244 



" I now return all the books you lent me, toge- 

 ther with your drawings and manuscripts, as I fear the hour ap- 

 proaches when you will pack them up for Europe. The latter 

 are not only beautiful, but extremely interesting; your descrip- 

 tions are pleasing, your observations just, and the whole collection 

 does great credit to your taste and judgment. Without partiality 

 or flattery to my friend, I think myself rather competent to decide 

 on this point after upwards of thirty years residence in this coun- 

 try. You ought, injustice both to yourself and friends, to devote 

 more of your leisure hours to the Muses, who seem so well in- 

 clined to be propitious to your invocation. Allow me to request 

 a copy of the poetical epistle from Dhuboy to your amiable sister 

 at Baroche; it is truly pathetic and descriptive. 



"And now, my friend, I have a further favour to ask of you. I 

 well remember the assortment of seeds you procured a few years 

 ago for Dr. Fothergill from the Baroche gardens, and all the neigh- 

 bouring districts. I do not think of a collection to such an extent, 

 in your present unsettled situation, but Sir Joseph Banks is so 

 zealous for the improvement of botanical knowledge, that I think 

 it meritorious to contribute to the utmost in my power to forward 

 his endeavours ; and you cannot more singularly oblige me than 

 by exerting your ingenuity to enable me to comply with a request 

 in his last letter; in which he says, the jac I sent him by Major 

 Wood was the first which had been imported into England, at 

 which the king expressed a more particular satisfaction than usual 

 on such occasions; and Sir Joseph further desires me to send him 

 seeds of the common fruits, flowers, and drugs of India, of which 

 there are yet but few in the English conservatories. In this you 



