By a Ship just arrivd from South Carolina, I have rec’d a letter, dated
Aug[u]st 5, [a] from our friend D[octo]r Garden, with one inclos’d in it for you which
he has left open for me to read, as it contains the descriptions of 9 of those
plants[b] he calls new Genera, there is nothing new in the Letter, only he advises
that he has sent you the Specimens of those new plants in a pacquet, some few
insects, and a bottle containing one of his new animal, your Siren, and 3
fishes, one of which he says is new. In the same letter, and in mine, he says that he
has met with the Siren from 4 Inches to 3 feet & ½ long,[c] and that he never
observed any difference, So that it must be a distinct Genus of Animal. These things
as soon as I receive them from on board the Ship, I shall forward to you by the best
method I can think of, together with his letter, which is rather too bulky for the Post. He
further says he has rec’d your too letters which I inclos’d him. viz. one of the 15th of
August 1765 and one of the 27th of December, 1765; but that your letter of the the
19th of May, 1765, which you mention, never came to his hand, and he therefore
desires you, if there was any thing new in it, to send him a copy of it.
Since I wrote to you last I have been endeavouring to investigate the nature of your
genus Corallina, and have lately added several new Species, some of which I
have rec’d from the new ceded Islands in the West Indies.
I am the more sollicitous about them, as I find the French and D[octo]r Baster seem
to think them Vegetables; particularly D[octo]r Baster supposes them nothing but
Confervae incrustated. At the same time I am endeavouring to shew the
nature of some of the Confervae, I have discover’d in the Polymorpha
male parts in one plant, & what appears like an Amentum, and capsules full of
Seeds, in another. The same I have seen in the Conferva plumosa, there is a
bad figure of it in Pluken[e]t, Tab. 48. fig. 2. Dillenius has given a better figure, Ed. 3 of
Ray’s Syn. Tab. 2. fig. 5, & calls it Fucoides purpureum eleganter plumosum. I
have found the same male and Female parts[d] in the Fucoides rubens varie
dissectum, of R. Syn. p. 37. I have a Conferva with fruit like a
Rubus, when it is seen through a microscope, and this fruit is surrounded with
petals, and sits on a footstalk. I expect to have the plate of these curious
Confervae engraved, before Christmas. As also a figure of the Coluber
Cerastes from a curious specimen I presented to the Royal Society. It was given
me by D[octo]r Turnbull, who remembers poor Hasselquist, he brought it from
Alexandria, where they say it is poysonous.
M[iste]r Gregg, who formerly sent me the kidneyshapd Sea Pen from Carolina, has
lately sent to Lord Hillsborough, a curious collection of Specimens of Plants, which he
gather’d himself in the Islands of Tobago, St. Vincent, Granada, and Dominica. Among
them are the Brownea and Sloanea, the latter agrees with Loefling’s
description exactly, so that what Miller has seen must be a chestnut. Besides these
plants, there are some curious Birds and Submarine animals. When D[octo]r Solander
and I have look’d them over, they are intended for the British Museum. There is,
among the Sea production an Actinia, that arises, many together, in a row
from wrinkled tubes, which Tubes[e] adhere firmly to rocks, shells, &c.; this seems
to come near to the Tubularia.
I shall send you a Specimen of them preservd in Spirits. I should be glad to know
What you call Bohadsch’s Hydra; for there are many of them in that part of the
world, and likewise what you call his Tethys.
In the Actinia there are 2 rows of Tentacula, that surround the mouth
at the top of it. The lines that run up & down are the tendons of the muscles[f] by
which it extends & contracts itself.
While I am writing this Letter, Solander is examining some of L[ord] Hillsborough’s
plants, and among them is the Jacquinia armillaris, or Chrysophyllum
Barbano of Loefling wherin he says Loefling’s description is more accurate than
any[g] other, especially in the figure of the Stigma and insertion of the filaments.
This is called the Dwarf Gum tree, and is common on the Sea Coast in all our new
Islands.
N.B. Your description of the Calyx is most exact of any.
I wish you would continue to write to me[h] often, it will make me spare more
time than I have done for the amusement of so agreeable a Correspondent as you are,
and one whom I honour and regard so much.
Before I conclude I must tell you, I have met with a most remarkable Sponge near
Chichester at Emsworth in Sussex in company with M[iste]r Brunnich, which I shall
soon send you the plate of. M[iste]r Brunnich is now in Cornwall, he met with an
accident in Wales from a fall from his horse, which has detained him longer than he
intended.
My best Wishes attend you; and be assured of the love, honour, &
esteem of, D[ea]r Sir, your obligd humble Serv[an]t,
John Ellis.