149 



Sir Hans Sloanc. that he dispatched a skilful gardener, James 

 Harlow, to Jatnacia : who brou<;ht thence a Vessel nijarly 

 freighted with vegetatins: and dried Plants, the first of which 

 Sir Arthur Rawdon ndtivated in his own garden at INIoira in 

 Iroland, or distribuled amongst his friends, and some of the 

 continental Gardens. His taste for Exotick plants was pro- 

 bably much encouraged by his intimacy wilh Dr. William 

 Sherard, who being one of the most munilicont patrons and 

 cultivators of Exotick Botany during that " golden age" of the 

 Science, appeared, as Hasselquist observed, " thor.^gont ofthe 

 Botanic Garden" at his house at Sedekio near Smyrna, where 

 he was British Consul, for here he cultivated a very rich gar- 

 don, and collected the most extensive Herbarium that was ever 

 formed by the exertions of an individual. It contained 12,000 

 species. His younger brother, Dr. James Sherard, cultivated 

 at Eltham in Kent one of the richest Gardens England ever 

 possessed.* 



But it was not only in the collecting and arranging of Plants 

 that Botany was adding fresh stores and zrst to Gardening; 

 Previous to this period little was known of the structure of 

 Plants and the uses of their several parts. Grew, Malpighi, 

 Linnaeus, Hales, Bonnet, Du Harael, Hedwig, Spallanzani, 

 Sec. cleared away in a great measure the ignorance which en- 

 veloped Vegetable Physiology. Previous to their days the 

 male bearing plants of Dioecious Plants, as Spinach, and 

 the male flowers of Cucumbers, <^'C. were recommended to be 

 removed as useless ; they taught the importaiicc of checking 

 the return of the sap ; the mode of raising varieties; in short 

 ail the phenomena of vegetable life which throw so much li^'ht 

 upon the practise of the Gardener, were iirst noted and ex- 

 plained by the labours of those Philosophers. Another class 

 of Philosophers who contributed a gigantic aid to the advance 

 of Horticulture, where those Ciiemists who especially devoted 



• Pultncy't sketdies of Botany, v. ii, p. 130. 



