home to have receiv'd it. I was viewing a mountain about 15 miles distant, which did not prove according to expectation, being cover'd over with heath and moss. I have observ'd three or four Musci Adianti Capitulis here, which are not in Mr. Ray's Synopsis, and sent them to Mr. Doody, who is putting out a small treatise of them with cuts. On my return home by a lough-side, in a very wet rotten bog, I met with Helleborine fl. albo;3 which, besides the difference of its growing from that on Stoken-church hills, where I have 2 intimacy between Sir A. Rawdon and Sherard, probably, arose from a similarity of pursuits; for Dr. Pulteney states that the baronet, on seeing Sir Hans Sloane's splendid collection, sent James Harlow, a skilful gardener, to Jamaica, who returned with a ship almost laden with plants in a vegetating state, and with a great number of dried specimens. No further letters from Sherard occur in this correspondence till 1701: in the interval he must have left England; for it will be seen by Uvedale's letter of March, 1697, that he was at that time in Rome. 2 Whatever the treatise here alluded to, it does not appear that Doody ever published it, or indeed anything else in reference to Natural History; and it is to be lamented that he did not; for Pulteney says of him, that, "among the cryptogamic plants, he made the most discoveries of any man in that age, and in the knowledge of them stood clearly unrivalled;" and Jussieu paid him the compliment to designate him, "inter Pharmacopæos Londinenses sui temporis Coryphæus." 3 Most probably the Epipactis ensifolia, Smith, which Dillenius, in Ray's Synopsis, says he received in 1694, sent him by Sherard from Ireland. The plant of Stoken-church woods, mentioned almost immediately afterwards, is the Epipactis grandiflora of the English Flora; and the Damasonium purpureum dilutum, the Epipactis rubra, of the same work. found it plentifully, the narrowness and length of its leaves persuade me is a distinct kind. I have seen the specimen found by Mr. Newton, which Mr. Ray mentions, which may be it for ought I know, tho' I took it to be the Damasonium purpureum dilutum, sive 6. Clus. J. B., of which I have specimens I found near Geneva. I set out next Thursday for the mountains near Belfast, and will continue along the shoar to Carlingford. Tom Harrison is not yet come; but I hope will by my return, that I may have his company to the county of Derry and the western shoar. I am glad you have received your seeds from Dr. Hermann: he sent me a parcel and book the same time, (as he writes), which I have not yet heard of. Tom Harrison will bring them (tho' they'll come late) with any dry'd plants my brother has received. I'me glad to hear what you write concerning Mr. Bobart.* I know he is 4 "Jacob Bobart; son of a preceding Jacob Bobart, a German, who came into this country about the middle of the seventeenth century, and was appointed first superintendant of the Physic Garden at Oxford, founded in 1632, by Henry Earl of Danby.. The Catalogus Plantarum in that garden, published at Oxford, in 1648, 12mo. was drawn up by Bobart, and is a very favourable proof of his zeal and diligence. His name is joined in the second edition, 1658, as an associate in the work with Dr. Stephens and Mr. Browne. He wrote the second volume of the Plantarum Historia Universalis Oxoniensis, seu Herbarum Distributio Nova, to which Dr. Thomas Hyde, Keeper of the Bodleian Library, added annotations on the eastern names. Bobart had also intended a third volume, on trees, but died before it tired of Oxford, and would gladly remove: he has been making an interest for Watts his place, at was finished.-(The first volume of that work was compiled by Dr. Robert Morison, a native of Aberdeen; who, quitting Scotland in the troubles, studied at Paris, took a degree in physic at Angers, and directed the Royal Gardens at Blois, till the death of the Duke of Orleans: at the restoration, he was appointed Overseer of the King's Gardens, and Fellow of the College of Physicians, and in 1669, Professor of Botany in the University of Oxford, where he read lectures, till he set about publishing The Universal Knowledge of Simples. He died November 9th, 1683. Wood's Fasti, п. p. 178.)—Edmund Gayton, the poetaster, wrote a poem on Mr. Jacob Bobart, Yeoman of the Guards to the Physic Garden, to the tune of the Counter Scuffle, Oxford, 1662. Granger relates a humorous circumstance in his manners; that, ‘on rejoicing-days, he used to have his beard tagged with silver.' There is a very scarce print of the elder Bobart with a distich, dated 1675, by Burghers, which confirms his German origin. He died, February 4th, 1679, aged 81; and left, besides Jacob, another son, named Tillemant, who was also employed in the Physic Garden. "I cannot,' says Dr. Pulteney, ascertain the time of (the younger) Bobart's death; but from the story related of him by Dr. Grey, in his edition of Hudibras, which implies that he was of a humorous disposition, he must have been living in 1704. He had transformed a dead rat into the feigned figure of a dragon, which imposed upon the learned so far, that—several fine copies of verses were wrote on so rare a subject. Bobart afterwards owned the cheat; but it was preserved for some years, as a master-piece of art!!'-Bobart lived considerably longer than Dr. Pulteney supposes. Dr. Abel Evans, in 1713, dedicated Vertumnus, a poetical epistle, to him, which is preserved in the Select Collection of Poems, 1780, vol. m. p. 145, and contains much historical information. Bobart had formed a Hortus Siccus in twenty volumes. He is several times mentioned with great kindness in these letters of Consul Sherard, who laments, in March, 1719, that the Vice-chancellor had compelled Bobart to resign the office of Botanic Professor, and also records his death, which happened at a very advanced age, in a few months after. He was buried, December 30th, the expiration of his lease, (which will be next year;) but I believe Sam: Doody is secure of it.5 I should be glad to have a catalogue of your seeds at the latter end of summer. I'll send you one of mine, which shall be at your service. If Mrs. Stanhope be not returned, I believe she'll stay and ly-in in Yorkshire, by whom pray send what additions you can make, out of your garden or the fields: if she be, be pleased to direct to my brother, at the Blackmore's Head, in Paternoster Row. I have raised above sixty Barbados plants, from seed sent by Mr. Charleton, brought over by James Read, the quaker, of which I'll save you some patterns. I think I sent you a catalogue from London of my northern wants: give me leave to renew it. Pray my respects to 1719. A descendant of this family, Tillemant Bobart, is still well known to all who wish for civil treatment, and a safe carriage on the road to Oxford." NICHOLS.-What is said in this letter of "Bobart's wish to resign," receives an interesting comment from a passage in another of Sherard's letters, dated July 8th, 1719, and not here inserted. In it he says, "I am surprised the Vice-chancellor has obliged Mr. Bobart to resign his place, and has chosen Dr. Sandys of Wadham, Botanic Professor: they ought to have let him spend the short remainder of his time in the garden." The Vice-chancellor at that time was Dr. Skippen, Principal of Brazen-Nose College. As to what is mentioned above in this note, respecting Bobart's "having his beard tagged with silver," I understand from the present Botanical Professor, Dr. Daubeny, that there is a portrait of him with such an appendage, still, 1834, existing at Oxford, in the possession of one of his descendants. 5 Superintendant and Demonstrator of the garden at Chelsea. Mr. Lawson (whom I once saw something of above two years ago, since at Chelsea, with Mr. Watts ;) and let him know, if I can be serviceable to him here, I shall be very ready. Sir, I wish you success in your journey, and in all other your undertakings. I RETURN you many thanks for your obliging letter, and for the books you were pleased to send me. Your discoveries are very considerable; and nothing can be more acceptable than patterns 1 The literary annals of the times scarely present us a greater name than that of Edward Lhwyd, either as a naturalist or antiquary. In the former capacity, he is principally known by his researches in geology, a science which has taken altogether so new a character from the discoveries of the present day, that it is hardly possible for his labours to be estimated as they deserve. In the latter, his Archæologia Britannica will never fail to hold a high rank among the publications on that interesting subject. This and his Lithophylacii Britannici |