24 
correspondence, in the ‘‘ Acta Societatis Regiae Scientiarum Up- 
saliensis,” in 1749, and here Jane grew up and acquired that taste 
for natural history of which her father wrote in the oft-quoted 
letter to Gronovius: The portions of this letter which refer to 
Jane are here printed as copied from the original draft :* 
**To Dr. JOHN FREDERIC GRONOVIUS 
Senateur de la Ville de Leiden. 
New York Oct. Ist, 1755- 
* * * **T (often) thought that Botany is an amusement which may 
be made greater to the Ladies who are often at a loss to fill up their time 
(& that) it could be made agreable to them (it would prevent their 
employing so much of their time in trifling amusements as they do). 
Their natural curiosity & the pleasure they take in the beauty & variety 
of dress seems to fit them for it (far more than men). The chief 
reason that few or none of them have hitherto applied themselves to 
this study I believe is because all the books of any value are wrote in 
Latin & so filed with technical words that the obtaining the necessary 
previous knowledge is (attended with) so (much) tiresome and disa- 
greable that they are discouraged at the first set out & give it over 
before they can receive any pleasure in the pursuit. 
**T have a daughter, who has an (natural) inclination to reading & 
a curiosity for natural philosophy or natural History, & a sufficient 
capacity for attaining a competent knowledge. I took the pains to 
explain Linnaeus’s System (for her), and to put it in English for her 
use by freeing it from the Technical terms, which was easily done by 
useing two or three words in place of one. She has now grown se 
fond of the study, and has made such progress in it that as I believe 
would please you if you saw her performance, tho’ perhaps she could 
not have been persuaded to learn the terms at first, she Now under- 
stands in some degree Linnaeus’ characters, notwithstanding that she 
does not understand Latin. She has already a pretty large volume 10 
writing of the Description of plants. She was shown a method of 
taking the impression of the leaves on paper with printers ink, by 4 
simple kind of rolling press which is of use in distinguishing the SP 
* Colden MSS. in the New York Historical Society. For permission to aeons 
k Historical 
some of these MSS. I am indebted to the librarian of the New Yor 
e Scientific Cor- 
ety. 
This letter is somewhat differently printed in ‘ Selections from th 
wi nson and © 
respondence of Cadwallader Colden with Gronovius, Linnaeus, Colli 
Naturalists,’’ Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts 44: 133. 1843 
