184 
SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 
Vallisneri. He discovered it in 1707, and published it in 1710, with a figure. 
I have not the book, but it is copied in his “ Opera omnia,” and in “ Valentine 
Amphitheatruin Zootoinicum,” where you may see it. 
The compliments of Christmas attend you from all our family. We shall think 
of you when we cut the Twelfth cake on Monday. Indeed, we should sincerely 
rejoice if future fortune would allow you once more to partake of it. 
Yours faithfully, Jos. Banks. 
To the younger Linnaeus : — 
Soho Square, December 5, 1778. 
With pleasure I received your favours, and the first edition of your learned 
father’s “ Systema,”* for which I return you my thanks. I always had the highest 
resj)ect for that valuable man, and shall pay every duty to his memory which 
gratitude can dictate. I have invariably studied by the rules of his System, 
under your learned friend Dr. Solander, so that the plants in my intended pub- 
licationf will be arranged according to his strictest rules. Such as are of genera 
described by him will have his names. The new ones, which I think will almost 
outn\imber them, will be named either in honour of distinguished botanists, or, 
according to rules in the “ Philosophia Botanica,” by names derived from the Greek. 
Uninterruptedly, however, as I have applied to the work of engraving for 
near five years, I have not yet advanced above half of my intended progress. 
About ooO plates are engraved,! and I think, if circumstances as yet unexpected 
do not oblige me to cut it short, it will extend to double that number. Under- 
stand by this how impossible it will be for you to quote it in a work intended for 
publication in the course of this year. 
The plants which you so kindly sent me by Mr. Troille I fear are lost. The 
ship has not been heard of, though more than a year has elapsed since she sailed. 
In one thing it will be in your power to oblige me much, and I shall not want 
for gratitude ; if you will kindly undertake to supply me with as good a collection 
of !Mutis’s plants as you can spare, without damaging your own collection.§ A 
small bit, you know, is of great use to a botanist. When you have not a duplicate, 
a small branch, or part, broken from your specimen, may serve, without damaging 
it too much. I shall be able and willing to make returns, in things which you 
cannot easily obtain elsewhere. (See specimen of handwriting, p. 170.) 
I am, with all due attention, your affectionate and faithful servant, 
[Vol. ii, pp. 574-5.] Jos. Banks, P.R.S. 
3. To Sir J. E. kSmith (owner of the herbarium of Linnaeus, founder 
of the Linnean Society. He described a number of Australian 
jdants) ; — 
Soho Square, December 25, 1817 
Jly dear Sir James, 
IMy chief reason for troubling you with this is to tell you that I have paid 
obedience to your mandate, by reading your article on Botanj% in the Scotch 
Encyclopaedia,” which, conceiving it to be an elementary performance, I 
had neglected till now to peruse. 
* “ Systema Naturse.” 1st edition, Leyden, 1735. The 13th edition had just (1778) been 
])ul>lislied at Leipzig. 
t .\pi)arently a reference to the botanical results of the voyage of the " Endeavour to be 
pul)lislied by himself and Dr. Solander, but not published by him. 
t See above p. 60. 
6 These wishes the editor had the pleasure of fulfilling after he acquired the Linnaean Herbarium, 
n 1781. 
