jFttj 3ofjn SGHintijrop. 19 



* 



Letter written b)~ John Winthrop, Efq., Governor of Con- 

 necticut in New England, to the Publifher, concerning 

 fome 'Natural Curioiities of thofe Parts ; efpecially a very 

 ftrange and curioufry-contrived Fifh, fent for the Repofi- 

 tory of the Royal Society " (pp. 3) ; in which are men- 

 tioned, as fent, fpecimens of fcrub-oak ; " bark of tree 

 with fir-balfam, which grows ' in Nova Scotia, and, as I 

 hear, in the more eafterly part of New England ; " pods of 

 milk-weed, " ufed to fluff pillows and cufhions ; " and " a 

 branch of the tree called the cotton-tree, bearing a kind of 

 down, which alfo is not fit to fpin." 



Fitz John Winthrop, Efq., F.R.S. (died 1707), fon of 

 the laft, and alfo Governor of Connecticut, is faid to have 

 been " famous for his philofophical " (that is, fcientific) 

 "knowledge." 1 And the fecond Governor's nephew, John 

 Winthrop, Efq., F.R.S. (died 1747), who left this country 

 and paffed the latter part of his life in England, is declared 

 by the author of the dedication already above cited, to 

 have " increafed the riches of their " (the Royal Society's) 

 K repofitory with more than fix hundred curious fpecimens, 

 chiefly in the mineral kingdom; accompanied with an 

 accurate account of each particular." " Since Mr. Col- 

 well," it is added, "the founder of the Mufeum of the 

 Royal Society, you have been the benefactor who has 

 given the moil numerous collection." Dr. John Winthrop, 

 F.R.S. (died 1779), Hollifian Profeflbr of Mathematics at 

 Cambridge, N.E., whofe important papers on aftronomical 



1 Eliot, Biog. Di<5t, in loco. 



