Letter 3069

Ray thanks Sloane for a letter and apologizes for his late reply, explaining that his work has kept him occupied. Ray considers Sloane’s trip to Jamaica: ‘[w]ere it not for the danger & hazard of so long a voyage I could heartily wish such a person as your self might travel to Jamayca, & search out & examine thoroughly the naturall varieties of that island.’ The collecting of plants and herbs is discussed in some detail. 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]).