CHAP. It. BRITISH ISLANDS. 75 
The botanic garden at Kew was established in 1760 by the 
Princess Dowager of Wales. A catalogue was published in 
1768 by Dr. Hill; and a more scientific one by Mr. William 
Aiton in 1789, a second edition of which appeare din 1810. 
William Aiton died in 1793, aged 62. He was some time 
assistant to Philip Miller, at Chelsea, and was recommended to 
the princess dowager in 1759. In 1783 he was appointed to 
the care of the pleasure-grounds and kitchen-garden at Kew. 
The Aitdnza is named after him. He was succeeded by his son, 
Wm. Townsend Aiton, the present royal gardener there. Kew 
is more especially interesting to the planter of trees, from its 
arboretum having been one of the very first that was formed in 
Britain ; and, though many of the species are now lost, and it 
does not contain more than a fourth part of what are to be found 
in the Horticultural Society’s garden and in the arboretum of the 
Messrs. Loddiges, there are still existing there many fine speci- 
mens. Dr. James Sherard’s botanical garden at Eltham, in 
which he was assisted by Dillenius, was established in the first 
years of this century, but declined at Dr. Sherard’s death in 
1737; and, in 1795, nothing remained of it but a fine cedar of 
Lebanon close to the house, and a few other trees and shrubs. 
This cedar measured, at the above period, 9 ft. in cireum- 
ference, at 3 ft. from the ground; and in 1801 it had increased 
in circumference 61 inches. (Zysons.) Dr. James Sherard was 
the brother of Dr. William Sherard, an eminent botanist, and 
author of several works, who was travelling tutor for many years 
to several English noblemen, and afterwards British consul at 
Smyrna, near which he had a fine country house and garden, 
from which he sent home many seeds and plants. This brother 
founded the botanical professorship at Oxford, and gave to that 
establishment his botanical library, and his herbarium. He was 
the patron of Mark Catesby and of Dr. Dillenius. 
Mr. William Curtis, author of the Botanical Magazine, first 
established a small botanic garden at Bermondsey. In 1771 he 
formed one on a more extensive scale at Lambeth Marsh. In 
1789 he removed his plants to Brompton, where he died in 
1799, aged 53 years. His partner, and successor, Mr. William 
Salisbury, removed this garden to Cadogan Place, Sloane Street, 
where an arboretum was planted, and the grounds are now 
(1835) occupied as a subscription garden and as a nursery. 
A private botanic garden was founded at Twickenham about 
1789, by William Swainson, the proprietor of some popular 
vegetable medicines. It contained every tree and shrub that 
could be procured at the time in the British nurseries, and was 
kept up in the very first style of order and neatness till Mr. 
Swainson’s death in 1806. It is now the property of Mrs. Can- 
ham, and is managed by Mr. Robert Castles, an enthusiastic 
lover of plants, and an excellent man. 
