xvi MEMBER LONDON UNIVERSITY 181 



Evelyns at Wotton — " beautiful old place," as 

 he very truly remarks of it, adding a remarkable 

 note that " John Evelyn's dried plants collected 

 in 1645 are still in very fair preservation." 

 John Evelyn, it is hardly necessary to say, was 

 the author of Sylva, and probably the first of 

 Englishmen to make any real study of trees. 



Some years before, when in Algiers with the 

 Grant Duffs, Sir John had acquired a house and 

 property called the Campagne des Fleurs, and 

 thither he went on December 15, with his 

 daughters Constance and Gertrude, and his 

 youngest son Rolfe. They had lovely weather. 

 He records that he and Rolfe bathed on Christmas 

 Day. They did not return home until the 

 middle of the following month. 



