168 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
Larch, Tulip-tree and Cedar among the number, were scarcely 
obtainable. The following letter written by him to Samuel 
Pepys, in 1686, shows the active interest he took in the work. 1 
Letter from John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys, dated from Says 
Court, September 1, ±686, addressed— 
For Mr. Secretary Pepys, &c., 
At the Admiralty in 
Yorke buildings. 
Sr, 
When I had last the honor to see & to dine w th you, 
there was a Captaine (multorum mores hominum qui vidit et 
urbes) who going to command some forces in New-England, 
was so generous, as to offer me his assistance, in procuring 
for me, anything which I thought curious, & rare among the 
plants of those Countries. The Ingenuity, & extraordinary 
Industie of the Gent : by what I both learn’d from the 
Character you gave of him, & what I myselfe could observe 
in so short a time ; together with your interest in him ; makes 
me not willing to omitt so favourable an opportunitie, of 
putting this Note into his hands, thro yours : and that if it 
may comply with his diversion, when he is in the Countrie, 
to collect any of these (or other) natural productions of the 
Vegetable Kingdome : You (who first were pleas’d, to recoin end 
me to him) will give him leave they may be sent, & consigned 
under your auspicious name, to 
S r 
Y rs 
most humble, & 
S • Court continualy Obligd Servant 
2 d ; Sep r :—86 J. EVELYN. 
Plants of New England & Virginia known by these names : 
N : Engl: 
1. The White Cedar 
2. Cedar of N : England .. 
3. Larch-tree 
4. Lime-tree 
The Seedes onely 
Seedes 
Seedes & plants 
Seedes & plants 
1 MS. in the possession of Lady Amherst, of Hackney^ 
