Letter 0695

Preston thanks Sloane for sending the Philosophical Transactions over the last few months. His is sad to hear John Ray is indisposed and what this means for botany. Preston hopes the booksellers publish Ray’s work. He discusses a new plant lately brought to Leiden from Ceylon, the ‘Armella’, and the dissection of a whale, though Preston himself was not present when it was undertaken. Preston was a physician and botanist who established a lengthy correspondence with Sloane, exchanging plants, seeds, books and information. His main interest was in botany, and was well-known by his contemporaries for his botanical knowledge (Anita Guerrini, Preston, Charles (16601711), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47084, accessed 18 June 2013]).