1771.] TO JOHN BARTRAM. 435 



references to the catalogue: the whole constituted in the same rough 

 way packing boxes are usually made, beginning with all the woods 

 of one genus, as the Pines, and then the Oaks, &c. * * 



Although, from the tenor of this letter, trees and shrubs only 

 are the general objects of the Society, yet some of us are desirous 

 of having a few of new and curious plants, particularly those used 

 in medicine or in dyeing. I should be particularly fond of having 

 the seeds of the Lobelia syphilitica. 



******* 



Wishing you much health and success, I am your most obedient 

 servant, 



John Hope. 



Edinburgh, March 7, 1765. 



Sir : 



You will recollect that some years ago, you sent to a Society at 

 Edinburgh, a parcel of seeds, of crop 1765, amounting in all to 

 <15, which seeds, by being sent to Ireland, instead of the port of 

 London, according to directions, occasioned not only very great 

 trouble and expense, but likewise the loss of the seeds ; as, upon 

 their being re-shipped and landed at Chester, they were there 

 seized by the Custom-house officers, and, after a deal of work to 

 obtain their release, sent by land to London ; from whence they 

 were again reshipped for Edinburgh ; but so late, that they only 

 came in time to be sown in the year 1767, and the greater part of 

 them good for nothing, to the great disappointment of the mem- 

 bers of the Society. 



When I talked of this subject to my much esteemed friend, Mr. 

 Peter Collinson, and informed him how discouraging this would 

 be to the Society for importing foreign seeds, which had been lately 

 established, and the funds of which at that time narrow, the ex- 

 cellent old man insisted that the Society and you should bear an 

 equal loss, on this unlucky occasion. Accordingly, one half of the 

 charge, viz., 7 : 10, was paid by the Society to Mr. Collinson on 

 your behoof. And the managers of the Society, in order to make 

 some amends to you for your loss, had intended to enlarge their 

 commissions, annually ; but you, discouraged, as it would seem by 

 that loss, somehow declined answering their commissions to the full, 

 which necessarily behooved to stop all further correspondence. 



The funds of the Society being now fully sufficient to answer all 



