217 
as so very many of the Swiss plants are also natives 
of England. I have travelled with you in your 
second letter, from Paris to Rome, and enjoyed the 
beautiful and sublime scenery you describe, and the 
sight of so many plants growing wild, which we 
either immure in greenhouses, or look upon as 
valuable ornaments to the shrubbery or flower-gar- 
den. I hope you drank out of the fountain of 
Vaucluse, to the memory of Petrarch and his beau- 
tiful Laura. 
The two days you spent with Gerard must have 
been delightful, and particularly advantageous to 
your proposed reform of the Syst. Veget. Your 
time at Genoa must have passed delightfully with 
your friend the Marquess and his family. And the 
time spent in examining the gallery at Florence was 
charmingly employed. The veterts vestigia lamme 
however, always breaking forth, makes me regret 
the impossibility of examining to purpose the col- 
lection of Micheli, as it might have been of conse- 
quence in ascertaining the synonyms of many En- 
glish Cryptogamia. I was ill-natured enough to 
be highly pleased with your account of Spallan- 
zani’s disgrace, and that principally on account of 
the strictures it pleased the reviewers to pass on 
your second tract, because they judged it improper 
to attack so great a personage. To people any 
way qualified to judge of the subject, there could 
be no doubt of the propriety of your strictures on 
Spallanzani ; but there are so many readers of the 
Reviews, who pin their faith upon them, and though 
entirely ignorant of the subject of natural history, 
