Dear Sir,
Not hearing from you since I wrote to you last, which was 15 March, I have
concluded that you must have been prevented by Sickness.
I take this[a] opportunity of Capt[ain] Trobenius, to send you a Specimen of a
Siren from Doctor Garden, and likewise some proof plates of what I intend for
my second Volume, as well those that are already printed in our Philosophical
Transactions, as those that are intirely new, and have not yet been given to any body;
depending on you, my Dear Friend, that no copies my be taken of them, but to remain
with you for your own information. I have not as yet finishd the description of them, but
shall now soon begin to arrange what I intend on the Subject; and am only detain’d by
5 plates more, which I must get executed, as I have several Mollusca, Corals,
and particularly some Gorgonias and Alcyoniums, which I have received from our West
Indies, preserv’d in spirits, with all their Suckers, or Tentacula, extended as
when alive. But it is impossible to describe to you how difficult it is to get drawings
and engravings well executed, and finishd in any reasonable time, besides the
extravagant expenses that attend them.
I must now inform you, that Joseph Banks, Esq[uire] a Gentleman of £. 6000
per annum Estate, has prevailed on your Pupil, D[octo]r Solander, to accompany him in
the Ship that carries the English Astronomers to the new discover’d country in the
South sea, Lat. about 20° S[outh], and Long. between 130° & 150° W[est] from
London, where they are to collect all the natural curiosities of the Place, and, after the
Astronomers have finish’d their Observations on the transit of Venus, they are to
proceed under the direction of M[iste]r Banks, by order of the Lords of the Admiralty,
on further discoveries of the great Southern Continent, and from thence proceed to
England by the Cape of good Hope. They are to leave Plymouth about this time, and
from thence proceed to the Island of Madeira; from thence to Rio Janeiro, afterwards
to the Falkland Islands and the entrance of the Straits of Magellan; from thence round
Cape Horn, & so to George’s Land. No people ever went to Sea better fitted out for the
purpose of Natural History, nor more elegantly. They have got a fine Library of Natural
History; they have all sorts of machines for catching & preserving Insects; all kind of
nets, trawls, drags, & hooks for coral fishing; they have even a curious contrivance of a
telescope by which, put into the water, you can see the bottom to a great depth, where
it is clear. They have many cases of bottles with ground Stoppers, of several sizes, to
preserve animals in Spirits. They have the several sorts of Salts to surround the seeds;
and wax, both bees wax and that of the Myrica; besides, there are many
people whose sole business is to attend them for this very purpose. They have two
painters and draughtsmen, several volunteers who have a tolerable notion of natural
history; in short, Solander assurd me this Expedition would cost M[iste]r Banks ten
thousand pounds. All this is owing to you and your Writings.
About 3 days ago I took my leave of Solander, when he assur’d me he would write
to you and to all his family, & acquaint them with the particulars of this expedition. I
must observe to you, that his places are secur’d to him, and he has promises from
persons in power of much better preferment on his return.
Every body here parted from him with reluctance; for no man was ever more
belov’d, and in so grest esteem with the public from his affable & polite behaviour.
The reason he was not introduc’d to the King was owing to Doctor Hill’s being so
great a favourite with Lord Bute; for if Solander’s merit had been known to the King,
D[octo]r Hill must have sunk in the opinion of all persons that attend the Court, as
much as he is fallen in the opinion of all lovers of botany and natural history, on
acc[oun]t of the little credit that is to be given to what he advances; for tho’ he
certainly has great abilities, the want of that fairness & exactness makes the world
suspect him & his writings are a mere drug. M[iste]r Fitzhugh, Factor to the East India
Company for many years in China, who has been in the tea country, is just arriv’d, and
has brought a Tea tree home alive. As he is very curious and intelligent, I askd him
particularly about the species of tea, Green and Bohea. He declares it is but one and
the same plant, and that if you take the green tea and transplant it into the country
where Bohea is made, it will produce Bohea tea; and so to the contrary. That it has but
6 petals, and that you must have been imposd on by D[octo]r Hill. D[octo]r Solander &
I examin’d him minutely about it but a week ago. He knows the Captain that brought
over your Tea trees very well; and confesses that the sowing the seeds in the earth, as
they are going to leave the coast, is the only way. M[iste]r Fitzhugh’s tea plants came
up from seed, and, when at St. Helena, were destroyed by Rats. The tree he has
brought over is an old one; it is under the care of J[ames] Gordon. I hear there is
another Tea tree just arrived in fine order.
I am in hopes of specimens of the Illicium anisatum very soon, and seeds
in January. The specimen I lately rec’d has 30 Stamina, and 13
Pistilla; about 27 petals, and 4 parts in the perianthium. The Flower is
of a red colour. There are no nectaria. It seems to come next to the
Dillenia. I have lately had several fair seed-vessels of the Ellisia, and I
find that there are 4 Seeds in each, 2 above the other two. The calyx or
perianthium is monophyllum, quinque-partitum. The seeds
when magnified are not muricated, but like the seeds of Papaver, only black. I
have lately rec’d a Boletus from the Moskito shore, whose upper and smooth
Surface is of a fine Sky blue colour, the under part, where the pores are, of a fine
yellow. It seems to be a parasitical one; but the stalk, by which it adhered to the tree,
grows to the middle of the upper or blue part. The figure of it is as underneath
[illustration saying: The upper or blue part] [illustration saying: This is
the under part and full of minutes pores]
I have likewise rec’d from the North part of S[outh] Carolina a new kind of
Fungus. I shewd it to Solander, and he had never seen any thing like it; it
seems to approach the Phallus I compard it with Michelius’s figures, p. 83,
but it wants the Pileus.
I have given a little Schetch of it underneath.
[illustration]
The inside, when it is dissected, is like a honeycomb. The person who gave it to me
collected it, and says when it was fresh it was of the richest scarlet colour he ever saw,
but that the smell was intolerably fetid. I should be glad to know whether it is worth
making a drawing of it.
If you have made any new experiments on animal and vegetable infusions, pray let
me know. I am determind to go through M[iste]r Needhams, and have now some
mutton gravy sealed up like his in a bottle. I intend to examine it in a fortnight. I have
seen something surprising on a dead fly, that was drown’d in water where some
flowers were. I begin to think that there are several zoophytes in fresh water, that
appear to grow when animal & vegetable substances are putrefying. I will do justice to
these Experiments; for truth is all I want to pursue. The zoophyte I mean is that which
is represented in the Ph[ilosophical] Transact[ion]s Vol. 45, No. 490. Tab. 5.
[illustrations saying; the hole at top; the surface of fall of minute Papilla
which open horizontally as thus. These holes are all cavities like honeycomb and
correspond with the paillae on the surface of the cavity.]
The one that I have figured is highly magnified, and when the minute globules came
out at the top, they seemed to be alive and float about. After a time this kind extended
itself into small ramifications, like roots, and then died away.
But I have no more room now, but wish to hear from you, and that you may get
what I send you safe & to assure you of my best wishes for your health & long life,
Dear Sir,
Your most obligd Friend,
John Ellis.
I shall now endeavour to get some of the Ustilago to try that
experiment fairly.
Poor Collinson, our friend, is dead.
My Lord Hillsborough has sent me some specimens of wild nutmeg,
with small fruit on them; they are the same that is taken notice of in the
Herb[arium] Amboinense to grow at Surinam. I have wrote to Tobago to get
specimens of the flowers, to fix the genus.
{div-address}To
The Right Honorable
Charles Von Linné
at Upsal
of
Sweden
Post p[ai]d
TEXTUAL NOTES
a. MS. 1 this [added above the line]