365 



any thing unless I have a great many other things 

 that call for my attention at the same time, when I 

 am as diligent in what I am about as obstinacy 

 and perseverance can make me. Whether this 

 arises from an attachment one acquires for a par- 

 ticular subject, or to a perversity of disposition that 

 delights to be employed in any thing but what it 

 ought to be, I shall not venture to determine. 



With respect to our botanical concerns, the 

 Hedychium excelsum has flowered with us this year 

 in grand style ; and several others are going into 

 flower, some of which we expect to be new. We 

 have also been greatly surprised by the appearance, 

 a few days since, of a flower of a new and beautiful 

 species of Hoscoea, from a plant sent us as a species 

 of Orchis from Sillet ? This plant is entirely dif- 

 ferent as well from the purpurea as from the four 

 others of which I have dried specimens. I shall 

 send you a slight figure of it, in order that you may 

 add it to your list of species, and give it a specific 

 appellation. What do you think of either speciosa, 

 ovlucida ? The first it deserves, as being, I conceive, 

 the largest and finest flower known of the genus ; 

 but the second would perhaps be more appropriate, 

 as alluding to the extreme delicacy and transpa- 

 rency of the petals, which no drawing can express. 

 The whole flower is of a pale purple, changing in 

 some parts to a clear watery white. The flowers 

 arise in succession as in Kcejnpferia, to which and 

 to Hedychium it appears to have the nearest af- 

 finity. 



Since my return home I have been enabled to 



