300 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



Withering had an extensive practice in Birmingham. Born at 

 WelUngton, Shropshire, in 1741, and the intimate contemporary 

 of Pulteney at Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. in 1766, he 

 had practised at Stafford from 1767 to 1775, and seems to have 

 collected plants in that neighbourhood in company with Stokes, at 

 a later period. The first edition of his Botanical Arrangement 

 had been issued in 1776, within a year of his migration to 

 Birmingham, which was nearly coincident with the arrival of 

 James Watt as the partner of Boulton at the Soho Works. 

 Chemical researches to combat the phlogiston theory, mineralogy, 

 and the abolition of the slave trade, engaged much of his atten- 

 tion ; and, after his move to Edgbaston Hall in 1786, he also 

 amused himself by breeding Newfoundland dogs and French 

 cattle. He may, therefore, have been glad to delegate much of 

 the labour of preparing a new edition of his botanical work to 

 younger hands. He constantly employed two collectors to bring 

 him plants, and it is probable that Stokes, with whom he was then 

 apparently on terms of close friendship, then lived for a time in 

 Birmingham. " It is evident," as Mr. Bagnall says,'' " that Stokes 

 had free access to Withering's extensive botanical library for the 

 purpose of obtaining the new and valuable set of references " in 

 the second edition of the Botanical Arrangement ; and, Mr. 

 Bagnall adds : — " A schedule is still in existence showing that 

 Withering lent Stokes one hundred and forty-five botanical works, 

 ranging from the earliest botanical writers to those of the then 

 most recent times. These Stokes took with him first to Shrews- 

 bury,! and afterwards to Kidderminster, and retained them for 

 more than three years. It seems to have been due to Stokes's 

 refusing to return them that he and Withering ceased to be on 

 friendly terms ; ultimately, by resorting to legal aid. Withering 

 regained his botanical library." 



In the copy of Banks's correspondence in the Department of 

 Botany is an interesting letter (hitherto unpublished) from 

 Withering to Banks dated from Birmingham, 6th Oct. 1787. 

 This evidently was accompanied by the first two volumes of the 

 Botanical Arrangement which appeared in that year : vol. iii. was 

 not published until 1792. It runs thus : 



" Sir, 



" Following, though at an humble distance, in that 

 path of Science in which you so conspicuously lead the way, 

 I presume to solicit your acceptance of the enclosed Volumes, 

 as a small addition to your immense collection on the same 

 subjects. 



" It was the inspection of your British Herbarium, when 

 deposited many years ago at the house of our friend Sneyd at 

 Bishton, which first aided and determined my pursuit in this 



* Loc. cit. 



f In a letter dated of August, 1786, Miss Seward promises to recommend 

 Stokes as a young physician to friends in Shrewsbury. 



