Letter 2758

Preston reminds Sloane of a letter with which he sent some specimens and a catalogue of Balfour’s Library. He thanks Sloane for lending him Tournefor’s ‘Histoire des plantes’. He sends a manuscript he hopes will interest Sloane. Preston mentions James Sutherland’s contributions to botany and the possibility of publishing it. There is an indecipherable inscription on a gold ring Preston possesses. He asks if Sloane knows someone who might be able to decode it. 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]).