Letter 2190

Sherard forwards a packet of books from Breyne and some fossils from Tuscany with a catalogue. He requests figures of two plants, which he suspects are the same. They are: ‘Matricariae Acheocan dicta similis, Erysimitalys, Absinthis-sapora, Jamaicansis Pluk. Tab. 43. fig. 3.’ and the ‘Absinthium Indianum, fol. mardinatra Caumatis fl. albis, parvuis, umballatis… Amath. Tab. 352. fig. 2’. Sherard was a botanist and cataloguer. He worked for the Turkish Company at Smyrna where he collected botanical specimens and antiques (D. E. Allen, Sherard, William (16591728), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25355, accessed 24 June 2011]).