r 
[ 242 ] 
which you did me the honour to receive favourably : 
Upon the ftrength of which I now lay before you the 
remains of that ftill more famous botanic garden at Ful- 
ham, wherein Dr. Henry Compton, heretofore bifliop 
of London, planted a greater variety of curious exotic 
plants and trees, than had at that time been collected 
in any garden in England. 
This excellent prelate prefided over the fee of Lon- 
don from the year 1 677 to 1/135 during which 
time, by means of a large correfpondence with the 
principal botanifts of Europe and America, he in- 
troduced into England a great number of plants, 
but more efpecially trees, which had never been 
feen here before, and defcribcd by no author : and 
in the cultivation of thefe, as we are informed by 
the late mofl ingenious Mr. Ray * *, he agreeably 
fpent fuch part of his time, as could mod conve- 
niently be fpared from his other more arduous occu- 
pations. 
From this prelate’s goodnefs in permitting with 
freedom perfons curious in botany to vifit his garden, 
and fee therein what was to be found no-where 
elfe; and from his zeal in propagating botanical know- 
lege, by readily communicating to others, as well 
foreigners as our own countrymen, fuch plants and 
feeds, as he was in polfeffion of, his name is men- 
tioned with the greateft encomiums by the botanical 
writers of his time j to wit, by Herman, Ray, Pluk- 
net, and others. 
Mr. 
— — 
* Hift. Plant. Tom, n. p. 1798. 
