104 JOHN HILL 



warranted. For instance, Linnaeus merged the genera Valeria- 

 nella and Linaria into those of Valeriana and Antirrhinum 

 respectively ; Hill however recognized the generic rank of the 

 two former ^ 



Incidentally, it may be remarked that the acceptance of the 

 year 1753 as the starting-point for the citation of names by the 

 Vienna Botanical Congress has been the cause of more general 

 recognition of Hill's activity in this direction ; thus in recent 

 editions of British Flora his name is appended to many genera 

 and species^ 



The Vegetable System gained Hill the Order of Vasa, from 

 the King of Sweden, in 1774, so that he styled himself Sir John ; 

 he was also a Member of the Imperial Academy, and a Fellow 

 of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Bordeaux. 



Hill died of gout on the 21st of November, 1775, at about 

 the age of 59, in Golden Square, and was buried at Denham. 

 Notwithstanding the large sums of money he had made, he died 

 heavily in debt owing to the great expense entailed by the 

 publication of the Vegetable System and his own personal ex- 

 travagance. His library was sold in 17 y 6-7, and it has already 

 been mentioned that the copyright of the Vegetable System was 

 disposed of by auction. 



It is always a matter of difficulty to appraise a man's 

 character, and more particularly is this true of Hill whose 

 character, as Whiston^ has truly remarked, was so "mixed that 

 none but himself can be his parallel." In the Sleep of Plants 

 the following passage occurs : " There is a freedom of style, and 

 assumed manner peculiar to this kind of correspondence, which 

 would be too assuming in works addressed immediately to the 

 public ; and might not unnaturally draw upon the author a 

 censure of self-sufficiency and vanity. This explanation, I hope, 

 will defend me from so unfair a charge : for indeed no one 

 knows more the narrow limits of human knowledge ; or enter- 

 tains an humbler opinion of the returns of years of application." 



^ See Helleborine Hill v. Epipactis Adans. G. Claridge Druce, Journal of Botany, 

 XLVI. 1908. 



2 Babington's Manual of British Botany, ed. by Groves, London. Hayward's 

 Botanists Pocket Book, ed. by Druce, London, 1909. 



* John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, 18 12. 



