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Linnaeus, a patron and protector : he founded the botanic 

 garden at Oxford, of which Dillenius was the firft pro- 

 feflbr. This interview was by no means creditable to 

 the profeffor, or flattering to the young ftranger. Dil- 

 lenius, perceiving he did not underftand the Englifli lan- 

 guage, defcribed him to Sherrard as the young man who 

 confounded all botany. The words confound and bo- 

 tany being of Roman origin, Llnnasus underftood the 

 purport of his obfervation ; and after fome ineffectual 

 attempts to conciliate the kindnefs of the profeflbr, before 

 his departure, boldly aiked why he had pointed him out 

 as the confounderof all botany. To juftify hisaflertion, 

 the profeflbr produced from his library a part of the Ge- 

 nera Plantarum, which was then printing at Leyden, 

 and which Gronovlus had sent to Oxford without the 

 knowledge of its author. In this work he had marked 

 all which he conceived to be the falfe genera. To re- 

 fute this opinion Linnaeus challenged him to an immedi- 

 demonfl:ration, and convinced him that all his genera 

 were accurate, and that what appeared to be wrong was 

 merely the correcElion of ancient and continued error. 

 This fomewhat foftened the referve and aufl:erity of the 

 profeflbr, and he invited him to the infpedion of his 



own and the Sherrardian colle6):ion, and gave him what 

 plants he wanted for ClifForts' garden. They after- 

 wards correfponded, but with no great warmth of 

 friendfhip on the profeflbr's fide. Too old to fludy and 

 embrace a new fyftem, and too haughty to acknowledge 

 the merits of his rival in fame, he would never publicly 



