ft- i
628 The place o f Royal Herbalist was created by James I., and L’Obel was the first
tbat filled it Charles 1. appointed Parkinson to a similar situation; and 1 ariunson,
biy hi gratitude for the i ? a l patronage, dedicated liis Faradism to Qnoon n en n e tta
M ri n Oireeii Mary, ivife of William I I I , appointed, as royal herbalist, Plukciiet,
i a n ? u d ita n g u lL d for botanical knowledge.” Under tills botanist’s directions, collectors
were despatched to the Indies in search of plants. . , - yroa
029 Tradescanfs botanic garden at Lambeth was established previously *<> L529.
Tiadcroant w a rrD n tchm a n ,-a iid gardener to Charles I. In 1666 his son published
a cataloo-ue of this garden, and of tho museum which both of thena had collected.
V c ta n 'o b se rv e s (c lta h g u e o f Antlmrs an Gardening, p. 30.),,that Tradeseant s g.arden
h a ? r f o r l ^ ^ ^ ^ yeai-s laiii waste, William Watsou, E .R S., visited its site on the 1st of
May “l749 and tbund many of the exotics remaining ; they having endured two great
frosts in 1799 and 1740. CPhil. Trans., vol. xlvi.). Tradcscant left his museum to Elias
S i ? o l o Yho lodcred in his house. Mrs. Tradcscant contested the will, and on lo,smg
tho cause drowned” herself. E. Aslimolo presented tho collection to the University of
Oxford 1677 The Tradescaiits were usually cffiled Tradeakiu by their contemporanes ;
I s miiformly so spelt in the parish registers. Henry Flatman, the painter, m
a poem, mentions lYadescant’s coUection, and says, —
“ Thus .Toha Tradeskin starves our wondering eyes
liy buying up his new-born rarities.”
630 The Chelsea botanic garden seems to have existed about the middle of this ccntu
iy Iu 1 68^ E v e ly n visited Watts, the head-gardener. “ What was very m pm o u
w a f th e subterkuean heat conveyed by means of a stove
vaulted with brick, so that ho has tho door and windows open in the haidest hosts,
excluding only the snow.” (Memoirs,.&c., vol. i. p. 606.) In W a ttss garden was a
? i , tree and in the hothouse what Kay calls a tea shrub, though it certainly was 1.0
the Chinke tea tree. (Rag's Letters.) The ground occupied fl® S” ' ? ™ ‘J
from Sir Hans Sloane, who afterwards, m 1722, when applied to foi a renewal ot tlie
lease «rave the freehold of tho ground (more than four acres) to the Company of
Apotlrecnries, on condition that the demonstrator (who gave lecturcjs to the y™” S
stiKlviiio- for aDOthecarics) should deliver annually to the Royal Society fifty new plants,
a ? r ¥ ? c i f c a l i r described till tho number should amount to 2000, wlneh it w ^
then k nposed would be sufflcicnt to exhaust the then nnexploreci sourcp of nature. A
i r o f t r ? w p to t s introduced was p u b ia ied every year in tU Phdosophcal Transactions
till 1773 when 2.550 having been presented, the custom was discontinued—
tIienui’n b erofpl!ntsincutioucah.aviiig been introduced in less f " ?
that period upwards of 30,000 plants liavo been introduced, and the number is in
'^'‘'ssT.^V^dous private botanic gardens existed at the e n d of tliis ccnfory. Those of the
celebrated naturalist Hay in Essex, Dr. Uvcdale’s at Enfield, Dr. Sherard s at Eltliam,
aud especially that of tho Duchess of Beaufort at Badminton, were rich in plants ; but
that of Sh- Hans Sloane at Chelsea surpassed thcin aU.
632. A public botanic garden in England 5vas first founded at Oxfoid, m 1632, nemly
a centurv after that at Padua. This honour was reserved foi Hcniy, E a il of Dauby,
who «rave for this purpose five acres of ground, built greenhouses and stoves, mid a
hou.se for the accommodation of tho gardener, endowed the establisliment, and placed
in it as a superintendent, Jacob Bobart, a Gennan, from Brunswick, who lived as
Woo’d tells us ill the gavden-houso. In March, 1719, the vicc-clianccllor compelled
Bobai't’s son to resio-n the oflice of botanic professor ; and he died, at a very advanced
age,' a few months after. The garden contained at liis death above 1600 species,
liobart’s descendants are still in Oxford, and are known as coach piopiretois,
633. Greenhouses and plant-stoves seem to havo been introduood 01 mvcnlod a W
the middle of the seventeenth century. They were formed in the garden at Hcidelbcig
in 1619 (seep . 140,), and in tho Altorf garden m 1645. Evelyn mentions L o a d s
orangciy. in 1662, and the grcenlionsc and hothouse at Chelsea ai-e mentioned both by
63?’''D L - i¥ whole o f the eighteenth century, botany was in a flourishing state m
Enghmd Previously to this period, the number of exotics m the country probably did
not exceed 1000 species : during this centuiy above 5000 new species were mfrodueed
from foreign countries, besides the discovery of a numher of new native pl.a its. Some
idea may be formed of the progress of gardening, in respect to ornamental frfts
shrubs from the different editions of Miller’s Dictionary. In the first edition, in 1724,
the catalo«ruo of evergreens amounts only to twelve. The Christmas rose and aconite
w e toeii rare, and L y to be obtained at Fairchild’s at Iloxton : only seven sorts of
geraniums were then known. Every edition of this work contained fresh afidftons to
the hotany of tho country. In the preface to the eighth and last edition, published m
; -I'I '
1768, the number nmhcr of of plants j
cultivated in England is stated to be more than double those
whieh were known known when w
the folio edition was published in 1731. Miller was born in
1691 ; and was appointed gardener to tho Company of Apothecaries in 1722, upon Sir
Ilans Sloane’s hbcral donation of near four acres to the Company. He resigned his
office about a year before his decease, which took place in 1771, and was succeeded by
Forsyth, who was succeeded by various other curators, includiiig Fortune, the Chinese
traveller, who resigned in 1848, and was sucoocdcd by Moore.
635. As great cncouragers o f botany dul'iiig this centmy, Miller mentions, in 1731
ffio Duke of Chandos, Compton, Speaker of the House of Commons, Dubois of Mitcham’
Compton, Btshop of London, Dr. Uvedale of Enfield, Dr. Lloyd of Sheen. Dr James
Sherard, apothecary, had, at Eltham, one of tho richest gardens England over possessed.
I-lis gardener, Knowlton, was a zealous botanist, and aftenvards, when in the service of
the Earl of Burlington, at Lancsborough, discovered the globe conferva (C. mgagrópila
Linn.). Dr. Sherard’s brother was consul at Smyrna, and had a fine garden at Sedokio
near tbat town, whore ho collected the plants of Greece and many others. The consul
died in 1728, and the apothecaiy in 1737. Fafrchild, Gray of Fulliam, Gordon, and
Lee, eminent nurserymen, introduced many plants during the first half of the century.
The last three corresponded with Linnæus. Colliiison, a great promoter of gardening
and botany, had a fine garden at Mill Ilill, near Hendon. Richard Warner had a «*ood
botanic garden at Woodford Green. Robert James Lord Pctre, who died in 1742, at
the early ago of 29, was a great promoter of gardening, .and introduced many new
plants. (See Miller’s Dictionary, the Hortus Kewensis, and Collinson’s Letter to Linnæus.)
Lord Petre seems to have heen the greatest encourager of botany and horticulture of his
day. His stoves contained most of the tropical plants known at that time, and they grew
with the greatest luxuriance, being planted in the free ground. This young nobleman
introdncod the Camélhh, but ho killed the two plants which were first brought to
England (the single-red) by keeping them in the stove. The Duke of Argylc, styled a
treemonger by Horace Walpole, had, early in this centuiy, a gai-den at Whit’ton, near
Hounslow, richly stocked with exotic trees. A mimbcr of other names of pa’trons,
gardeners, and authors, equally descn-ing mention, are ncccss.arily omitted. Dr. (after!
wards Sir Jo h n ) Hill had a botanic garden at Bayswater : he began to pnbhsh in 1748,
and produced numerous works on plants and flowers, which had considerable influence in
rendering popular the system of Linnæus, and spreading the science of horticulture, and
a taste for ornamental plants. Drs. Fothcrgill and Pitcairn introduced a great number
of new plants ; and in 1775 sent out Thomas Blaikie to collect plants in Switzerland.
636. During the lattei- pa rt o f the eighteenth century, George Hibbert, and Thornton
o f Clapham, opulent commercial men, may be mentioned as gi-eat cncouragers of gardening
and botany. The collection of heaths, B.anksias, and other Cape and Botany
Bay plants, in Ilibbcrt’s garden, was most extensive, and his flower-garden one of the
best round the metropolis. Tho Duke of Marlborough, whilo Marquess of Blaiidford,
formed a collection of exotics at While Knights, surpassed by none in the kino-dom’
(Historical Account o f White Knights, &c., 1820, folio.) R. A. Salishmy, one of our
first botanists, and a real lover of gai-dening, had a flno garden and rich collection at
Chapel Allcrtou, in Yorkshire. Subsequently he possessed the garden formed by Col-
linson at Mill Hill. Choice collections of plants were formed at the Earl of Tankoi-ville’s
at Walton, the Duke of Noi’thuinbcrland’s at Syon House, at the Comte dc Vandcs’s at
Bayswater, Vcre’s at Kensington Gore, and many other places. Lee, Loddiges, Colvill,
and several other nm-serymcn, might be named as gre.atly promoting a taste for plants
and flowers by their well-stocked nurseries and publicalioiis. Of these Leo’s Introduction
to Botany, Andrews’s Heathery, and Loddiges’s Botanical Cabinet, are well known and
esteemed works. A grand stimulus to tho culture of ornamentai plauts w-as given by
tho publication of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, begun in 1787, and still contimied iu
monthly numbers. Here the most beautiful hardy and tender plants were figured and
described, and useful hints as to thcir culture added. The Botanical Register, Aiidi-ew-s’s
Botanist’s Repository, and other works of a similar nature, coiitribntcd to render very
general a knowledge of and taste for phants, and a desire of gardens and greoiihouses, to
possess thoso plants in a living state. Maddock’s Florist’s Directory, which appeared in
1792, revived a taste for florists’ flowers, which has since been 011 the increase.
637. The botanic garden at Kew is generally considered the richest in England.
Sir Joseph Banks bestowed upon it the immense collections of plants and seeds obtained
in his voyages ; and since his time his example has been followed by most travellers.
The garden has been lately greatly improved by Sir Willi.am Jackson Hooker, who was
appointed director in the spring of 1841 ; and from that gentleman’s description of tho
garden, published in 1847, the ibllowing short account is abridged. “ About the middle
of tho seventeenth century the spot that now fonns the Royal Gardens of Kew, togothor
with a residence called Kew House, belonged to R. Bennett, Esq., whoso daughter and
heiress mnn’ied Lord Capei,” This nobleman appears to have been vei-y fond of his
T 3