OLD ESSEX GARDENERS AND THEIR GARDENS. 85
"Miller; and shall take the first opportunity of describing and
"engraving them, that the publick may see how much they are
"indebted to your Lordship. My author is generally allowed to be
"one of the greatest Masters in BOTANY; and the place you have
"given his works in your library is a proof that the general opinion
"is confirmed by your Lordship's judgment.
"The plants contained in this book are not remarkable for the
"distance of the country from whence they come; for they grow no
"farther off than the neighbourhood of Paris. Most of them are to be
"found also in England, as will appear by the notes which I have
"added : for I should not have presumed to trouble your Lordship
"with a naked translation, when you are so well acquainted with the
"original.
"But, my Lord, if I have nothing here to offer that is new to
"yourself; yet I know it will be a pleasure to your Lordship, that
"others may have an opportunity of seeing your favourite science
"applied to the noblest uses. Here they will find that the knowledge
"of BOTANY is not merely speculative, and that they often owe their
"lives to the contemptible weeds on which they daily trample. I am,
"Your Lordship's
"Most obedient,
"Humble Servant,
"John Martyn.
"Chelsey Sept. 30,
"1731."
Martyn also dedicated the plate of Granadilla americana
(Dec. IV, tab. 4), of his Historia Plantarum rariorum to Petre.
An advertisement of this work says, "One plate is dedicated to
each Subscriber as an Encourager of the Work."
According to W. Aiton's Hortus Kewensis (1789), "Some
"Plants are by tradition known to have been introduced by
"Robert James Lord Petre, but the times when are utterly forgot;
"to remedy, as much as possible, this inconvenience, they are
"always stated as having been introduced before 1742, the time
"of his Lordship's death."
In one of the common place books of Collinson previously
mentioned he writes (f. 208) that on "Fryday Augt 20th. 1762,"
Lord Petre sent his chaise and four horses to convey him to
Thorndon, requesting "a renewal of the old Friendship after an
"Absence & Minority of 20 years, I found great Alterations—
"all the Nurserys Overgrown Nothing Left in the Great Stove,
"but Two Great Date palms 1 Caroline platt palm & One
"Common Great Cereus Some few plants in the other Stoves—
"but in the Stove in the Kitchen Garden a pretty Collection of