Letter 0568

A parcel accompanies the letter. Ray discusses the beauty of the dried plant specimens he is working with, but laments that things went poorly with the latest batch. He could not get at the fruit or seeds without marring them. He claims little is known about the root. Ray notes that he is not familiar with Indian or American plants, which is why he is reluctant to work with them. He had hoped Sloane and others would have already named and classified them. Ray will compare these specimens with the Maryland plants Sloane provided him. Ray was a theologian and naturalist who collected and catalogued his botanical findings in the much lauded Historia plantarum (1686, 1688) (Scott Mandelbrote, Ray , John (16271705), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23203, accessed 18 June 2013]).