1737.] T0 JOHN BARTRAM. 105 



will keep better without the apple; for too much moisture may rot 

 them. 



The manner in which the hornets make their nests, is well worth 

 knowing. Ours, in England, make a nest as large, but more 

 beautifully coloured, and clouded with light and dark brown. 

 They build in hollow trees, and hang them up to the upper corner 

 of a barn, close to the ridge. 



Dear friend, I am pleased to hear thee has been in the Jerseys, 

 and Kent County, and that thee has discovered the Pitch, or Red 

 Pine ; which is a sort we want. All sorts of Pines, and Firs, and 

 White Cedar, and Spruce, are plants we want. Yet, as they live 

 so remote from each other, content thyself with sending one sort a 

 year, unless any sort is near at hand. We expect no unreason- 

 able and hard things, and will not have thee exert thyself out of 

 reason to serve us. Thy accurate observation, and perfect know- 

 ledge in the times of gathering these sort of trees, must be thy 

 director in these matters. But though thy excursions are attended 

 with difficulties, and great fatigue, yet, the secret pleasure that 

 accrues and the new discoveries and the many observations, 

 both informing and entertaining, which tend to enrich thy mind 

 with natural knowledge, and fill it with exalted ideas of the won- 

 derful Hand that made all these things, must yield thee such a 

 secret pleasure as will fully compensate for and counterbalance all 

 the other. 



I have some pretty young plants from the Spruce cones, which 

 is certainly Dudley's Hemlock. 



I hope the Buck-bean is not entirely dead. Pray look next 

 year again. The place it was planted in seems very suitable. It 

 bears a curious^ elegant flower, and has great virtues. 



I shall endeavour to supply the Squills and G. Lilies. The 

 frosts in your country are surprising. It requires, in a gardener, 

 great care and diligence to secure and protect his plants against 

 these injurious insults of the weather. 



If thee will please to inquire of our worthy and learned friend, 

 James Logan, who is well versed in optics, he will tell thee, that 

 there is no making a glass to magnify, to such a degree as thee 

 wants, in such large dimensions as thee requires ; for, the larger 

 the magnifier the smaller the glass : that instead of taking objects 

 altogether, they must be taken in parts. The greatest discoverers 

 in nature have been obliged to this method. 



