187 



Datura with a purple, spotted stem, answering in 

 everyway to the description ofD.Tatula, but which 

 is evidently a variety of D. Stramonium. I have 

 sought in vain for any permanent difference. 



I have caused to be put in the press in this town 

 an edition of your excellent Introductory work, for 

 the attendants on lectures which I have undertaken 

 in this place. Our botanists are not yet sufficiently 

 numerous to induce the booksellers to publish large 

 works ; but as the country grows I hope the taste 

 for science will increase. I have the honour to be,&c. 

 Your obedient Servant, 



Jacob Bigelow. 



From Sir Joseph Banks. 



My dear Doctor, Soho Square, Dec. 9, 1814. 



We are all here at a loss on the subject of Her- 

 modactyls. We have little doubt that the gout me- 

 dicine is composed of that root, and that the doctor 

 of Yoxford in Suffolk, who sells a medicine similar 

 in taste and smell to the French, uses our Colchi- 

 cum, but have some doubts whether our Colchicum 

 autumnale is the same plant as that used in the 

 Greek Pharmacopoeia. 



Ca?salpinus on the article Hermodactyle says, that 

 the flower is white ; in other respects the plant re- 

 sembles our Colchicum: but he speaks of two other 

 plants of the same genus, that are poisonous. Have 

 you any thing among Sibthorp's papers that throws 

 any light on the Hermodactyl of the Greeks? If 



