HIS WORK FOR POSTERITY 237 



Linnoeus to Ellis. 



Feb. 1765. 



; In May last I laboured under a very severe and 

 dangerous attack of pleurisy, and spent some time 

 out of town to recover my strength. 1 I suspect that, 

 through the fault of my servants, my letters were not 

 duly forwarded. My tea-plant is still in health, but 

 has not yet flowered.' 



Bulletins concerning the tea-plant are issued with 

 each letter, and kind, tender inquiries returned. 



Linnc&us to Ellis, also in 1765. 



* So extensive a country as Florida cannot fail, 

 under your auspices, to yield a rich harvest to the 

 learned world. Its lot is peculiarly fortunate in being 

 subject to your control, and Florida may now truly 

 answer to its name. We know but few of its vege- 

 table productions, and scarcely anything of its animals. 

 Fate has reserved them for you to lay open many of 

 these treasures of science. My tea-tree is thriving, 

 but still without flowers ; nor have I yet dared to ex- 

 pose it in the open air to the cold of our winters, 

 having only a single plant.' 



Ellis writes, 1765: 'The provinces of the two 

 Floridas afford certainly an ample field for the wonder- 

 ful productions of nature; and if one of your pupils 



1 He attributed his recovery to the care and skill of Rosen, his 

 former enemy. 



