1737.] T0 JOHN BARTRAM. 101 



these now sent, will let thee see I have not been idle this summer. 

 Some may be acceptable. What thee does not like, throw away. 



Pray think of the fine new Laurel. We sadly want a specimen 

 of it in flower, with its description. 



Pray remember, without fail if thou' 11 oblige me, to send the 

 Papaw fruit, full ripe, sent in a bottle or little jar of rum, and two 

 or three specimens of it in flower, with a description of the colour 

 of the flower ; for I want to have it engraved and painted. 



I am three letters in thy debt, but no leisure yet. I am just 

 going out of town for some time, so must bid thee farewell. 



P. Collinson. 



Thee will see Doctor Dillenius's seeds, by his handwriting. 



London, Dec. 10th, 1737. 



Dear John : 



A little leisure invites me to peruse thy several entertaining 

 letters. I shall proceed in order, and begin with thine of Feb. 27th. 



Thy account of the locusts is very curious, and very entertaining 

 to me and my friends, and shows that nothing escapes thy notice. 

 Their surprising method of darting the sticks is admirable. Pray 

 watch, as it happens in thy way, what shape they take as soon as 

 they are hatched. Pray have they wings, when they creep out of 

 the ground ? Procure me one, if thee canst, in their first state of 

 coming out of the ground ; and when the back opens, is it a real 

 grasshopper ? for I take it, all grasshoppers are locusts. Set me 

 right if I am wrong. 



Pin some of each sort in a box, with a number to each, for I 

 have some doubts if they have not three or four different appear- 

 ances. First, from the egg, they are a worm or caterpillar ; then 

 they go into the ground, and change ; when they come out of the 

 ground, their back opens, and produces a monstrous large fly ; 

 then, I apprehend, they turn to a grasshopper or locust. 



As to that caterpillar that comes in such numbers, we have 

 something like it in England. They will eat the oaks and hedges 

 bare, but never kill them, which I take to be owing that, as we 

 have not the sun's heat so strong with us, so our vegetation is 

 weaker, so the tree by degrees recovers its verdure again ; but 

 with you, the heat so rarities the sap or juices in trees, and puts it 



