1740.1 T0 JOHN BARTRAM. 137 



saddle flower ; but what relation it has to Lavender, I must leave 

 to him. The plant with tricolor leaves, I am well assured, is your 

 fine Olinopodium. Our late severe winter has carried all mine 

 off; so pray send me some more seed, and of the Lychnis with 

 Crosswort leaves. 



The Doctor did not carefully distinguish, or observe, the fruit 

 he mentions, which I take to be no more than an excrescence 

 raised by insects, like Galls and Oak-apples ; which have a pulpy 

 substance in them of a beautiful complexion sufficient to set a 

 breeding woman a longing, and yet are raised only as a proper 

 nidus, and vehicle, to contain and nourish the infant insect till it 

 is fit to take wing, and provide for itself. It is certainly so, by 

 the small white worm which he mentions, which grows brown 

 which is then in chrysalis as the fruit grows riper. 



London, October 20, 1740. 



Dear Friend : 



Inclosed is the Mate's receipt for a box of bulbs, directed for 

 thee. Make much of them ; for they are such a collection as is 

 rarely to be met with, all at once : for, all the sorts of bulbous 

 roots being taken up this year, there is some of every sort. There 

 is above twenty sorts of Crocus as many of Narcissus all our 

 sorts of Martagons and Lilies with Gladiolus, Ornitlwg alums, 

 Moleys and Irises, with many others I don't now remember, which 

 time will show thee. It is likely some sorts thee may have ; but 

 I believe there is more that you have not ; so pray take great care 

 of them. Give them a good soil, and keep them clear from weeds, 

 which are a great prejudice to these flowers in the spring. 



I have several very curious flowers out of the mixed Virginia 

 seeds ; in particular a new Jacea, with hoary rough leaves ; a very 

 pretty dwarf Gentian, with a large blue flower, the extremity of 

 the flower-leaves, all notched or jagged. The whole plant is not 

 above three or four inches high; I am afraid it is an annual.* 

 But there is a great variety, besides: a very pretty Gratiola, 

 and a Dracoceplialon, it has a labiated flower like Snap Dragon, 



* This, apparently, refers to our Gentiana crinita, though it is seldom so dwarf- 

 ish -with us. Authors, generally, speak of it as a biennial : and when I hinted a 

 suspicion (in Flora Cestrica) that it might be an annual, I was not aware that 

 Peter Coixixson had the same suspicion, nearly a century before. 



