Letter 3956

James Harlow returned to Carrickfergus ‘wth 20 cases of shrubs & trees each containing above 50’. He brought 6 shells, dried plants, and he has a large collections of ferns. Harlow had few ‘herbaceous things & grasses’ and not above 100 seeds. Harlow and Sherard sent the entire collection to London and Sherard asks Sloane to see if it has arrived. One box was sent from Jamaica with Mr Morris, but the latter was forced to return to the island because the ship ‘sprung a leak’. Another box was ‘directed to Sr Arthur Rawdon to some Capt yt proceeded on ye voyage’. Neither Sherard nor Harlow remember the name of the ship Rawdon’s cargo is on, but Sherard asks Sloane to see if the package is arrived. Sloane is to communicate the same message to Dr Herman, Dr Uvedale, Mr Bobart, and Mr London. Sloane can also ask Sherard’s brother to help with the task. Sherard has a collection of dried specimens for Sloane to examine. One ‘Dr P’ was working on a new botanical treatise, the third volume in the series, but to finish the book Dr P needs to examine one of Sherard’s Portuguese plants. A fern Sherard gathered in Madeira is of particular interest, for he thinks it unique and will send Sloane a sample of it. Sherard drank to Sloane’s health with Captain James Bayley. 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]).