134 Account of Mr. John Banister. 



II. Some Account of Mr. John Banister, the JVatu- 

 ralist. By the Editor. 



MR. JOHN BANISTER was a native of Eng- 

 land, but I have not been able to ascertain the precise 

 place, or the time, of his birth. After making a voyage 

 to the West- Indies, where he remained some time, he 

 came to America, and fixed himself in Virginia, not far, 

 it is believed, from James-Town, on James-River. 



He appears to have been a man of great zeal, as well 

 as knowledge. He was very industrious in his re- 

 searches after the plants of the country, many of which 

 he described, and even *' drew the figures of the rare 

 species." In the year 1680, he transmitted to Mr. Ray 

 *' A Catalogue of Plants observed by him in Virginia." 

 This was published by the great English naturalist, in 

 the second volume of his Hktoria Plantarum^ p. 1928. 



Banister's Catalogue contains a very considerable 

 number of plants, not a few of which had not been no- 

 ticed before. His descriptions are generally correct, 

 and sometimes elegant. They show him to have been 

 an examiner of living plants ; a botanist not of the 

 closet, JDut in the Hortus Dei. 



• 



The Herbariiim of this able botanist came into the 

 possession of Sir Hans Sloane, who deemed it one of 

 considerable consequence. 



