Letter 4551

Posted on February 23, 2019 by -

Dr. Hans Sloane to Mr. John Ray – January 31, 1684/5


Item info

Date: January 31, 1684/5
Author: Dr. Hans Sloane
Recipient: Mr. John Ray

Library: The Correspondence of John Ray: Consisting of Selections from the Philosophical Letters Published by DR. Derham and Original Letters of John Ray, in the Collection of the British Museum
Manuscript: The Correspondence of John Ray: Consisting of Selections from the Philosophical Letters Published by DR. Derham and Original Letters of John Ray, in the Collection of the British Museum
Folio: pp. 159 - 160


Original Page


Transcription

SIR,-I should be of the mind, that to supersede the

use of botanic authors, and make your history everyway complete, it would be necessary to mention all the varie- ties of the Harts-tongues, for instance, to be found in any catalogue or garden; and so of all other herbs; for it will much please the humours of men, and the possessors or admirers of such varieties may take it ill to have what they esteem so much left out. Therefore, if at the end of each species there were named all the variations, I think it would not be amiss, especially considering it would tend to the giving of a fuller history of the plant itself, and that it may hinder mistakes.

I have two sorts of the Bangue, which were sent from

two several places of the East Indies: they both differ much from our Hemp, although they seem to differ most as to their magnitude; I do not in the least doubt but these sorts of Bangue are those with which the Indians use to provoke venery; the leaves, and all the plant, not being carefully dried, makes a good description from them impossible.

I have been told by several, that Muscelin (so much in

use here for cravats) and Calligo, and the most of the Indian linens, are made of nettles, and I see not the least improbability but that they may be made of the fibres of them.
London, Jan. 31, [1684/5]
 

Edwin Lankester, ed. The Correspondence of John Ray: Consisting of Selections from the Philosophical Letters Published by Dr. Derham, and original letters of John Ray in the Collection of the British Museum (London: Printed for the Ray Society, 1848), pp. 159-160.

Letter destination presumed as Black Notley as Ray’s location in his prior and letter and response to Sloane is Black Notley. Ray was also considered not to have left Black Notley after 1679.

 



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