| Administrative History | John Hope (1725–1786), physician and botanist |
| Description | Letter from John Hope to David Skene in which he sends lists of plants he has found and has sent him everything he has in duplicate; he refers to a list in preparation by Walker; he states that Mr Kuhn has informed him that balsam of gilead was an amyris and that Linnaeus had received it from the Danish botanists; he is glad that Skene likes the rhubarb and appreciates his advice regarding publication; Kames has proposed Skene to the Philosophical Society in company with Lauragois, Carbus and Sir James McDonald; he refers to a letter from Ellis concerning Skene's specimens of pepperdulse; he discusses the disease called 'the sibbins' which is rife in Scotland and Aberdeenshire and the paper read by Dr Gilchrist on the topic; he finds it odd that the disease is thought of as venereal when it is cured much more easily than the common venereal pox yet more infectious, he believes an 'animalcula' is the case of it and that it may have been introduced by Cromwell's soldiers; he mentions saxifraga; he asks about the variety of firs; he would like to know which indigenous plants deserve a place in the list of simples and which should be struck out; he asks about whether the sea has retreated or encroached more upon the land; he sends lists of plants mentioned by Sibbald, Woodrow and others, some of which Linnaeus has not acknowledged, 16 November 1765. |