BOTANICAL INVESTIGATION IN MIDDLESEX. 387 



sermon on his friend Doody. At all events, he continued to live either 

 there or in London till his death. 



There are as many as nineteen letters, or parts of letters, written by 

 Buddie (to Petiver chiefly) in the Sloane MSS. ; many are mere scraps, and the 

 majority without direction or date. The chief facts obtained from them are 

 that Buddie was married^ and had children,t and that he was a sufferer 

 from gout. His special botanical friends were Petiver and Doody, with whom 

 he was constantly engaged in exploring the neighbourhood of town, and many 

 of his letters consist of appointments to meet for that purpose. The last 

 with a date was written on ' 13 May, 1702 ; ' but there is another, in a weak 

 and trembling hand, evidently much later. In the ' Richardson Correspond- 

 ence ' are seven letters of Buddie's, mostly ' filled with lists of plants,' the 

 last, ' May 28th, 1709,' has the heading 'Gray's Inn,' which goes to confirm 

 the statement of Nichols, that he was ' reader' there. J The editor of the 

 'Eichardson Correspondence' quotes (p. 87, note) from a letter of Buddie's, 

 'apparently written about' 1703: 'I have not . . . this half year . . . 

 minded anything of Botany, nor listened to anything of Naturall Philosophy, 

 being too intent upon the necessities of life to think of the Nugce,^ from which, 

 says he, ' I am afraid he was very poor.' 



Despite this drawback, Buddie found time before the year 1708 to write 

 an entirely new and complete English Flora. This manuscript, which ex- 

 hibits well the accuracy, diligence and knowledge of its author, occupies twelve 

 volumes (bound in three) of the Sloane MSS., 2970-2980. § The title runs, 

 * Hortus Siccus Buddleanus sive Methodus nova StirpiumBritannicarum, auct. 

 A. Buddie,' and the book is dedicated to the Bishop of Carlisle and others. 

 The index contains the derivation of the generic names, and there is also a 

 collection of the local names of plants. We find this alluded to by Lhwyd, 

 who writes in 1708, ' The Doctor || tells me that Mr. Buddie hath drawn up 

 a new Synopsis Plant. Brit., but that he doubts whether he can get it 

 printed ; tho' he supposes it a very considerable improvement of Mr. Ray's, 

 who, he says, wanted many things to compleat his. He adds that he im- 

 proves the method by the help of Tournefort, Rivinus, &c., and that he 

 often refers to figures and corrects vicious ones.'^ Buddie himself says of 

 it in 1709, ' As for my being an author, I have prepared a book ready ; but 

 we can't agree about a method. I have jumbled Mr. Ray's and M. Tourne- 

 fort's together (they are both dead). Some think I favour too much M. 



* His wife's name was Elizabeth. An undated letter from her {Sloane MSS. 4039, 

 fol. 293) to Petiver was "WTitten when Buddie was very ill, and ' all hopes of his re- 

 covery ' gone. She long sui-vived her husband, for in 1741 we find her ill and in poverty, 

 writing to Sir Hans Sloane from Suffolk. She did not die till 1752, and was buried at 

 Henley. 



t Two children, a son and daughter, were baptised at Henley in 1696 and 1697. 



X No list of the ' readers ' (or curates) has been preserved at Gray's Inn. 



§ There is also a rough draft, Sloane MSS. 2201, and a duplicate of vol. iv. (containing 

 the Grasses), Sloane MSS. 2306, which belonged to Petiver, and contains references to 

 the Concordia Graminum. 



li W. Sherard(?). 



ir Rich. Coiresp. 95. 



C C 2 I 



