JFttj 3ofjn TOntfjrop. 
r 9 
Letter written by John Winthrop, Efq., Governor of Con- 
necticut in New England, to the Publifher, concerning 
fome Natural Curiofities of thofe Parts ; efpecially a very 
ftrange and curioufly-contrived Fifh, fent for the Repoli- 
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; 1 ' 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 pailed 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) 
" 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 moft numerous collection." Dr. John Winthrop, 
F.R.S. (died 1779), Hollifian Profeffor of Mathematics at 
Cambridge, N.E., whofe important papers on aftronomical 
1 Eliot, Biog. Di6b, in loco. 
