398.

Scheenus ferrugineus, ii. 15.

Schultes, Professor, letters from,
i. 487, 508, 505.

Schurer, Professor, i. 339.

Scilla verna, ti. 182.

Scirpus pauciflorus, i. 61.

Scitaminee, character of that order,
ii. 3083—3806.

Scopoli, i. 205, 335. ii. 391.

Scutellaria minor, i. 61.

Senebier, the historian of Geneva,
i. 338.

Senecio acanthifolius, i. 216.

Senecio saracenicus, i. 571.
Serapias latifolia, i. 571.
Serravalle, i. 233.%
“Shall” and ‘ Will,” remarks on
those verbs, il. 432.
Shells, list of Linnzeus’s, i. 112.
Shepherd, Mr., Curator of the
Liverpool Botanic Garden, ii.
251, 311, 316, 324.
Rev. Wm., translator of
Poggio, ii. 113.
Sibbaldia procumbens, i. 57.
Sibthorp, Dr. John, letters from :—
1. Congratulations on the pur-
chase of the Linnean collec-
tions, i. 131.
2. Excursions on the Bosphorus,
i. 460.
3. Death of Francesco Borone, i.
463.
4. Returns in ill health to Ox-
ford, i. 465, 467, 471.
Siddons, Mrs., her fine acting, i.
355.
Sideroxylon, i. 133.
Sierra Leone, ii. 61—65.
Silene acaulis, i. 57.
— inflata, i. 517.
maritima, i. 517.
Silpha germanica, i. 267.
Sinclair, Mr. George, ii. 196 ; let-
ter of, ii. 280.
Sirex Gigas and Juvencus, ii. 288.
Sisymbrium tanacetifolium, ii. 25.
Slave trade, African, li. 384, 337.
Smilaa, i. 461.
Smith, Mr., father of Sir J. E.
Smith, i. 8; his character, i. 18;
letters to his son :—
. On his first separation from, i.
19.
. Of classical learning, i. 22.
. On forming friendships, i. 28.
. Of manners, i. 32.
True happiness, i. 36.
. Of Dryden’s Dedications, i. 40.
. His gratitude to God, i. 49.
. Of Wickliffe, i. 51.
. Advice to his son, i. 59.
. Trust in Providence, i. 64.
. Of his son’s academical ho-
nours, 1. 65.

FOO ON OOK WL _

—

12. Of his conduct in town, i. 91.
13. Of Linnzan collections, i. 95.
14. Goes to London, i. 101.
15. Of Miton, i. 138.
16. Sonnerat, i. 144.
17. Of his son’s going abroad, i.
147.
18. Norwich election, i. 168.
19. Cultivation of poetic taste, i.
198.
20. His religious gratitude, i. 222.
21. The worth of liberty, i. 348.
22. Of Matlock, i. 352.
23. Of Rousseau’s Heloise, i. 355.
Smith, Mr., his death, ii. 64; lines
by his son on that event, ii. 64;
monumental inscription, ii. 65.
Smith, James Edward, his birth, i.
3; early education, i. 9; fond-
ness for historical research, i.
10; begins the study of botany,
i. 15; goes to Edinburgh, i. 18;
forms a Society for the study of
natural history, i. 44; makes a
tour in the Highlands, i. 54;
presented with a gold medal by
Dr. Hope, i. 63; fixes in Lon-
don, i. 89; learns that the col-
lections of Linnzeus are upon sale,
i. 92; becomes the purchaser,
i. 106; elected F.R.S., i. 136;
goes to Leyden, i. 148; estab-
lishes the Linnzean Society, and
made President, i. 344; his Ad-
dress to the Society on the 20th
anniversary, i. 419; his adhe-
rence to the system of Linnzeus,
i. 421; his correctness in compo-
sition, i. 519; Prefaces and De-
dications, i. 520; removes to
Norwich, i. 529; lectures at the
Royal Institution, Albemarle-
street, i. 531; introductory one
in 1808, i. 323—in 1825, i. 411;
passages from several, ii. 390—
398; his religious, social, and
scientific character, ii. 377; his
death, ii. 402.
Smith, J. E., letters of :—
1. To his father, i. 30.
2. To the same, i. 34.
3. To the same, i. 37.

607

. To his mother, i. 39.

- To his father, i, 44,

. To his mother, i. 47.

. To his father, i. 58.

. To the same, i. 54.

. ToT. J. Woodward, Esq. i. 57.
- To his father, i. 638.

- To the same, i. 66.

- To the same, i. 70.

. To N. E. Kindersley, Esq., i.

72.

- To Mr. Batty, i. 75.

- To the same, i. 77.

. To his father, i. 92.

. To the same, i. 102.

. To the same, i. 106.

. To the same, i. 110.

. To Dr. J. Stokes, i. 120.
. To his father, i. 123.

. To the same, i. 125.

. To the same, i. 126.

- To his mother, i. 150.

. To T. J. Woodward, Esq., i.

155.

- To Mrs. Howorth, i. 157.
. To his mother, i. 159.

. To his father, i. 162.

. To the same, i. 166.

- To Mrs. Howorth, i. 176.
- To his father, i. 188.

- To the same, i. 191.

. To the same, i. 194.

. To his mother, i. 200.

. To his father, i. 201.

. To the same, i. 208.

. To the same, i. 219.

- To the same, i. 226.

. To the same, i, 230.

. To his mother, i. 231.

. To his father, i. 239.

- To the same, i, 244,

- To Mrs. Howorth, i. 250.
- To Mr. W. Jones, i. 252.
. To Dr. Younge, i. 258,

. To his father, i, 269.

. To Dr. Younge, i. 276,

. To Mr. Woodward, i. 304.
- To his father, i. 342.

. To Rey. H. Muhlenberg, i.

405.

- To Mr. Woodward, i. 444.
. To the Editor of the Monthly

Review, i. 451.

. To D. Turner, Esq., i. 509.
. To Mrs. Corrie, i. 513.
. To Dr. Goodenough, i. 535.

56. To Sir Joseph Banks, i. 550.

57. To Dr. Goodenough, i. 554.

58. To Thomas Platt, Esq.,i. 559.

59. To the Bishop of Carlisle, i.
563.

60. To the same, i. 566.

61. To the same, i. 576.

. To the same, i. 592.
. To the same, i.
. To the same, i.
. To Mr. Dayall, ii. 14.

. To the same, ii. 20.

. To the same, ii. 28.

. To the same, ii. 31.

- To the same, ii. 35.

. To his mother, ii. 36.

. To Mrs. Davall, ii. 37.

. To Mr. Davall, ii. 42.

. To the same, ii. 47.

. To the same, ii. 53.

. To the same, ii. 60,

. To the same, ii, 64.

- To Monsieur Ventenat, ii.102.
. To Dr. Hedwig, ii. 107.

. To Mrs. Cobbold, ii. 178.

. To the Duke de Lafoens, ii.

217.

- To Dr. Wallich, ii. 244.

. To the same, ii. 253.

. To Sir T. G. Cullum, ii. 269.
. To Dr. Panzer, ii. 276,

- To Sir T. G. Cullum, ii. 277.
. To C. A. Bergsma, ii. 292.

- To Sir T. G, Cullum, ii. 299.
- To Mr. D. Turner, ii. 302.

. To Mr. Roscoe, ii. 308.

. Of Flora Britannica, ii. 312.
. On the death of an old friend,

ii. 314.

. Of Mosses, ii. 321.
. Annals of Botany, ii. 322.
. Of a Raphael at Okeover, ii,

326.

- On Monandrian Plants, ii.

328.

. Of Mr. Roscoe’s Essay on

Scitaminee, il. 3380.

. Of Corréa’s ideas, ii. 332. ie
. Of Mr. Roscoe’s election, ii.

303.

608

99. On his retirement from par-
liament, ii. 338.
Of the vitellus of Gzertner,
ii. 339.
101. Of Bisham Abbey, ii. 341.
102. Of visiting Holkham, ii. 345.
103. Of Mr. Coke, ii. 348.
104. Of Cornelius Jansen, &c., ii.
352.
Of Mr. Coke’s MSS., ii.
353.
Of Matlock and Cromford,
li. 360.
Of his mother’s death, ii.
361.
108. From Henbury, ii. 369.
109. Of the Malaguetta Pepper,
ii. 374.
Of the English and Greek
Floras, ii. 375.
To the Dean of Chester, ii.
388.
J. E. Smith, Works of :—
1. Reflexions on the Study of Na-
ture, i. 425.
. Dissertation on the Sexes of
Plants, i. 426.
. Thesis, i. 426.
. Reliquie Rudbeckiana, i. 426.
. Plantarum Icones, i. 427.
. Icones Pict@, i. 427.
. English Botany, i. 429.
. Spicilegium, i. 443.
. Flora Lapponica, i. 444.
10. Botany of New Holland, i. 444.
11. Tour on the Continent, i. 445.
12. Syllabus, i. 446.
13. Insects of Georgia, i. 446.
14. Tracts, i. 447.
15. Flora Britannica, i. 449.
16. Compendium Fl. Brit. i. 455.
17. Flora Greca, i. 456.
18. Prodromus Fl. Grec., i. 472.
19. Exotic Botany, i. 472.
20. Introduction to Botany, i. 472.
21. Cyclopzedia, i. 488.
22. Tour to Hafod, i. 490.
23. Lachesis Lapponica, i. 490.
24. Transactions of Linn. Soc., pa-
pers in, i. 491.
25. Review of the Modern State of
Botany, i. 494.
26. Grammar of Botany, i. 499.

100.

105.
106.

107.

110.
111.

OOND oP to

27. Correspondence of Linnzeus,
i. 506.
28. English Flora, i. 507.

Smith, Mrs. Charlotte, i. 568; let-
ter from, ii. 74.

, Mrs. Frances, her death, ii.
261, 361.

Smith, William, Esq., ii- 171.

Smithia sensitiva, ii. 31.

Smollet, Dr., i. 231. ii. 131.

Solander, i. 269.

Sonchus canadensis, ii. 22.

palustris, ii. 86.

Songs, ii. 320, 334, 351.

Sonnerat, i. 145.

Sonneratia acida, ii. 87.

South of France, pleasing manners
of the inhabitants of, i. 193.

Sowerby, Mr. James, i. 480—433.

Spallanzani, i. 201, 336.

Spencer, Earl, ii. 171.

Spikenard of the ancients, i. 412.

Spoleto, i. 232.
Stachys alpina, ii. 22.
Stackhouse, Mr., letter from, i.
415.
Stanley,
406.
Staunton, Sir G., letter from, i.
382.

Stellaria cerastoides, ii. 27.

Stewart, Rev. Mr., of Luss, i. 55.

Stoever, Dr. H., letter from, i.
389.

Stokes, Dr. J., letters from, i. 118,
121.

Stradbroke, Earl of, ii. 283.

Strelitzia, il. 25.

Suchet, a mountain near Orbe, ii.
5, 35.

Sussex, Duke of, i. 515.

Swartz, Dr., i. 269; letter from,
i, 495.

Sweden, Queen of, her crown and
sceptre at Loretto, i. 234.

Swietenia, a beautiful tree, i. 409.

Swift, Dr. J., letter of, i. 87
(note).

Swift, martin, and swallow, i. 607.

Swiss, excellent character of the
soldiers and peasants, ii. 52.

Symmons, John, Esq., letter from,
i. 302.

Lord, letter from, ii.

609

i

Talbot, H.F., Esq., letters from, ii.

293, 297.

——--, Rev. Thomas, letters of, ii.

115, 278.
Targioni, Mr., ii. 237.
Targioni-Tozzetti, i. 333.

Taylor, Mr. John, his Eclogues, i.

170.

—--

--, Mr. Thomas, ii. 315.

Temple of Modern Philosophy, i.

178.
Tenore, Dr., letter from, ii. 188.
Terni, cascade of, i. 232.

Teucrium macrostachyum, ii. 256.

_ Thea Bohee and viridis, ii. 292.
Thlaspi alpestre, ii. 41.

Thouin, M., i. 331. 1. 88.
Thouinia, ii. 19.

Thunberg, Sir C. P., letters of, i

373, 383. ii. 391.
Thynne, Lady Mary, i. 584.
Timnevelly country, i. 84.
Tissoo soah, ii. 255.
Trajan’s Column, i. 222.

Transfiguration, Raphael's, i. 208.

li. 89.
Trientalis europea, i. 432.
Triticum americanum, ii. 242.
Triumphetta oblonga, i li. 256.
Tuberoses, double, i. 174.
Turdus nitens, ti. 132.

Turner, Dawson, Esq., letters of, ii.

115, 278.
Turnip fly, i.
Turnip, Willow. i ii. 76.
Turritis coerulea, ii. 41.
Tussilago paradowxa, ii. 27.
Tweddell, Mr., ii. 147.

U.

Umbellate, i. 508.
Umbellifere, i. 509.
Uvaria dioica, ii. 259.

A ig

Valois family, monument of, i. 167.

Vane, Sir Henry, ii. 201.
VOL. II.

Mrs. John, letter of, ii.

Van Royen, i. 150, 153, 155, 161,
327.

Var river, i. 196.

Vasco, Abbé, i i. 315.

Vatica, ii. 87.

Vatican, paintings in, i. 208.

Vaucluse, i. 192.

Velley, Major, letter from, i. 413.

Venice, i. 240—253.

Ventenat, letters from, ii. 103, 105.

Venus de Medicis, i. 202, 215.

Venus sortant du Bain, ii. 89.

Venus’s Looking-glass, i. 232.

Verbascum sinuatum, ii. 191.

Verbena triphylla, i. 519.

Verona, i. 242.

Vesuvius, i. 220.

Villars, Mr., i. 328.

Vince, Rev. Mr., i. 473.

Viola biflora, ii. 41.

Virgil’s Tomb, i. 220.

Virgin and Child, Raphael’s, i.
234,

Virgin’ s robe, 1. 233.

Viscum album, i. 460.

Vee Casper, ii. 211; letters from,

(L071:
Vidiee, i, 462.

W.

Wade, Dr., letters of, i. 443. ii.
147, 160.

Walker, Dr. John, i. 44, 48, 53.

, John, Esq., letter from, ii.

169.

Wallich, Dr., letters from, ii. 246,
262.

Walpole, Rev. R.,
191, 248.

Warwick, famous Earl of, interred
at Bisham, li. 342.

Wasps, i. 607.

Waterhouse, Dr. pide.

Watson, Mr. ee i * 383.

Watt, Mrs., letter from, i. 310;
her death and character, i. 312.

Wench, original meaning of, i.
408.

Wentworth Castle, ii. 154.

-—, Governor, ii. 49.

— House, ii. 15, 16, 36,

letters of, il.

154.
QR

610

Wheat, ii. 242.
Wickliffe, i. 52.
Willdenow, Professor, letter from,
i. 411.
Williams, Helen Maria, ii. 147.
-, Professor, letter of, ii.
77

Wimbledon, ii. 16.

Winch, N., Esq., letter from, i.
515.

Winchester, Bishop of, letter from,
ii. 81; his cinnamon trees, ii.
245.

Winkelman, his Hymn to Apollo,
i. 284,

Withering, Dr., ii. 200; letter from,
i. 108,

Wolf-dog, Irish, ii. 126.

Woodcocks, ii. 271.

Woodward, T. J., Esq., i. 18; let-

ters from :—

. Of Sir James’s style in compo-
sition, i. 161.

. Of his visit to Gerard and the
Durazzo family, i. 215.

. Botanical news, i. 273.

. Of Mont Cenis, i. 315.

moo- bh —

5. Of Introductory Discourse, i.
349.
6. Of Compendium Fl. Brit., i.
456.
Wordsworth, ii. 338.
Wortley, Mr., i. 608.
Wyre Forest, i. 437, 440.
Wyttenbach, Rev. Mr., i. 278, 338.

ye

Yates, Rev. James, letter from, ii.
275.
York meeting, i. 608.
Younge, Dr., i. 49 ; letters from :—
1. Of the Valais and Goitres, i.
246.
2. Of Holbein and Erasmus, i.
255.
3. Of French Literary Societies, i.
264.
4. Of a Latin inscription at Nancy,
i, 281,

Z.

Zimmerman, letter from, i. 388.

ERRATA.

Vol. I. page 72, for Tinnevelley read Norwich.
Vol. II. page 382, last line, for This read His.

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