1762.] TO JOHN BARTRAM. 429 



are often, by our custom officers and others, too much jumbled 

 together, and, in regard to their quantity, oft best suitable to 

 nurserymen, than those more curious. Could you favour our 

 garden with a small box of a few of each sort you may have 

 gathered, fresh and good, and any seeds of perennial plants, the 

 more ornamental the more preferable, any pains you take shall be 

 most gratefully acknowledged and requited. Nothing is more 

 agreeable than the variety of Firs, Evergreens, or forest trees to 

 us. Some of the Spruce and Balm of Gilead we have. The 

 Weymouth Pine seed has miscarried, as well as the Magnolias. 

 But nothing, indeed, can come amiss : and as I understand from 

 your neighbour, Mr. Fraxklix, who has done us the honour, to- 

 day, of taking a degree, and now ranks Doctor of Civil Law, with 

 us, you are about entering on a large excursion, I heartily wish 

 you a safe return, and that you may meet with many curious 

 plants. And as he encourages me to write again, and promises 

 more particularly to forward this, I flatter myself I may have the 

 satisfaction of adopting your name in our public garden. * * 



I shall add no further, at present, than my best wishes for your 

 health, and a prosperous journey, and hopes of hearing from you 

 by letter, directed, as below, to your faithful friend, 



And very humble servant, 



Humphrey Sibthorp. 



Oxford, April 30, 1762. 



JOHN BARTRAM TO H. SIBTHORP. 



[Not dated. Autumn of 1762.] 



"Worthy Friexd : 



I have received thy kind letter of April the 30th, 1762, which 

 is the second letter I ever received from thee ; the first of which 

 was left in town by the person that should have delivered it, long 

 after it was dated. I thought to have answered it, but no oppor- 

 tunity offering soon, I drove it off from time to time, till I was 

 ashamed of it, and now beg pardon. And now, if peaceable times 

 come, I intend to double my diligence, for I am better stocked 

 with materials than formerly, having now searched our North 

 America from New England to near Georgia, and from the sea- 

 coast to Lake Ontario, and many branches of the Ohio : so that 



