JONATHAN STOKES AND HIS COMMENTARIES 303 



figures. The work is dedicated to Wright, from whom he received 

 West Indian plants, and who visited him at Chesterfield in July, 

 1808 '•' ; the preface is dated from Chesterfield. 



In this he describes the methods pursued in the descriptions 

 contained in the work, and explains the abbreviation " Obs." 

 which herein, as in the Commentaries, continually recurs in the 

 course of the descriptions : " The figures subjoined to botanical 

 observations refer to the numbers of a journal which I have kept 

 ever since I began to investigate plants, my specimens having 

 coiTesponding numbers affixed to them." This method he recom- 

 mends to all students. " To these observations," he adds, " I 

 have an index, which, consisting of separate papers arranged in 

 a book, admits of occasional additions without the labour of 

 transcription." There is a fuller description of this in the 

 preface to the Commentaries (p. xvii.), whence it would appear 

 that the index anticipated the " card catalogues " now in use. 

 It is described as " moveable, composed of distinct labels, arranged 

 alphabetically." 



From the "Abbreviations explained," which occupy pp. xiii.- 

 xlv. of this work, we learn that Stokes's name " was inserted in 

 the prospectus [of Rees's EncycloiJCBdia] by a deceased friend 

 without [his] knowledge, but [he] never wrote anything in it": 

 he also notes, in referring to John Thompson's Botany Displayed 

 (1798), " The author sent me down the 1st number with my 

 name in the title-page without my having had the least concern 

 with it."f 



The extensive series of letters, most of them long and full of 

 interest, extending from 1820 to 1828, preserved in the Winch 

 correspondence at the Linnean Society, bears additional testimony 



* Memoir of Dr. Wright (1828), pp. 31, 151. 



t Of this book, which appears to be rare, there is a copy in the Banksian 

 Library at the British Museum. Its full title is " Botany Displayed ; being a 

 complete and compendious Elucidation of Botany, according to tlae system of 

 Linnffius. By John Thompson. With plates Serving as Examples of the most 

 beautiful, rare, and curious Plants, Indigenous and Exotic ; coloured from Nature 

 by A. Nunes, Botanical Painter, No. l:i, Eobinsoa's Row, Kingsland, London: 

 Printed for the Publishers, John Thompson and A. Nunes, 1798." It is in 

 quarto and consists of a ten-page introduction and twelve plates, each with two 

 unnumbered pages of letterpress. The introduction refers to Lee and Thornton, 

 and contains four " lessons " ; the first giving a table of the Linnean system in 

 Latin and English ; the second describing the Vegetable Kingdom under seven 

 heads, fi^;. AlgsB, Musci, Fungi, Filices, Palms, Graraina, Plantae; the third 

 giving a glossary based on Milne's Dictionary ; the fourth, on leaves, is 

 apparently imperfect. The plates are dated (1 to 3) January 1st, (■! to 7) 

 February 1st, (8 and 9) March 1st, and (10 to 12) April 1st, 1798, so that there 

 seem to have been four monthly parts. They are fairly well drawn and coloured 

 and have some analyses. All represent exotic plants, viz. Caiiiia Jlaccida, 

 Hcemanthus coccineus, Datura arborea, Chelone formosa, Achania mollis, 

 Amanjllis jagiis, Heliconia Bihai, ilescmbryantheinuin tigrinuin, Gardenia 

 Thunbcrgia, Ccesalpinia pulcherrima, and Amaryllis yuccaides. The drawings 

 are stated to have been made from David Lewis's nursery at Kingsland, the 

 collection of B. liobertson, Esq., at Stockwell, that of Thomas Sykes at Hackney, 

 Mr. Evans at Stepney, and Malcolm's nursery at Stockwell. The text contains 

 short diagnoses in Latin and English of the species figured, and in English of 

 a good many of their congeners. 



