84
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
were bequeathed to Philip Miller, and later were purchased by
Banks. Some of his engravings of the flowers of various new
genera were sent by Miller to Linnaeus in 1736, who adopted
the genus Petrea in his Genera Plantarum. In Hortus Cliffor-
tianus (1737) Linnaeus says:—"Nobilissimo Roberto-Jacobo,
"Domino Petre Baroni de Writtle, plantarum rariorum et
"exoticorum (in Anglia) aestimatori et cultori summo, conse-
"crata fuit haec planta ab Houstono"; and in his Species
Plantarum (1753): "Periit egregius Petreus 1742, aetatis 32,
"variolis correptus, longiori vita dignissimus, utpote qui Florae
"indicae domicilia exstruxit in Europa omnium splendissima."
In his chapter on generic names in Critica Botanica (1737) he
cites "Petrea, Petre, an English nobleman" amongst the " Names
of Patrons." "Patrons are to be held sacred by us, who have
"helped our science from their private resources. . . . We
"should not seem to have bestowed too valuable a gift, in
"offering to such men the name of a plant; nevertheless they win
"more honour, to wit everlasting rememberance, through our
"guileless science than if they set up statues or temples or
"founded castles or cities."
John Martyn (1699-1768) afterwards Professor of Botany at
Cambridge, dedicated his translation of Tournefort's Histoire
des plantes qui naissant aux environs de Paris to
"Robert James Lord Petre, Baron of Writtle.
"My Lord,
"It is with some assurance that I lay the following treatise before
"you; the subject being BOTANY, and the author M. TOURNE-
"FORT. You have shewn a more than common regard for this
"Science, by bestowing on it that time, which many of your age and
"quality squander away on diversions, in which thinking has no
"share. As a proof of this, give me leave to appeal to the taste which
"runs thro' your Lordship's Gardens ; and particularly to that noble
"Stove which you have erected, far exceeding any I have yet seen,
"and, I believe, not to be equalled in the world. There your Lordship
"has the satisfaction of protecting the most tender plants, from the
"inclemencies of our northern air, and giving them, even those of the
"largest size, all the advantages of their own Summer in our hardest
"Winters. There I was agreeably surprised this last Summer with
"the sight of some plants, at that time wholly new to me, which your
"Lordship first brought into England, and which you have as
"generously communicated for the publick benefit. I have now,
"thro' your Lordship's favour, the satisfaction of seeing them culti-
"vated in my neighbourhood, by the skilful hand of my friend Mr.