373 



Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith. 



My dear Friend, Toxteth Park, Dec. 14, 1826. 

 It was with great pleasure I received your letter 

 giving me so satisfactory an account of your health 

 and of the progress you are making in your great 

 work, which will fill up a desideratum in the botany 

 of this country that no other hand could have sup- 

 plied. I rejoice also in the disposition you feel for 

 the continuation of your labours, it being a strong 

 impression on my mind that nothing is more con- 

 ducive to life and health than some employment 

 that calls for our continued attention, and prevents 

 a moment from being irksome on our hands. For 

 my own part, I feel as if my existence were twined 

 round my employments, and when those have fi- 

 nished I shall have finished too. 



I thank you also, my dear friend, for your kind 

 information respecting Amomum ; but since I last 

 wrote to you I have had the good fortune to suc- 

 ceed beyond my utmost expectations, in having bad 

 specimens of one of the largest and finest of the 

 tribe sent me fromDemerara, — the flowers preserved 

 in spirits, and the fruit in an air-tight bottle. 



This I conceive to be the true Malaguetta Pepper, 

 or Grains of Paradise, respecting which I expect to 

 know more when I can obtain a sight of your ar- 

 ticle on Malaguetta in the Cyclopaedia. 



The capsule somewhat resembles that of Gaertner, 

 but is upwards of six inches in length, of a deep 

 orange colour, covering a pulpy rind, inclosing the 



