54 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE 



" Herr Ebret ! " Our old acquaintanceship was reneAved, after 

 a lapse of several years, until he was removed from the temporal 

 to the everlasting world. 



Shortly after Herr Beurer's arrival Herr Linnaeus came to 

 London. He stayed a month here, and I sent him plates to 

 finish the ' Hortus Cliffortianus.' 



About this time I had married one Susanna Kennet, sister of 

 the wife of Mr. Philip Miller, herb-gardener at Chelsea (1738), 

 whose father was a Mr. Keonet, a burgher and baker at South- 

 wark in London, who had honourably supported himself in his 

 trade of baker. In order to keep this account short, I will here 

 add that we had three children ; two died soon after their birth, 

 and one still lives, whom I sent, as a small boy, to the University 

 of Oxford, the best school, till he was 15 years old. Two years 

 ago 1 apprenticed him to an apothecary and surgeon at Watford, 

 in Hertfordshire, for 7 years, and spent 50 guineas upon him. 

 He loves his profession, and has done very well so far. 



[Dr. Trew says that in 17^2 Ehret published a plate of the 

 above-mentioned Papaya, which fruited for the first time in 

 Europe on the 30th January of that year. Dr. Trew further adds 

 details of the plate, which need not be inserted here.] 



Some years after I came to England I became acquainted 

 with the excellent Dr. Mead, Eoyal Physician, who engaged me ; 

 and I prepared for him, from time to time, paintings of rare 

 plants, mostly with a description of them, on great folia of parch- 

 ment, at one guinea apiece. The number of them reached at 

 last 200. 



This work, over which I spared no pains, was not kept secret 

 by Dr. Mead, as by others, but he showed it to everyone in 

 order to bring rne on in the w^orld, and made suggestions for 

 di-< posing of my work at sales, as many painters have done. 



While this work was on hand, I was preparing at the same 

 time [drawings of] many rare plants, and those which now are 

 appearing in the ' Plantse Selectse.' 



Dr. Mead died, and all his collection of curiosities was sold a few 

 years ago by auction, when my 200 plates, complete and bound 

 in two volumes, were laid before everyone. This brought me no 

 little glory, and they were sold for 160 K. [about £36] . If they had 

 been divided up in the auction, they would have brought in twice 

 as much money, for they were too many for a single lot. 



During the time that I was earning my living from Dr. Mead 

 and others, I began, in 1748, to issue plates of rare plants 

 under the title ' Plantse et Papiliones Eariores depictse et aeri 

 incisae a Georgio Dionysio Ehret, Palat. Heidelb. 174!8,' which 

 plates from that time to 1757 only reached 14 in number. Tab. 4 

 and 8 of these plates are represented with the character of the 

 plants under the title " Characteres PJantarum variarum ob- 

 servati, delineati, et aeri incisi a Georgio Dionysio Ebret, Palat. 

 Heidelb. 1748." 



During this time I published a large plate of the great 'Agaricus 



