Letter 0307

Bobart welcomes Sloane back to England and praises his contributions to botany. He claims Sloane has ‘enriched our Country and made more additions then ever Sr W. Rawley or 100 more of the best have done’ and will be remembered for it. Many new plants have been domesticated in England because of Sloane’s work. Bobart is glad Sloane and his cargo made it home safely. He hopes the opportunity to study so many plants is not wasted, for ‘we may never againe have opportunitie of haveing the least sense of’ them. Jacob Bobart (1641-1719) was a botanist and son of Jacob Bobart, the elder (c.1599-1680). He worked with his father at the Oxford Physic Garden for nearly 40 years (D. E. Allen, ‘Bobart, Jacob, the younger (1641–1719)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2742, accessed 5 June 2015]).