Letter 4554

Posted on February 23, 2019 by -

Dr. Hans Sloane to Mr. John Ray – August 10, 1686


Item info

Date: August 10, 1686
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: 185 - 187


Original Page


Transcription

Sir,-In turning over my Paris Garden Catalogue, I

found a catalogue of nondescript plants growing there in the year 1683. I saw and took notice of them there, most of the names being given by Dr. Tournefort, whom I expect to see here shortly. The catalogue I transmit you as follows:-

Abrotanum foemina foliis crethmi. D. Fagon.

Abrotanum foemina foliis rorismarini. D. Tournefort.

Betonica purpurea spicá molliori, longiori, et seriùs florente. Tournefort.

Brunella alpine folio angusto integro. D. Tournefort.

Caucalis elegantissima pyrenaica. D. Fagon.

Cerinthe major alpina. Tournefort.

Chamaesyce foliis hirsutis. Tournefort.

Cicutaria latifolia foetida. D. Fagon.

Cucumis Asininus folio Anguriae. D. Fagon.

Daucus pyrenaicus odore citri. D. Fagan.

Echium Creticum latifolium rubrum. Tournefort.

Erysimum siliquis quasi implicitis. D. Fagon.

Ferula folio latissimo. D. Fagon.

Horminum pyrenaicum anguriae folio viscosum, D. Fagon

Laserpitium umbellá contractá et concavá. D. Fagon.

Meum adulterinum longiori folio. D. Tournefort.

Nasturtium aquaticum maximum. D. Fagon.

Oenanthe capitulo longiori et hispidiori. D. Tournefort.

Ruta arborea latifolia. D. Tournefort.

Salvia Cretica coccifera. Tournefort.

Scabiosa folio dipsaci. Tournefort.

Senecio Lamii folio. D. Fagon.

Seseli pyrenaicum Thapsiae folio. D. Fagon.

Succisa angustifolia alpine. Tournefort.

Stachys pyrenaica. D. Fagon.

Stachys Cretica major. Tournefort.

Tithymalus ranunculi radice. D. Fagon.

In our sampling journey to Sheppey we found a peren-

nial Kali [Salicornia fruticose, Sm.*], differing something from that on the Mediterranean shore, in that it creeps, whereas the other is erect. Then the green tops are thicker than that on the Mediterranean shores; and Mr. Watts assures me it is a perennial.  It grows near King’s Ferry, in Sheppey, where also is cast upon the shore the Fucus spongiosus nodosus Ger. emac. In the same place, in the ditch, grows plentifully an Atriplex maritima folio sinuato candicante angusto. It seems to differ from the common Sinuato candicante pin. as the common Maritima from the Sylvestris altera. I send you down specimens of them, and Axtius de pice conficiendá, and Arboribus coniferis, by the first carrier; as also that Fucus I for- merly told you of , to look like a honeycomb, which I found cast upon the shore on Sheppey, as well as at Nesson. There is in town a bark come from Virginia, which has prickles, the bases of which resemble petrified Malta teeth. It stings the tongue in a very extraordinary manner; and he that brought it says it grows plentifully on the shore there. On Sheppey, searching for the cop- peras-stones, or Pyrites, I found that the most part of those taken up in that island are after north-easterly storms, that they are beaten up by the waves, and taken up at low water. Among others I found one something extraordinary. It had been a Buccinum petrified, and after that turned into a Pyrites, viz. weight, colour, &c. I leave you to judge whether or no the difference between the Atriplexes maritimæ and sylvestres may not be occasioned by the differing soil; for, considering that both the maritimæ are less in their leaves that the sylvestres, it is somewhat probable that the brackish aliment of the one does not mollify nor distend the cells of the leaves so well as the other; but that is but a conjecture. I wish you all health and happiness; and am, &c.

London, August 10, 1686.

*Not of Linn, It is a form of the S. radicans, Sm.

         

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.

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.

Notes from the original transcription have been entered.



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