OLD ESSEX GARDENERS AND THEIR GARDENS. 75
The remaining letter (Jan. 6th, 1738-9) reads: "I take ye
"liberty of sending herewith two fruits of ye Banana which as
"they seem to have come to their full size and maturity in my
"stove, I thought might be agreeable to you to see, though by
"ye appearance of one of ye same which I cut, I rather imagine
"them to be over-ripe."
It may be pointed out that according to Linnaeus in Hortus
Cliffortianus the banana first flowered at Vienna in 1731.
Another of Lord Petre's friends was Peter Collinson
(1694-1768), one of the outstanding figures in eighteenth
century botany and the correspondent of practically every
prominent botanist of the period.9 Collinson had a garden at
Peckham till 1749, when he moved to Mill Hill; a list of the
plants growing in the famous Mill Hill garden (Hortus Collin-
sonianus) was published anonymously in 1843 by Lewis Weston
Dillwyn, who lived for many years at Walthamstow. Collinson
was a woollen draper, but no name stands higher in the ranks of
those who have striven to introduce new plants to our gardens,
particularly from North America with which he had "business in
"the mercantile way." The introduction in a manuscript book,
An account of the first Introduction of American Seeds into Great
Britain, in the Department of Botany gives Collinson's own
version of how he was instrumental in organising a most successful
venture.:—
"As the Nobility and Gentry for Some Years past have introduced
"a vast Variety of North American Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers, into
"their Plantations.
"The Present, as well as the Next Generation, may be pleased to
''know at what Time, and By whom, such abundance of the Vegetable
"productions of our Colonies, were Naturalized to Our Climate:—
"In the very Early Part of my Life, I had a Love for Gardening,
"this Increased with my years. My Publick Station in Business
"brought Mee Acquainted with Persons, that were Natives of Carolina,
"Virginia, Maryland, Pensilvania, and New England:—
"My Love for New and Rare plants put Mee often on Soliciting
"their Assistance, for Seeds, or Plants, from these Countries:—
"I used much importunity to very Little purpose—for the favour of
"the people, was entirely another Way; What was common with
"them, (but Rare with us) they did not think worth sending. Thus I
10 When the collections of Sir Hans Sloane were purchased by the nation, Collinson "being
"one of the few who visited Sir Hans at all times familiarly and continued to do so to the latest
"period" took particular delight in arranging the invaluable acquisitions, some part of which he
had been instrumental in procuring and would gladly have accepted the office of curator. He was
evidently vexed at not being appointed; probably his age, sixty, counted against him.