INTRODUCTION CXXIX 



the Pinax. But in April, 1717, he writes again : ' I am disappointed 

 of my brother's company this summer ; he happened to come in 

 a ship that had the plague in it, and was forced from Sicily where he 

 intended to have come on shore, and lay afterwards a long quarantine 

 at Leghorn, which has broke his first measures. So he has resolved 

 to pass the summer abroad.' Shei'ard was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal 

 Society in 17 18, and took up his residence in Barking Alley in London. 

 - In Feb. 1718, Sherard writes to Dr. Eichardson saying that his 

 brother James Sherard will be of use to him in the preparation of the 

 Pinax, and on Oct. 7, 1718, that he had left Mr. Bobart in a low state 

 of health, and that he feared he would not get over the winter. On 

 Feb. 28, 1718-9, he tells Dr. Richardson: 'I had a letter yesterday 

 from Dr. Dillenius, to whom I wrote last month. He published last 

 year a catalogue of the plants growing about Giessen. He was 

 recommended to me as a person very curious in mushrooms and 

 mosses.' On April 12, 1720, he says that Dillenius is sending him 

 mosses and plants, and on March 28, 1721, that he has resolved to 

 send for Dillenius, but cannot expect him till the latter end of July. 

 In September he sent word to Richardson that he has brought over 

 Dr. Dillenius, 'who has with him most, if not all, his Fungi painted, 

 and all his Lichenes, Lichenastra, and Muscos neatly designed.' On 

 May 12, 1722. he tells Richardson: 'Dr. Dillenius will witness we 

 have worked ten hours a day these two months past,' and on Oct. 13 

 of the same year : 'Dillenius works after candle-light on the Sy^iopsis,^ 

 and on Dec. 26, 1723 : ' I know nothing further Dr. Dillenius has to 

 do to the Synojysis but the getting graved a few more plates, which 

 may be done while it is printing. But our people cannot agree about 

 an editor ; they are not willing a foreigner should put his name to it, 

 and none of them will, though it is ready done to their hands.' 



Prior to these last dates, namely in 1721, Sherard had been again 

 on the Continent and had visited the eminent French botanist 

 Vaillant, whom he found in a pitiable state of distress. Sherard, with 

 his customary kindness to fellow-botanists, induced Boerhaave to pur- 

 chase Vaillant's manuscripts, thus bringing comfort to the dying man, 

 who passed quietly away in the following year with a mind completely 

 set at rest. Continuing his journey Sherard, while creeping up a 

 mountain-side in search of plants, was mistaken by a peasant for 

 a wolf, and narrowly escaped being shot. In 1723 he spent some 

 time at Leyden with Boerhaave determining the plants for the Pinax 

 and assisting in the preparation of Vaillant's Botanicon Parisiense. In 

 1724 appeared the third edition of Ray's Synopsis by Dillenius, in the 

 preparation of which Sherard had greatly assisted. In August, 1726, 

 Sherard gave £500 towards enlarging the Conservatory at the 

 Botanic Garden at Oxford, together with a large number of curious 



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