C 290,] 
XXXII. ExtraB of Letter from Dr. 
John Hope, Profejfor.of Medicine and 
Botany in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, to 
. Dr. Pringle ; dated Edinburgh, 24 Sep- 
. tember, 1765. • 
■ Read Nov. 7, T' N ’ autumn 1763, I received from 
> 7 ^ 5 * Dcx 5 lor Mounfey the feeds of the 
Rheum palmatum, which he afliired me were the 
-feeds, of the true Rhubarb. I fowed them immedi- 
ately in the open ground in the Botanic garden. In 
the beginning of May laft, one of the plants from 
thefe feeds puflied up a flowering ffem, and about the 
• middle of the month, the flowers began to open, and 
‘ continued in great beauty till the^Bth or 9th of June; 
^ ’during this period, the wind was from the eaft, and 
t extremely cold, and both the air and ground very 
'dry. Thefe circumftances had a great effedt on the 
flowers ; for, at their flrfl appearance one cold day, 
many of them turned black, and I imagined they 
would have been totally deftroyed : they recovered 
however, and opened very well, and I had the plea- 
fure of colledting near thirty feeds, fome of which, 
I hope, will prove fertile. 
I employed Mr. De la Cour to make the draw- 
ings, who, though a good painter, is no botanift ; 
this defedl was fully fupplied by Mr. Samuel Bard 
of New York, fliudent in this univerfity, who made 
the drawings of the frudfification in plate XIII. fig. 
4. Uf a, bj Cf d. 
I was 
