C 22 ] 



Oxford and the nurferies about London. After a paflage 

 of eight days from Rotterdam, he arrived at Harwich, 

 and proceeded to London. That he might have the 

 lefs difficulty in fulfilling the object of his miffion, Bo- 

 erhave had given him a letter of recommendation to Sir 

 Hans Sloane. This letter is preferved in the Britifti 

 Mufeum, and in a manly and dignified ftyle, congratu- 

 lates thefe two great men upon their meeting together. 

 "Linnaeus who is the bearer of this letter, is alone 

 worthy to fee you, alone worthy to be feen by you. 

 He who fhall fee you both together, fhall fee two men, 

 "whofe equal it is probable the world will not now pro- 

 duce." Sir Hans, then in the feventy-eighth year of his 

 age, and unwilling at that time of life to have his bota- 

 nical creed interrupted by innovations fo totally fubver- 

 live of the fyftem he had cherifhed, merely gave him 

 permission to examine his cabinet and his herbal. At 

 Chelfea he vifited the apoihecarie's botanic garden, from 

 which ClifFort wifhed him to procure fome foreign plants. 

 Phillip Miller was then curator of the garden, and gave 

 the plants he pointed out their old names. The propri- 

 ety of thefe appellations Linnxus difputed ; and after 

 fome fhort intercourfe, they parted with mutual afTuran- 

 ces of regard, entered into a friendly correfpondence with 

 each other, and the garden at Chelfea had afterwards the 

 honour of being the firft in great Biitain that was arrang- 

 ed according to the Linnean fyftem. Arriving at Ox- 

 ford he found Dillenius in company with William Sher- 

 rard. Sherrard was to Dillenius what ClifFort was to 



