XXil MEMOIRS OF THE 
make it necessary to add many other plants to those here 
enumerated; perhaps retrench some of the present. list ; 
and throw a much greater light on the whole.”” What Mr. 
Curtis at this time only surmised, he found to be correct in 
practice. He cultivated plots of the most likely to be use- 
ful Grasses ; and, after careful examination of the result, 
put forth a most useful pamphlet on the subject of the 
Grasses, which has improved the state of agriculture in that 
department more than any other work, 
Mr. Curtis’s writings were, for his extensive know- 
ledge, few in number, as he seldom gave his thoughts to 
the public, but for their benefit, and with rather two scru- 
pulous a regard for his own gain, considering his circum- 
stances. Of this description, but with a laudable view to 
allay the dreadful apprehensions of many persons of im- 
pending famine and pestilence, he wrote his treatise on the 
Brown-tailed Moth; whose destructive ravages in 1783, in 
the Caterpillar state, were considered as a pestilence and 
public calamity. 
The lovers of horticulture may also thank Mr. Curtis 
for introducing amongst their Culinary vegetables, the 
CramBe maritima, or Sea Kale, now so common in the 
markets, and on their tables; to bring which into gene- 
ral notice, he published a pamphlet, and, with each pam- 
phlet, sold a box of the seed; and that it might be the 
more speedily brought into common cultivation, he planted 
a large plot of it, which he sold or distributed amongst his 
acquaintance. 
Hitherto we have said but little of the Botanical Maga- 
zine, the only work which has been of material assistance 
to Mr. Curtis. In comparison of the productiveness of the 
two works (the Magazine and the Flora Londinensis), to use 
his own expression, “ One brought him pudding, and the 
other praise.” The idea of such a work was new, and on 
its being talked of amongst his most intimate acquaintance, 
