i8o PETER COLLINSON AND JOHN BARTRAM CH. 



name in 1769, and which is one of the principal sources 

 of our information. " I know not," he says in the 

 preamble, " that I ever wished for leisure, and the talent 

 of biography, more than at present," in order to place 

 before the public an example worthy of record and of 

 imitation. In going on to portray the character of his 

 late friend Fothergill reveals his own, when he dwells 

 upon " a life continually employed in commendable 

 pursuits, and in acts of lasting and extensive utility." 

 We thus " participate afresh," he writes, " in every 

 social action of the friend whom we loved whilst living, 

 and pay the tribute of a grateful and honourable remem- 

 brance to his name." The domestic happiness in which 

 he lived was no less than his public esteem. The last 

 letter he wrote to Linnaeus (March 16, 1767) contains the 

 following account of the oncoming of the spring in his 

 garden, and this may fitly conclude our notice of Peter 

 Collinson. 



February brought soft sunny days, and so continued, mild 

 and warm, with southerly winds all the month. This brought 

 on the spring flowers. Feb. 8th the Helleborus niger made 

 a fine show ; the Galanthus and winter aconite by the I5th 

 covered the garden with beauty, among some crocuses and 

 violets and Primula veris. Oh, how obedient the vegetable 

 tribes are to their great Lawgiver ! He has given this race 

 of flowers a constitution and fibres to resist the cold. They 

 bloom in frost and snow, like the good men of Sweden. These 

 flowers have some time made their exit, and now, March 6th, 

 a tenderer tribe succeeds. Such, my dear friend, is the order 

 of Nature. Now the garden is covered with more than 20 

 different species of crocus, produced from seed, and with the 

 Iris persica, Cyclamen vernalis and polyanthus. The i6th 

 March, plenty of Hyacinthus cceruleus and albus are in the 

 open borders, with anemones ; and now my favourites, the 

 great tribe of narcissus, show all over the garden and fields ; 

 we have two species wild in the woods that now begin to 

 flower. Next the Tulipa prcecox is near blooming ; and so 

 Flora decks the garden with endless variety, ever charming. 1 



1 The letter has been slightly abridged. The Gentleman's Magazine be- 

 tween 1751 and 1766 contains thirteen papers by Collinson, dealing with such 

 various subjects as the Weymouth pine and sycamore, chestnut, mennil-deer 

 of Bengal, the fascination of rattlesnakes, fossil " elephant's tusks," and 



