VOL. L.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 177 



LF, Remarks on the Letter of Mr. John Ellis, F.R.S. to Philip Carteret 

 JVebb, Esq. F. R. S. printed in the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 49, 

 p. 8O6.* By Mr. Philip Miller, F. R. S. p. 430. 



Mr. Ellis, in his letter to Mr. Webb, asserts, that the American toxico- 

 dendron is not the same with Koempfer's arbor vernicifera legitima. This as- 

 sertion, says (Mr. Miller) makes it necessary to lay before the society the autho- 

 rities on which I have grounded my belief that they are the same. But it 

 may not be amiss first to take notice, that the shrub mentioned by the Abbe 

 Sauvages is the same with that which the gardeners about London call the 

 poison-ash. The title of it, mentioned by the Abbe Sauvages, was given by 

 myself to that shrub, in a catalogue of trees and shrubs, which was printed in 

 the year 1730 ; before which it had no generical title applied to it. And about 

 the same time I sent several of the plants to Paris and Holland with that title, 

 which I had raised a few years before from seeds, which were sent by Mrv 

 Catesby from Carolina. And though this shrub had not been reduced to any 

 genus before, yet it had been some years growing in the gardens of the Bishop 

 of London at Fulham, at Mr. Reynardson's at Hillenden, Mr. Darby's at 

 Hoxton, and in the Chelsea Garden, which were raised from seeds sent by Mr. 

 Banister from Virginia; 2 of which were growing at Chelsea in the year 1722, 

 when the care of that garden was intrusted to me. 



The first intimation I had of the American shrub being the same with Dr. 

 Koempfer's true varnish-tree, was from the late Dr. William Sherrard, in the 

 year 17 26, when that gentleman desired me to bring him a specimen of the 

 American toxicodendron from the Chelsea garden ; which I accordingly did : 

 and then the Doctor, and Dr. Dillenius, compared it with a dried specimen in 

 the collection of the former, which was gathered in Japan, and which he said 

 he received from Dr. Koempfer some years before. It appeared to those 2 

 gentlemen, that they were the same ; and their skill in the sciences of botany 

 was never doubted. About a year after this, I carried a specimen of the Ame- 

 rican toxicodendron to an annual meeting of some botanists at Sir Hans Sloane's 

 in Bloomsbury , where were present Mr Dale of Braintree, Mr. Joseph Miller, 

 Mr. Rand, and some others ; which was then compared with Dr. Koempfer's 

 specimen, whose collection Sir Hans Sloane had purchased : and it was the 

 opinion of every one present, that they were the same. Nor has any one 

 doubted of their being so, who has compared the American shrub with Koemp- 

 fer's figure and description of his true varnish-tree, except Mr. Ellis. 



And now give me leave to examine his reasons for differing in opinion from 

 every late botanist, who has mentioned this shrub. He says, that the midrib, 



* Page 46 of this vol. of Abridgments. 

 VOL. XI. A. A 



