BOTANICAL INVESTIGATIOX IN MIDDLESEX. 395 



At the request of his friend Dr. Lettsom, in July and August 1782, he 

 made an excursion of six weeks to Settle, Yorkshire, and the same year 

 published a Catalogue of the Wild Plants observed there. 



About 1778 Curtis set up and opened to the public, on payment of an 

 annual subscription, a botanical garden, and in this place he received 

 much encouragement. From A Catalogue of the British, Medicinal, Culi- 

 nary, and Agricultural Plants cultivated in the London Botanic Garden, 

 printed in 1783, we learn that the position of the garden was 'very near 

 the Magdalen-Hospital, St. George's Fields, in the road from the said hospital 

 to Westminster-Bridge Turnpike through Lambeth Marsh village,' and 

 that the subscription was one guinea a year^ or two guineas with the pri- 

 vilege of receiving roots and seeds. In this little book is a complete list 

 of British plants, arranged according to the month of flowering ; all those 

 growing in the garden are numbered consecutively, and amount to 1,008 ; the 

 species additional to Ray and Hudson are printed in italics, and are 45 in 

 number. But what renders the list very useful is, that all the plants found 

 in the environs of London are distinguished by the letter L, from which we 

 find that Curtis had noticed more than 700 species near town. A plan of 

 the garden is also given, a catalogue of the books in the library, and a list 

 of subscribers, amongst whom we find Sir Joseph Banks, the Hon. Daines 

 Barrington, the Earl of Bute, and Drs. Lettsom, Sims, and Watson. 



In 1787 Curtis commenced the popular Botanical Magazine, by which he 

 is so well known. This was the most lucrative transaction of his life, and 

 counterbalanced the loss occasioned by the Flora Londinensis. He himself 

 said that ' one brought him pudding and the other praise.' It was pub- 

 lished in monthly numbers at a shilling each, and it is said that as many as 

 2,000 copies of each were sold during Curtis's lifetime. 



On the foundation of the Linusean Society in 1788, Curtis was among the 

 original members. 



The spread of buildings, the new roads, smoke, and bad sm.ells of the 

 Lambeth garden, added to the greatly increased rent demanded by the 

 landlord, compelled Curtis to leave the locality. In 1790 he set up a new 

 and much larger garden at Queen's Elm, Brompton. A plan of this is 

 given in Dr. Thornton's Sketch (p. 28) ; it was three and a half acres in ex- 

 tent, and there were seven acres adjoining for experiments in agriculture; 

 a catalogue of the plants was published every year. After the establishment 

 of this garden, ' he became,' says Thornton, ' sunk in spirits and indolent, I 

 would rather say disappointed ; ' the Flora Londinensis was his favourite 

 occupation, but the Botanical Magazine ' he stuck to as a drudgery.' In 

 1797 he took as his partner Mr. Wm. Salisbury, who, after Curtis's death, 

 improved the garden and continued its management.^ 



After having laboured for about a year under an affection of the chest, he 

 died on July 7, 1799, aged fifty-three years. His body was buried in Bat- 

 tersea churchyard, opposite the west entrance to the church ; the stone has 



* Mr. Salisbury subsequently removed the garden to Sloane Street, where it gradually 

 degenerated, and in 1828 formed part of a mu-sery-ground. 



