280 Notes relating to Botany, collected from 



forty lying ripe on the ground. They were raised in fnimcj, and 

 transplanted out under bell-glasses. A basket of these melons 

 was sent to the King. Mr. Bennet had besides a great collection 

 of hardy-ground plants. His garden and all his plants were sold 

 by auction April 14th, I766'. 



The seeds of the rhubarb with broad curled leaves were first 

 raised by me. They were sent by Dr. Amman, professor of 

 botany at Petersburg, whose father-in-law was Russian go- 

 vernor of the province near which the rhubarb grows. The seed 

 of that with long narrow curled leaves was sent by the Jesuits 

 in China to my friend Dr. Tanches, at Petersburg, by the Rus- 

 sian caravan, and he sent it to me. 



Lord Rochefort, our ambassador in Spain, in a letter dated 

 Madrid, November 1765, says, that in the parts where he had 

 been there are very few forest-trees worth notice ; but the ilexes 

 about the Escurial are fine. One sort produces acorns of a mon- 

 strous size, which they eat in Spain at their best tables, and they 

 are as sweet as chesnuts. 



May 17th, 1761. I was invited by Mr. Sharp, at South 

 Lodge, on Enfield Chace, to dine, and see the Virginia dog- 

 wood {Corntis fioricla). The calyx of the flowers is as large as 

 those figured by Catesby, and (what is remarkable) this is the 

 only tree that bears these flowers amongst many hundreds that I 

 have seen : it began to bear them in May 1759- 



Anno 1747. Raised a new species of what appears to be a 

 three-thorned Acacia, from seeds from Persia, that came with 

 Azad or Persian hornbeam, given me by Mr. Baker: it thrives 



well 



