Clx FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



permission to instruct the Princesses in botany, and a pleasant series 

 of lessons was given them by him ; but the Queen happening to read 

 one day a passage in his book, in which he had eulogized Rousseau, and 

 another in which he had made a remark which displeased her on the 

 unhappy Queen of France, these sentences led to the withdrawal of 

 the royal favour. In 1788, in conjunction with Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. 

 Goodenough, and a few others, Smith procured the foundation of 

 the Linnean Society, and the first meeting was held at his house in 

 Great Marlborough Street on April 8 in that year, when he delivered 

 ' A Discourse on the Rise and Progress of Natural History ' ; he was at 

 the same time made President of the new Society. From this period 

 onwards he gave lectures on botany, which were attended by the 

 Duchess of Portland and other members of the aristocracy, and by 

 many professional men. These lectures were delivered at his own 

 house. In 1790 he undertook to write a Flora of Britain under the 

 title of English Botany, but his name did not appear as the author of the 

 work until he publicly acknowledged it in a preface to the fourth 

 volume, which appeared in 1795. The excellent figures were from the 

 pencil of James Sowerby. The plates are 2,592 in number, and include 

 the Cryptogams. The work was not completed till the year 1814 ; in 

 its original form it extends to thirty-six volumes. The compilation of 

 this work necessarily brought the author into correspondence with 

 the principal botanists of Great Britain, and many interesting letters 

 were published in the Memoir of him by his widow. The specimens 

 sent to him are for the most part preserved in the herbarium of the 

 Linnean Society ; those from which Sowerby drew his figures, and 

 the original drawings, are in the Natural History Department of the 

 British Museum. A letter from the Rev. T. Butt to Smith says : ' If 

 ever you have leisure in any future visit to Oxford, I much wish that 

 you would go to Elsfield Wood and ascertain what probabilities there 

 are for considering Lonicera Caprifolium as wild there ; I think they rest 

 on as firm foundation as any other plant with a single habitat.' 

 Elsfield Wood is in Oxfordshire, but the plant in question has been 

 found in Bagley Wood in Berkshire. In 1794 Smith commenced 

 h\H Flora Britannica, which was completed in three volumes in 1804 5 

 ' like all his other labours, it is remarkable for accuracy in record- 

 ing, accuracy in observing, and unusual accuracy in printing ; being 

 written in the Latin tongue, the information it contains is con- 

 densed into a small compass, while it has the rare advantage of 

 having had every synonym compared with the original author.' The 

 Compendium Florae Britannicae was published in 1800. In the Flora 

 Britannica the following plants were recorded as occurring in Berk- 

 shire : Elymus europaeus, Juncus bulhosus {.J. compressus), and Linaria 

 Cyyuhalaria, the two last on the authority of Dr. Goodenough. While 



