195 ) 
XIX. Biographical Memoirs of several Norrvich Botanists, in a Letter 
to Alexander MacLeay, Esq. Sec. L.S. 
By James Edward Smith, M.JD. F.R.S. P. L.S. 
Read January 17 \ 1804. 
DEAR SIR, Norwich, Jan. 14, 1804. 
X he recent death of one of my oldest botanical friends, who has 
long been a Fellow of the Linncan Society, has suggested some 
recollections to me which may not be altogether uninteresting, and 
which I beg the favour of you to communicate to the Society. 
Mr. John Pitchford, whose name is well known to all who are 
conversant with the botany of England, died here on the 22d of 
December 1803, aged 66 years. He had long practised as a sur- 
geon and apothecary in this town and neighbourhood, especially 
among the catholics, being himself of that persuasion. His moral 
character and truly christian spirit would have done honour to any 
church or sect, and he has left five children to lament the loss 
©f a most indulgent father. I could add more on this subject, 
but his scientific character is more especially my present object. 
Mr. Pitchford was the last of a school of botanists in this town, 
among w T hom the writings and merits of Linnaeus were perhaps 
more early, or at least more philosophically, studied and appre- 
ciated, than in any other part of Britain. Norwich bad long, in- 
deed, been conspicuous for the love of plants. A play is extant, 
called Rhodon and Iris, which was presented at the florist's feast 
in Norwich, and printed in 1637- The taste for the cultivation 
of flowers was, probably, imported from Flanders, along with our 
worsted 
