164 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
such as Hydrangea hortensis, Eriobotyra Japonica, Euphorbias
Litchi, and Longana, Volkameria coccinea, Rosa semperflorens,
etc., etc. It may here be mentioned that Slater always divided
whatever he had of value with Sir Joseph Banks for the Kew
collections, as a surer means of preserving what might be
received. Year by year large boxes of Chinese plants were
received at Leyton, but only a few plants were found to be alive,
and such as survived the voyage were more often than not only
what he had had ten times before, and therefore of little value,
yet he persisted in his endeavours and, by unceasing expense,
still hoped to possess the beautiful magnolias, the camellias,
the paeonies and azaleas of China.
Tired with repeated disappointments he resolved to send
out collectors in his own ships, whose care of the plants whilst
homeward bound was deemed to be the only chance of getting
them alive to their destination. For this purpose, in 1789,
when he was aged 36, he sent out two young men employed in
his gardens, but they never returned, one, a Scotsman, being
unfortunately drowned on the outward voyage in the Straits of
Malacca. A successor was soon found, viz., his foreman of the
houses and flower garden, who accepted the appointment.
This man, then only about 26 years of age, was James Main,
the Chelsea gardener, and afterwards editor of Paxton's Horti-
cultural Register and General Magazine. He joined the "Triton,"
Captain Burnyeat master, and left Gravesend in the autumn
of 1791. His experiences are interestingly described in some
54 pages of vol. 5 (1836) of the above Magazine.
Every botanist, whether amateur or commercial, made a
point of seeing Main before he left, and some escorted him to
the ship. Such men as Sir Joseph Banks, W. Aiton, of Kew,
and his son, W. T. Aiton, Conrad Loddiges, the well-known
nurseryman of Hackney, all offered advice and instruction,
the last-named in connection with packing the specimens.
Collecting by drawings was the plan adopted by Main.
The plants gathered during the expedition were placed in nine
boxes at Canton and left that place in March, 1794, in the East
India Co.'s ship "The Triton," but on arriving at the Island of
St. Helena on the 19th June a letter was awaiting the purser
of the ship, who was a brother-in-law of Gilbert Slater, which