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which he had just before observed in the bishop's garden, which he at that time 

 called hortus cultissimus, novisque et elegantioribus magno studio nee minore 

 impensa undique conquisitis stirpibus refertissimus. As this prelate's length of 

 life and continuance in the see of London were remarkable, so we find the bo- 

 tanists, who wrote after Mr. Ray, most frequently mentioning in their works 

 the new accessions of treasure to this garden ; and of this we meet with a great 

 variety of examples in the treatises of Dr. Pluknet, Herman, and Commelin. 



On the death of Bishop Compton, all the green-house plants and more tender 

 exotic trees were, as Mr. W. was informed by Sir Hans Sloane, given to the 

 ancestor of the present Earl Tylney at Wanstead. And the curiosities of this 

 garden were no longer attended to, but left to the management of ignorant jjer- 

 sons ; so that many of the hardy exotic trees, however valuable, were removed, 

 to make way for the more ordinary productions of the kitchen garden. 



Mr. W. then subjoins a catalogue of the exotic trees remaining in the Bishop 

 of London's garden at Fulham, June 25, 1751. These are the remains of that 

 once famous garden ; among which are some, that notwithstanding the present 

 great improvements in gardening, are scarcely to be found elsewhere. From the 

 length of time they have stood, several of the trees are by much the largest of 

 their kind he ever has seen, and are probably the largest in Europe. This ac- 

 count of them therefore is not merely a matter of curiosity ; but we learn from 

 it, that many of these trees, though produced naturally in climates and latitudes 

 very different from our own, have grown to a very great magnitude with us, 

 and have endured our rude winters, some of them for almost a century : and 

 that in proper soils and situations they may be propagated to advantage, as well 

 as for beauty. For the exemplification of this he recommends to the curious 

 observer the black Virginian walnut-tree, the cluster-pine, the honey locust, the 

 pseudo-acacia, and ash-maple, &c. now remaining at Fulham.* 



XXXVI. Of an Inverted Iris, observed on the Grass in September, and another 

 in October, 1751. By Philip Carteret IVebb, Esq. F. R. S., p. 248. 

 Sept. 24, 1751, about 10 in the morning, Mr. W. observed a solar iris on a 

 grass lawn near his house, at Busbridge in Surry. The morning was fair and 

 clear, and the grass of the lawn was the night before almost covered with webs 

 resembling those of spiders, which many persons esteem the forerunners of fair 

 weather -, and there had fallen in the night much dew, with which the webs and 

 the grass were thoroughly wetted. The arch or bow appeared inverted, the 



• Of the hardy exotics enumerated in the above paper, there were remaining in 1793 the follow- 

 ing: acer negundo, cupressus sempervirens, juniperus virginiana, gleditsia Iriacanthus, juglans ni- 

 gra, quercus alba, quercus suber, &c. most of them trees of a great height, and of large dimen.sion.<i 

 in the girth. See Lysons Environs of London, 2nd vol. p. 351. • '-' 



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