84 
sik JOSEPH BASKS. 
Linnceus to EUis. Upsctl, 20th December, 1771. 
I beseech you, by your warm regard for me and your sense of what is just and 
fair, to persuade Solander to send me some specimens of plants from Banksia, 
or Terra australis, that I may have some idea of the vegetable productions of that 
hitherto unknown region. You may ask this, on the groimd of his long-established 
friendship for me, and of my attachment to him ; of his honourable character, 
and his botanical zeal. You may remind him, that it was I who obtained his 
father’s consent that he should study botany; that I have cherished him as a 
son, under my own roof; that I advised his visiting England; that I introduced 
him to you, and consequently to all your friends ; that I procured him the Peters- 
burgh professorship. If he slights my request, I scarcely think he can answer 
it to himself .... 
You are entitled to my best thanks for undertaking to persuade Solander to 
publish his first botanical discoveries, before he sets out cn another expedition. 
Otherwise his collection may long remain in the British Museum, a prey to moths 
and other insects, and the fruit of so much care, labour, expense, and hazard, 
may share the lot of but too many human projects, to the grief of the whole world. 
Have the Banksian plants any great affinity to the Peruvian discoveries of 
Feuillee? Do any of them resemble the productions of Europe, or the Cape, or 
do they very wddely differ? Are they akin to the plants of America? Are any 
new genera of insects brought home by these travellers? 
The new-found country ought to be named Banksia, from its discoverer, as 
America was from Americus.* 
Ellis to Linnaeus. London, January 14, 1772. 
Upon the receipt of your obliging letter of the 20th of December, I wrote to 
Dr. Solander to call and spend a day with me; accordingly he came a few days 
ago, and I showed him all your letters to me, and begged the favour of him, that 
he would send you an assortment of all the plants, which he and ^Ir. Banks had 
collected on the vo 3 ’age. He assured me that he would do it, and also would 
send you as many of the descriptions as he could get copied ; but he is doubtful 
whether he can send you those of the animal kingdom. I desired he might send 
them to the care of Charles Lindegren, who has promised to send them to you 
by the first ship. I shall not let him depart from this kingdom in peace, unless 
he paj’s that respect to jmu which I know he owes j'ou, for the pains you have 
taken to qualify him for the company of our King, and the greatest people in 
this kingdom. Mr. Banks is taking great pains to preserve the animals in spirits, 
at a very great expense, but I fear we shall not live to see them described. This 
vo 3 ’age towards the South Pole is more to please the head of our Admiralty, Lord 
Sandwich, than is consistent with prudence. They would have had employment 
enough for seven 3 ’ears, to have finished completeU’ what they have discovered. 
Man 3 ' of their seeds are destro 3 'ed by the boxes being obliged to be exposed 
on the shore to the heat of the sun, and bad weather, when they had like to be 
lost on the coast of New Holland. I hope I shall be able, in the spring, to raise 
the seeds of a most valuable plantt, which thev call Chlamydia, from the people 
of New Zealand, in the latitude of 40 degrees South, making themselves cloaks 
of it. 
It seems to have leaves like an Aloe or Yucca ; the flowers are hexapetalous 
and ringent, and the seed-vessel is above the receptacle. Solander sa 3 's, it comes 
nearest to the Hemerocallis. From the leaves of this the natives prepare a fibrous 
substance, like the best flax ; these fibres they comrect together in a very new 
and curious manner with a needle and thread, so as to form very durable and 
convenient garments. As the seeds of it were all destro 3 ’ed b 3 ’ the sunshine and 
* Cnrresp. : I inn t us, 273-5. 
t New Zealand flax tPhormium tenax). 
