vl ADVERTISEMENT. 



vince of Wejl Florida ; and agent for the ifland of Dominica ; and in 

 correfpondence and intimacy with the learned Dr. Linna-us, and the 

 moft celebrated natural hiftorians of the age ; he was enabled to 

 collect information from the moft diftant countries, which he purfued 

 with unremitting ardour ; and with the afiiftance of his ineftimable 

 friends, Dr. Fothergill and Dr. Sola?ider, he intended to have laid be- 

 fore the public a complete hiftory of Zoophytes. In this, however, he 

 was unfortunately difappointed ; his declining health preventing him 

 from proceeding farther than the completion of thefe plates, which 

 were all engraven under his immediate inflection, fome at his own 

 expence, and more by the munificence of the late Dr. Fothergill y 

 whofe love of fcience and ample fortune induced him to promote the 

 laudable defigns of many, whom a more limited fituation reftrained 

 from carrying their purfuits to the extent of their wifhes. 



For the arrangement of the defcriptions we are indebted to Dr. 

 Solander ; whofe premature death prevented this and other valuable 

 works from appearing in fo complete a manner as they would other- 

 wife have done : fince it muft be univerfally allowed that the world 

 fuffered in Br. Solander, the lots of one of the greateft Natural Hif- 

 torians ever known ; while his more intimate friends deplore that of 

 an invaluable member of fociety. 



Thefe are the circumftances under which the following fheets are 

 now publifhed, at the requeft of Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart. P. R. S. who 

 has thought the work not unworthy of his attention, and permitted 

 it to be dedicated to him ; and it is prefumed, that, even in its prefent 

 ftate, it will meet with a favourable reception, fince it throws many 

 new lights upon a fubject hitherto but nightly inveftigated. 



Mr. Ellis's fondnefs for Natural Hiftory was not confined to any 

 particular branch. Botany was likewife to him a fource of in- 

 finite amufement ; which he endeavoured to render ufeful to fo- 

 ciety in general, but more particularly to the Weft India iflands 

 and America. The hiftorical account of Coffee, publifhed by him 

 in 1774, was defgned to encourage the confumption of that article, 



raifed 



