BOTANICAL INVESTIGATION IN MIDDLESEX. 385 



Hans Sloane, Dr. Levit, physician to the Charterhouse, and four other 

 physicians.' He was buried 'in the cancell' of St. Botolph's Church, 

 Aldersgate Street. In the register of the parish the date of burial is given, 

 ' April 10, I7I8 ; ' if so, the day of his death given in Pulteney cannot be 

 correct. 



Petiver's will is dated Ai;gust 13, 1717. There are small legacies to his 

 mother, ' Mrs. Mary Grlentworth,' his nephew, Thomas Woodcock, and his 

 three nieces Woodcock ; also 50l. for his funeral expenses, 51. to the beadle 

 of the Apothecaries Society, ' one guinea and a ring of 20 shillings' price ' to 

 the clergyman who preached his funeral sermon,* and 5^. to the charity 

 children of St. Botolph's who should attend his funeral ; with a few other 

 trifling bequests. All the remainder of his property whatever was be- 

 queathed to his sister, Jane Woodcock, whom he also made sole executrix. 



His collections, MSS., books, &c., came into Sir Hans Sloane's posses- 

 sion ; some he purchased ' for a considerable sum.' f All are now in the 

 British Museum; the herbarium, consisting of plants from all parts of the 

 world, forms a very large part of the Sloane Herbarium ; the British plants 

 are found in vols. 150-152. The letters and MSS. are intimately mixed up 

 with those to Sloane himself ; there are besides fifteen volumes of medical 

 MSS., I and many commonplace pocket-books full of rough notes, which 

 would doubtless repay perusal. The printed books are also full of marginal 

 notes and additions, and occasionally drawings. 



Petiver possessed great powers of observation, and a quick perception, 

 without a great amount of botanical judgment or accuracy. As the first 

 who in this country attempted to make science popular, he is deserving of 

 great praise. He felt the want of a more liberal education than he had 

 received ; his Latin was (at all events at times) composed for him by 

 Dr. Tancred Kobinson.§ To Buddie, also, he was very much indebted, and 

 he seems to have used much of his matter without due acknowledgment. 

 As is often the case in a prolific writer his publications are very unequal 

 in merit, and while one admires his diligence, one cannot but perceive 

 the haste with which some of his compositions were written. In the 

 Micseum he censures Plukenet with considerable severity for ' rash con- 

 jectures ' and ' false references.' Sir J. E. Smith, too, tells us that, ' in the 

 collections of Tournefort and Vaillant, at Paris,' he saw ' various tickets' in 

 which Petiver displays ' malignity and coarseness ' in his criticisms of 

 Plukenet. 



He seems to have possessed administrative powers of value, and was a 

 very active member both of the Apothecaries Company and the Eoyal 

 Society. He must also have had tact and a power of making friends, for he 

 became the centre of communication for the naturalists of the time. His 



* Dr. Brady, according to Pulteney (ii. 42) who says that five guineas were so left, 

 and ' fifty pounds to the charity school of St. Ann's Aldersgate : ' of this we find no 

 evidence. 



t Letter to 'Rich&rdson.—NicJiols, i. p. 276. 



t See Ayscough's Catalogue, ii. 574 and 669. 



§ See a letter to him in Sloane MSS. 3330. 



C C 



