A VISIT TO ENGLAND 323 



find a hundred new terms, Greek all of them, all of 

 them incomprehensible to Anglo-Saxon readers. Why do 

 they warn us off the " dead languages," as they call 

 them, and then wrap up all their wisdom in Hellenic 

 words?' 1 



Although Carl's visit to Sir Hans Sloane was a 

 failure, there was another person in Chelsea to whom he 

 also carried an introduction. This was Philip Miller, the 

 since celebrated gardener to the Society of Apothecaries. 

 Fee gives this account of the interview (direct from 

 Linnaeus) : ' When I paid Philip Miller a visit, the 

 principal object of my journey, he showed me the garden 

 at Chelsea, and named me the plants in the nomenclature 

 then in use, as for example; " Symphytumconsolida major, 

 flore luteo." I held my tongue, which made him declare 

 next day, "That botanist of Clifford's does not know a 

 single plant." I heard this, and said to him just as he 

 was going to use the same names : " Do not call these 

 plants thus ; we have shorter and surer names we call 

 them so-and-so." Then he was angry, and looked cross. 

 I wished to have some plants for Clifford's garden, but 

 when I came back to Miller's he was in London. He 

 returned in the evening. His ill-humour had passed off. 

 He promised to give me all I asked for. He kept his 

 word, and I left for Oxford after having sent a fine 

 parcel to Clifford.' 



Of this Chelsea garden Hare says, 2 c The Botanic 



1 Bishop of Oxford on Language, Feb. 11, 1886. 

 * In his Walks in London. 



