Copy letter from Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London] to George Don, Trinidad
Information
Title
Copy letter from Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London] to George Don, Trinidad
Record type
Archive
Original Reference
RHS/Col/2/4/11
Date
20 Jun 1822
Scope & content
Written from London
Annotated at the top of the page: 'Answer'd Nov 7 1822'. Written in a different hand from the other letters from Joseph Sabine to George Don [see RHS/Col/2/4/10, RHS/Col/2/4/12 and RHS/Col/2/4/13]
He received Don's long letter of 14 Jan from Madeira [Portugal] and his short letter of 19 Mar from Sierra Leone; the letter from Sierra Leone has recently arrived but the packages sent by the James and the Stockton have not arrived yet; Don appears to have made good use of his time, 'and it is very pleasant to the Council which met yesterday to receive a good report of your proceedings in Africa, made by Captain Sabine [Edward Sabine]'; he hopes that Don will 'acquire much credit' by the expedition; Don should not allow 'the attention paid by my brother and Smith to other subjects of natural history' to distract him from his duties; he adds that in the future another expedition solely focused on plant collecting might be desirable, but that the funding received from the government and the public 'makes it our duty to require our collectors to form collections of every description of natural history'; he forwards a letter to Don from his brother David Don; 'since he has written an opening has occurred of a situation both of credit and comfort for him', as Robert Brown has left the position of librarian and clerk to the Linnaean Society, and David Don has been nominated for the position; Munro [Donald Munro, Horticultural Society gardener] is well and very busy in his new garden [the Society's garden at Chiswick]; Campbell [Alexander Campbell] has left the Society, and found a new position as gardener to the Count de Vandes [the Count and Countess de Vandes had a garden in Bayswater, London], Mackay [John Bain Mackay, nurseryman in Clapton, London] has left 'to set up for himself'; David Lockhart [British botanist and gardener to the governor of Trinidad, Sir Ralph Woodford] has been made a corresponding member of the Society; Lockhart 'will attend to all your instructions'; Don is instructed to make particular enquiries about the aracacha [arracacha] root known as apios [apio], which grows 'at the Caraccas' [?Caracas, Venezuela] and is sold for food in the markets