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TIL Observations on, and an Account of, Plants growing in 

 the Neighbourhood of Constantinople, Seeds of which were 

 collected and transmitted to the Horticultural Society of 

 London. In a Letter to the Secretary. By the Rev. 

 Robert Walsh, LL. D. Corresponding Member of the 

 Horticultural Society. 



Read July 6, 1824 



Dear Sir, 



When I left England, I promised to send you seeds and 

 specimens of such plants, from the neighbourhood of Con- 

 stantinople, as might be rare and curious. I had not hitherto 

 done so, because I conceived, I did not possess sufficient to 

 interest you. I last year, however, made a tour in Asia, and 

 having picked up a few plants which I thought worth trans- 

 planting into the Palace Garden, where they were not before, it 

 occurred to me that some of them might be acceptable, I have 

 therefore now made a collection of the seeds of all the trees 

 and shrubs in this country which are prized here, or not com- 

 mon in England, as also of the Esculents that are sold in the 

 markets, or grown in gardens. Among the latter you will 

 find a collection of Gourds and Melons, containing, I be- 

 lieve, nearly all that are cultivated in this part of the East, 

 about thirty species and varieties. 



Having for some time amused myself with endeavours to 

 ascertain the identity of the plants existing here, with those 

 described by Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, 

 whose vague descriptions are sometimes very unsatisfactory; 



