418 HISTORY OF ZOOPHYTOLOGY. 



to facilitate their future reception, for the slumber of prejudice 

 had been broken, the hold of the ancient opinions on the 

 affections had been loosened, and men no longer startled into 

 scepticism when they heard of animals that in their produc- 

 tions mimicked the most beautiful and delicate vegetable 

 forms.''^ The mind of naturalists was thus in some measure 

 prepared for the change on the very eve of being effected by 

 the labours and assiduity of a member of that very society 

 which had lately listened, with apparent approbation, to the 

 reveries of Dr. Parsons. 



John Ellis — the name of the individual alluded to — was a 

 merchant in London, who devoted his leisure to the study of 

 natural history, in which he attained so considerable know- 

 ledge, as to gain easy access to the Royal Society, and the ac- 

 quaintance and correspondence of the most celebrated natural- 

 ists of his time. He seems to have attached himself more 

 particularly to the economical department of botany, and 

 seized every opportunity to introduce foreign plants to our 

 gardens, especially such as were remarkable from furnishing 

 any material employed in the arts and manufactures ; and he 

 was equally solicitous to acquire and diffuse accurate informa- 

 tion relative to any natural productions which might be ren- 

 dered subservient to the necessities or comforts of mankind.-f- 

 He was fond also of amusing himself in making imitations of 

 landscapes by the curious and skilful disposition of delicate 

 sea-weeds and corallines on paper : and it was this amusement 



* " For it is not because an opinion is true, that others will therefore adopt it. It 

 must at the same time be congruous with our other impressions, and admit of being 

 dovetailed into them, or it will be rejected, for it is judged of by its conformity to the 

 previous acquisitions, and is disliked and condemned if incompatible with them." 

 Turner, Sac. Hist, of the World, vol. ii. p. 19. 



+ " Mr. Ellis's fondness for natural history was not confined to any particular 

 branch. Botany was likewise to him a source of infinite amusement, which he en- 

 deavoured to render useful to society in general, but more particularly to the West 

 India islands and America. The historical account of Coffee, published by him in 

 1774, was designed to encourage the consumption of that article, raised by the plant- 

 ers in the West Indies ; while the caccounts of the Mangostan and Bread Fruit trees, 

 with directions for conveying seeds and plants from the most distant parts of the globe 

 in a state of vegetation, were published with a view to introduce those and many other 

 plants into our settlements, where they might become beneficial to the public for the 

 purposes of medicine, agriculture, and commerce. And his active mind was constantly 

 employed in devising means for promoting the welfai'e of society until the time of his 

 death, which happened on the 15th of October, 1776." Mrs. Waft. 



