1762.] PETER COLLINSON. 241 



PETER COLLINSON TO JOHN BARTRAM. 



London, October 5, 1762. 



My dear John : 



"What good luck attends thy Journals ! For thy last was care- 

 fully delivered by Mr. Taylor, in a very obliging manner. 



There is an everlasting fund of entertainment and information, 

 which will be subjects of consideration at more leisure. But I re- 

 mark how few or none of your wild animals came under thy notice, 

 except snakes. I expected often to hear the panther had sprung 

 out of a thicket, or a bear wakened from his den, or a beaver-dam 

 broke up, to observe its structure and artful contrivance, &c 



Your weather has remarkable vicissitudes. Ours has been more 

 certain, for all our summer has been a constant hot, dry season, 

 all burnt up longer than ever I knew. Plants languishing and 

 perishing for want of rain, and many totally killed. But my 

 greatest loss has been from a villain who came and robbed me of 

 twenty-two different species of my most rare and beautiful plants ; 

 took all my fine tall Marsh Martagons, and that thee sent me last 

 year, which was different in colour from any I have had before ; 

 all my fine yellow Lady's Slippers that I have had so long, and 

 flowered so finely every year. These I regret most, for they are 

 not to be had again, but by thy assistance ; and though I doubt 

 not of thy inclination, yet, as I apprehend, they are found acci- 

 dentally, so it may not be in thy power to assist me. * 



* I have what is called the Evergreen Padus, of South Caro- 

 lina, but I doubt if it will hold when it grows older, and in our 

 climate. I have observed many young, vigorous plants will keep 

 their leaves for two or three years, and then become deciduous. * 



* * * I am impatient to see a specimen of the leaves and 

 flower of thy Tipitiwitchet \_Sclirankia uncinata, Willd. ?]. Pray, 

 good John, never let a letter pass without a specimen, as it ad- 

 vances. Is it possible for Billy to paint it ? I am much concerned 

 that his affairs are encumbered. Pray take care of this singular 

 plant, and protect the root carefully against your severe weather. 



****** 



I wish thou could get more of the hard nuts of Colonel Bou- 

 quet. If they are Hickories, they are very different from what 



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