Letter 3841

Houstoun sends ‘a Collection of Plants and other natural Curiosities from La Vera Cruz’ including seeds, dried plants, a ‘Drawing of a manufactory of Cochoneel’, and an Indian painting. He discusses ‘contrayerva’ and botany. Houstoun was glad to hear that Sloane employed his friend Mr Amman. William Houstoun (c. 1704-1733) was a botanist and physician. He was elected a member of the Académie des sciences in 1728. Houstoun worked as a surgeon for the South Sea Company from 1730 and collected plants in Jamaica and Cuba among other places (G. S. Boulger, ‘Houstoun, William (c.1704–1733)’, rev. D. E. Allen, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13876, accessed 27 Aug 2014]).