Pieter Hotton wrote Letter L-425 of sometime before 16 September 1704 to follow up on their discussion of how sap moves within plants by sending an Indian fig, two different kinds of aloes, and a plant called dragon’s blood
Collected Letters volume: 20
This letter is known only by reference in another letter.
In this response to Leeuwenhoek, Leiden professor of botany Hotton followed up on their discussion of how sap moves within plants by sending an Indian fig, two different kinds of aloes, and a plant called dragon’s blood.
For the letter from Leeuwenhoek to which Hotton was replying, see Letter L-424. The dates of the letters exchanged between them are not specified in Leeuwenhoek’s letter to the Royal Society, but they were probably written in late August or early September 1704.
Letter L-426 of 16 September 1704 to the Royal Society
Along with the reply to my said letter the said gentleman sent me a plant of the Indian fig, on which species the cochineal worms (that is how that gentleman calls the little animals) are to be found, and in addition leaves of two different kinds of aloes, in order to learn whether they contain different kinds of canals which raise the yellow sap, etc. ...
The said Mr. Hotton also sent me a little plant called dragon’s blood, in Latin Zapathum Sanguineum, on which I observed the stalk of the leaf after having cut it through transversely.
