THOMAS WHEELER 79 



without them." He seems to have had " a 

 happy old age," and to have died at 93 a 

 fatal year in the life of botanists. Sloane as 

 well as Wheeler died at that age, but Sir 

 Joseph Hooker escaped, and lived to be 94. 

 Canon Ellacombe, too, outlived it. 



In 1829, the Garden Committee decided to 

 throw open the Garden to all students re- 

 commended by teachers of medicine and botany, 

 and to give a gold and silver medal annually as 

 prizes to the two best students in addition to 

 those already awarded to their own apprentices. 



John Lindley, the well-known voluminous 

 writer on botany, became Professor of Botany 

 at the Physic Garden in 1835. He had learnt 

 gardening from his father, an able Norfolk 

 nurseryman, and he was fortunate in being made 

 assistant librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, which 

 must have given him access to books on botany. 

 Later on he became Secretary to the Horti- 

 cultural Society, and Professor of Botany at 

 University College. In 1838 he sent a report 

 to the Government to recommend their taking 

 over Kew Gardens. 



Lindle>'s great work, Introduction to the 

 Natural System of Botany, was dedicated to the 

 Society of Apothecaries. It was founded on 

 the labours of Antoine de Jussieu, and others. 



Botanists who accepted " The Natural " 

 System, advocated by Lindley, and those who 

 followed the so-called "Artificial " System 

 of Linnaeus, formed opposite camps. The 

 terms are a little misleading to beginners in 

 botany. The antagonism was more in name 

 than in fact. Each system was but a con- 



