40 



forbid.* For an opportunity to do this, copying from the origi- 

 nal edition, we are indebted to that indefatigable and accom- 

 plished naturalist, Dr. Francis Boott,f of London, who, com- 

 bining American sympathies from his birth among us, with 



* One of these passages is here given : 



" Planting, he used to say, and gardening, supply a fund of entertain- 

 ment, the most lasting and reasonable of any occupation in this life, 

 pleasures not to be purchased. The trees which we ourselves have 

 planted, the fruits we have raised, the plants we have cultivated, seem to 

 be like our children, a kind of new creation. Their shade, their taste, 

 their fragrance and their beauties, affect us with a richer repast than any 

 other. What a pleasing scene, would he observe, lies open to a young 

 man of fortune devoted to such amusements ! Each succeeding year 

 produces new shades, other fruits, fresh beauties, and brings besides, 

 most certain profit. To behold the rising groves, barrenness made fertile, 

 our country improved, ourselves made useful and happy, and posterity 

 enriched ! When on this favorite subject, a very natural expression often 

 escaped him, that he seldom knew a man possessed of a taste for such 

 pleasures, who was not at the same time temperate and virtuous. And 

 indeed he had a right to make the observation ; for he had the satisfaction 

 of reckoning among his most intimate friends, men of the most amiable 

 and unblemished character, in all stations, parties, and distinctions." 



" The quantities of new seeds he received from America not only sup- 

 plied his own garden with every thing that was curious in that region 

 but furnished him with the means of procuring others in exchange from 

 other parts of the globe." 



f Since this article was commenced, we came across, at the Philadel- 

 phia Library, unlocked for, in a volume labelled " Pamphlets on Eth- 

 nology, &c.," a work with this title page " Hortus Collinsonianus. An 

 account of plants cultivated by the late Peter Collinson, Esq., F. K. S., 

 arranged alphabetically, according to their modern names, from the 

 catalogue of his garden, and other manuscripts. Not Published. Swan- 

 sea: Printed by N. C. Murray and D. Rees, MDCCCXLIII." Its pre- 

 face signed L. W. Dillwyn, Sketty Hall, March 8, 1843, in a full and 

 interesting account of the work, gives us the following facts. " The 

 gardens at Peckham and Mill Hill had attained such a high celebrity, 

 that a publication of Mr. Collinson's Catalogue appears to have been 

 called for by some of the most distinguished naturalists, and the reason 

 for his noncompliance with their wishes is thus given in a letter of his, 

 dated May 12, 1756, to his friend Linnaeus : ' You must remember I am 

 a merchant, a man of great business, with many affairs in my head and 

 on my hands. I can never pretend to publish a catalogue of my garden, 

 unless I had one of your ingenious pupils to digest or methodize it for 

 me. It only serves now for my own private use.' " See Sir J. E. Smith's 

 Correspondence of Linnoms, Vol. 1. p. 39. 



