London in 1710, from the travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach [23 Oct 1710. A visit to Mr. Buddel]
In the afternoon we saw at the house of Herr
Beathel or Buddel, a preacher
living in Gray's Inn, a handsome collection of
plants. For he has about twenty large volumina, all
very well kept, although they are only stitched with thread so that they may be
changed with ease.
The most curious of all was a volume containing nearly three
hundred varieties of all kinds of muscis or mosses.
We were amazed that he managed to keep them so well in a book, since they are not so
easily crushed and better preserved in drawers; this is all the more necessary,
since most varieties cling firmly to pieces of wood and are thus not very suitable
for a book. He had a microscopium so that we might
be better able to observe the structure. It is truly remarkable.
Another volume
containing a hundred and fifty varieties of different graminibus indigenis was also well worth seeing.
In the other
handsome voluminibus there are not a few exotica. He is, indeed, an amiable and polite man, of
some fifty years of age.