Letter from Dr. Thornton to Mr. Tilloch. 145 



have got our botanical society at Litchfield to subscribe to 

 it." Such was the favourable opinion of a great genius, 

 whose sudden loss the literary world, and myself in parti- 

 cular, will ever deplore, respecting my Temple of Flora, 

 or Garden of Nature. The sentiments of Professors 

 Martyn and Rutherford have been long before the public, 

 Y. Z, allows, indeed, that these coloured plates " do the 

 highest honour to the artists, and will be lasting* monu- 

 ments of thefne taste and masterly execution which cha- 

 racterize the British nation in the present age ;" and the 

 question now at issue, therefore, is, how far my exertions 

 are interwoven with those of the eminent artists employed 

 for the production of these picturesque botanical plates. To 

 the arguments already adduced by you, I will add the fol- 

 lowing facts : — First, take, for example, the oblique-leaved 

 Begonia. A plant was obtained from the Physic Gardens 

 at Chelsea. It had only female flowers. This was sketched 

 in, and Mr. Reihagle went.with me in a chaise ten miles 

 oft* to obtain a branch with male flowers, in order to com- 

 plete the picture. The blue Passion-flower contains eleven, 

 stages of that flower, from its first appearance in the bud 

 to the perfect fruit. No one branch showed these grada- 

 tions. The flowers were obtained at Barr's nursery, at Dal- 

 ston, and the perfect fruit from North's nursery, near the 

 Asylum. The superb Lily, &c. required the same obser- 

 vances; and as the Venus de Medicis is the assemblage of 

 different parts, selected first, and afterwards combined, so 

 no one plant ever appeared in that perfection of beauty as 

 displayed by the artists engaged. My object was to unite 

 botanical correctness with picturesque effect, as far as the 

 association could be accomplished. Hence 1 engaged for 

 my work neither a professed botanical painter nor engraver. 

 The paintings being directed by me was sufficient to obviate 

 any loss of such a knowledge to the artists employed, and 

 accident gave me more share than usually falls to an author 

 in these pictures. Ts there no conjunction of exertions in 

 the beautiful group of flowers expressive of the system of 

 Tournefort? The merits of the respective artists stand equally 

 the same, as far as regards their profession, now as before, 

 and they willingly would allow me this share in the fameoi 

 these pictures 1 never, I believe, before claimed. Had the 

 specimens been entirely of their own choice, and fair copies 

 of nature, as she appeared before them, and the descriptions 



* How could these be lasting monuments, (rather fragments,) if my 

 work had been crushed, as was intended ? 



also 



