1793. 'Oxalis Monographia' is an exquisite study of about a hundred Oxalises. Nearly all the plates are coloured. Most of these delicate little plants with their bulbous roots come from the Cape of Good Hope. Jacquin seems to have had a peculiar affection for them, as, besides this monograph, he constantly figures them in his miscellaneous works. I have often tried to procure his book on Stapelias, also a large family of Cape plants rather like small Cactuses, but have never been able to do so, and have only seen it at the Museum. 1797-1804. 'Plantarum Rariorum Horti Caesarei Schoenbrunnensis' These four superb folios, containing five hundred spotless plates by Jacquin, represent some of his very finest work. The plates are all coloured, in a much stronger and more finished way than in his other books. Some of the plates are folded and larger than the book, and others extend across the whole width of the book. As an example of the richness of the plates I will describe one taken at random, which he calls Vitis vulpina. The shoot of the vine starts from a short piece of stronger branch at the very top of the page, and curves to the bottom, turning up at the end with young leaves and tendrils. This young shoot has two bunches of the flower as it appears in spring. Quite at the top, on the right, is a detached autumn leaf turning red, and drawn from the back with every vein showing. Half-way down, on the left, is a bunch of ripe purple grapes; with one pip, drawn life-size, at the side. Below this is a single flower, highly magnified, with a drawing apart showing pistil and stamen. There are ten life-sized leaves on the branch, and the whole is contained on an unfolded plate. A short botanical description of each plant is added in Latin. The hand-made paper on which these plates are printed puts to shame all that we now produce. Many of the plants are named differently from what they are now. To those who have never seen Jacquin's works these volumes are an absolute revelation. At the same time his genius will always appeal more to the artistic than to the scientific mind, although in the biographical notices of him that I have seen he is only mentioned as a doctor and a botanist. At the Natural History Museum is a large and much-valued collection of his letters and original drawings.

1794. 'Thirty-eight Plates with explanations, intended to illustrate Linnaeus' system of vegetables, and particularly adapted to the letters on the elements of Botany. By Thomas Martin, Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge.' These plates are beautifully drawn, and exemplify very well the careful draughtsmanship of a botanist of the day. They are most faithfully hand coloured, and are only inferior to the best from a little want of gradation.

1794. I have the 'Life of Sir Charles Linnaeus, by D. H. Stoever, translated from the original German by Joseph Trapp.' It is, I believe, the only biography of him ever written. To this is added a copious list of his works and a biographical sketch of his son, whose life is an interesting example of talents shared by a father and son. The son, who died unmarried at the early age of forty-one, seems to have been a brilliant and much-loved individual. Trapp dedicates his translation to the Linnaean Society of London. It contains a portrait of the elder Linnaeus, a cheerful, bright, up-looking profile, with the curly wig of the day, and a large branch stuck in his buttonhole, as was not uncommon in the portraits of botanists. He was born in 1707, was the son of a Swedish minister, and the grandson of a peasant. His industry and energy must have been exceptional, and he chose truth as his guide. His first book was the 'Flora of Lapland,' which was perhaps the reason why that little Northern flower, Linnea borealis, is the plant that has received his great name.

He married at twenty-seven, and his father-in-law seems to have put small faith in his botany, and advised him to apply himself more exclusively to the theoretical and practical study of physic. After his marriage he made money as a doctor in Stockholm, and it is not otherwise than interesting to know that when attacked with very severe gout at forty-three, and the doctors who attended him began to despair of his recovery, he cured himself by eating nothing but Strawberries for a time. Afterwards he kept the gout entirely in check by taking a Strawberry cure every summer. In several ways the book gives an interesting picture of life in the last century. Linnaeus's books are characterised by religious sentiment, nevertheless they had the misfortune of being considered at Rome as heretical and materialistic productions. In 1758 they were inserted in the catalogue of forbidden books; no one durst either print or sell them under pain of having every copy confiscated or publicly burnt. This proceeding was implicitly condemned during the papacy of the excellent and truly enlightened Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIV. Linnaeus himself mentions this occurrence in a letter to the Chevalier Thunberg in the following terms:- 'The Pope, who fifteen years ago ordered those of my works that should be imported into his dominions to be burnt, has dismissed the Professor of Botany who did not understand my system, and put another in his place, who is to give public lectures according to my method and theory.'

1797. 'The Botanist's Repository, by H. Andrews.' This is a rare book, I believe, and ought to be in ten quarto volumes. I have only the first eight. It contains coloured engravings only of new and rare plants, many of which cannot, I think, have flowered in England, as there are several Proteas, which are exceedingly difficult of cultivation under glass. Andrews' great fondness for plants from the Cape of Good Hope makes one almost think he must have been there-Gladioli, Ixias, and curious Cape Pelargoniums, which are the parents of all our greenhouse varieties. On the bottom of the title-page is a charming little drawing of that humble plant the Linnea borealis ('Twin Flower,' Mr. Robinson calls it), which I have never yet been lucky enough to flower. The design represents two little flowering branches raised on either side like two arms. I feel much drawn to the man Andrews, who so skilfully placed it there, just a hundred years ago, to do honour to his great master. Andrews' other book is 'The Heathery, or a Monograph of the Genus Erica.' Again I have only the small edition published in 1804. The folio one is very scarce. This is a pretty, interesting book, with moderately well-drawn plates, coloured by hand. The Heaths are such a large family, and nearly all apparently come from the Cape of Good Hope. I cannot understand why people who have several greenhouses should not grow more of these charming plants. They require a certain amount of special treatment, a very cool house and plenty of air. It seems such a pity that private gardeners only care to grow the few plants which they can exhibit for competition-markedly, just now, Orchids and Chrysanthemums. These Cape Heaths look lovely picked and wedged, or growing in the greenhouse, and, I should imagine, would do especially well in houses by the sea. On the frontispiece of his book Andrews has a quaint picture of a greenhouse for growing his Heaths.

Towards the end of the year I will tell you about those of my books which belong to this century.