172 JOHN LINDLEY 



this assertion may be found in recent issues of the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle containing correspondence from many of the leading 

 growers on the principles underlying the cultivation of the vine. 

 No physiological Philip has come as yet to their assistance ! 

 Lindley's book had at once a great vogue on the Continent and 

 was translated into most European languages Russian in- 

 cluded ; but it was not till its title was changed from The 

 Theory. . . to The Theory and Practice. . . of Horticidhire that his 

 incorrigible fellow-countrymen, as shy of theory as a fox-glove 

 is of chalk, consented to buy it to any considerable extent. 



It was doubtless due not only to Lindley's general services 

 to horticulture but also to the special service which he rendered 

 to that science by the publication of this work that led Lord 

 Wrottesley, President of the Royal Society, to say, when pre- 

 senting Lindley with the Royal Medal, that "he had raised 

 horticulture from the condition of an empirical art to that of a 

 developed science." 



" The Vegetable Kingdom " and " The Botanical Register!' 



That John Lindley was a man of fine judgment is indicated 

 by his own verdict that, except for The Vegetable Kingdom, The 

 Theory atid Practice of Horticulture was his best book. That 

 verdict is sustained by posterity, as Mr Botting Hemsley de- 

 clares of the former work, " This grand book must be classed 

 as Lindley's masterpiece. No similar English work was in 

 existence in 1846 when the first edition appeared, nor was there 

 in any language so encyclopaedic a work. Even now it is a 

 valuable book in a small botanical library as it is a mine of 

 information on points that are unchangeable. The work, as 

 set forth in the preface, originated in a desire on the part of the 

 author to make his countrymen acquainted with the progress 

 of Systematical Botany abroad during the previous quarter of 

 a century." Both in his books and in his lectures he adopted 

 the natural system of classification and did much to popularise 

 it though, as previously stated, his contemporaries Robert 

 Brown, the Hookers, and G. Bentham were equally powerful 

 adherents of the new system. To quote the picturesque if 



