c 431 ] 
him, if the letter was put into my hands, I would 
look it over, and deliver my opinion of it. 
Accordingly Dr. Birch delivered the letter to me 5 
and, upon reading it, I found, that tho’ this might 
be a difcovery to thofe two gentlemen ; yet, as it had 
been mentioned in feveral printed books long before, 
I thought it might not be for the reputation of the 
Royal Society to have it printed as fuch in their 
Tranfactions. 
This was my motive for writing that paper : in 
which I have not endeavoured to depreciate the dif- 
covery of the Abbe Sauvages, but have only men- 
tioned what had occurred to me in thofe books of 
botany, where that fhrub is taken notice of. And 
as the knowlege of it, and the method of collecting 
the varnifh, might be of fervice to the inhabitants of 
the Britifh colonies in America, I took the liberty of 
adding the account given of it by Dr. Kcempfer. 
Mr. Ellis, in his letter to Mr. W ebb, afferts, that 
the American Toxicodendron is not the fame with 
Kcempfer’s Arbor 'uernicifera legitima. This af- 
fertion of his makes it neceffary to lay before the 
Society the authorities, upon which I have grounded 
my belief, that they are the fame. But it may not 
be amifs firft to take notice, that the fhrub men- 
tioned by the Abbe Sauvages is the fame with that, 
which the gardeners about London call the Poifon- 
afh. The title of it, mentioned by the Abbe Sau- 
vages, was given by myfelf to that fhrub, in a cata- 
logue of trees and fhrubs, which was printed in the 
year 1730 ; before which it had no generical title 
applied to it. And about the fame time I fent feve- 
ral of the plants to Paris and Holland with that title, 
which 
