Plukcnct. 
21 
king and queen beftowed on it. The Earl 
of Portland alfo, had fo much relifh for 
exotics, as to have repeatedly fent Jacob 
Reede to t\iQ WeJ} Indies, to colled: cu- 
rious produffions for the Royal Garden. 
Plukenet was one of thofe to whom Mr. 
Ray was indebted for affiftance in the ar- 
rangement of the fecond volume of his Hif- 
tory s and that eminent man, every where 
bears the ftrongeft teftimony to his merit. 
Nevertbelefs Plukenet wanted that pa- 
tronage, to which his learning, and fcience, 
entitled him j and he feems, by his com- 
plaints, to have feverely felt it. In the lat- 
ter part of his life, he appears to have been 
at variance with Sloane and Petiyer ; 
two of the firft charafters of the age, for 
knowledge in his own fludies. He cen- 
fures their writings, it mujft be confelTed, 
in a ftile of too much afperity. Whether 
this alienation from thofe of whom he had 
before fpoken in terms of frieodfhip, and 
refped, had its origin in jealoufy on the 
one hand, or what is more probable, on the 
other, in that indignant loftinefs, which 
{00 often accompanies the confcioufnefs of 
C 3 neglefted 
