o 



222 PETER COLLINSON [1760. 



me with two strong stems, but no flower. Perhaps next year may 

 bring it. * * * 



I am, my dear Jonx, 



Thy sincere friend, 



P. Collixson. 



* * * Prithee, friend John, when thou goes to the Library, 

 ask for Josselyn's Two Voyages, a little book of the size of his 

 New England Rarities, and a book well worth thy perusal. In 

 page 61, he mentions an admirable creature that the Indians call 

 a Tree Buck. Pray tell me what thou canst make of it, which he 

 says he often found. 



* * * * 



I am concerned for poor Moses. Now he has eat his brown 

 bread, his white will come next. I wish he would write a little 

 Journal in his own way and style, from his first going to sea to 

 this present time. Short hints will do. I question if it is to be 

 paralleled. We don't know what human nature will bear until it 

 is tried. * * 



London, February 2d, 17G0. 



By Captain Hammet, I wrote my dear John, of his good suc- 

 cess ; for both cargoes of seeds arrived safe, in proper time and 

 without damage. * * * I apprehend my letter miscarried, 

 that I wrote on receiving the two large tortoise-shells. Thine 

 and Billy's account of the Snapping Turtle, with his fine draw- 

 ing, would make a curious piece of Natural History ; but our 

 authors of the Magazine are so careless on these affairs, that I 

 don't know how to trust them, and yet it is with regret I cannot 

 find a better way to communicate them to the public. 



* # * * 



This reminds me of the elegant species of the Water Lily \_N~e- 

 lumbium luteum, Willd.], that is in the Jerseys. Does it occupy 

 such a depth of water that the roots can't be come at ? Thou art 

 ambitious of plants from us : but here is the most charming plant 

 of Asia including China, and Egypt, in thy neighbourhood ; and 

 yet so little is thy curiosity, or industry, that thou canst not avail 

 thyself of so great a curiosity. Thou that hast springs in thy 



