LTNNEAN SOCIETT OF LONDOTT. 5 1 



When I reached London, 1 had to run about not a little to 

 present my letters of recommendation. 



I went first to Mr. [Sir Hans] Sloane, who promised to help 

 me if I needed it ; and so did all the others. I have still one, 

 wliich I did not deliver, having forgotten it. and this I will insert. 

 It was to Dr. Mortimer, Secretary of the E-oyal Society. 



[The letter is inserted, but does not appear to be worth copying 

 into this narrative.] 



To Mr. Miller (whose acquaintance I have dropped for several 

 years) I give all credit for the trouble which he took to recom- 

 mend me, a few days after my arrival. I obtained a supply 

 of work for some considerable time ; but by degrees it dimi- 

 nished. 



[Ehret brought a letter of introduction to Miller, whom he 

 had not known before. The supposition that Miller and Ehret 

 were formerly friends and that Miller induced Ehret to come 

 to England is quite erroneous.] 



In my spare time 1 worked at plants to send to Nuremberg. 



As Dr. Trew himself knows, the most of my work, perhaps one 

 of the greatest collections, is at Nuremberg. To save time, I 

 will leave all that to him, and go on with my story. [Dr. Trew 

 remarks that at this time Ehret sent him about 200 paintings 

 of new plants from London.] 



I remained a year here, and then, as I had my letter of recom- 

 mendation from the Margrave, I resolved to go to Holland, 

 where I arrived safely. I remained a year in Leyden, and there 

 I heard of Mr. Linnaeus, who was staying with Mr. Clifford at 

 Haarlem. I completed during this time several curious plants, 

 with their characteristics added thereto, which I had found in 

 England, in order to recommend myself still further when pre- 

 senting the letter. I walked to Haarlem and presented the 

 royal letter of recommendation ; and as the date of it was two 

 years earlier, I was questioned as to where 1 had been during 

 the interval, upon which point I satisfied Mr. Clifford. 



I showed him my work in the presence of Mr. Linnaeus, than 

 whom no one was more eager in the characters of plants. 

 There were some quite new plants among them. Mr. Clifford 

 then asked me if I wished to sell them, and what my price 

 was, took almost everything that I had with me, and paid me 

 what I asked, namely, 3 Dutch gulden a piece. He kept me 

 more than a month at Haarlem; and in tliat time I completed 

 all the figures which came out in the * Hortus Cliffortianus,' Col- 

 linsonia, Turnera, etc., which I liad brought from England. I 

 told Mr. Linnaeus the story as related above about the first author 

 of Collinsonia ; but when he w as a beginner he appropriated 

 everything for himself which he heard of, to make himself famous ; 

 but I contend, on the other hand, that he was not the first author 

 of Collinsonia, but M. Bernhard de Jussieu. [As Dr. Trew 

 remarks, the true authorship of Collinsonia is passed over in the 

 ' Hortus Cliffortianus,'] 



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