LIFE OF MILLER. 337 



bers respecting the publishing of some portion of 

 their proceedings and information, they broke up 

 rather abruptly. The opponents of the publication 

 demanded their papers from Miller, who imme- 

 diately gave them up, having, however, with his 

 usual foresight, taken a copy of each, otherwise 

 their valuable contents would most likely have been 

 lost to the world. 



About this time Ellis retired from the Chelsea 

 gardens, and Miller, on the recommendation of Sir 

 Hans Sloane, was immediately nominated to that 

 important office, in the year 1722. In this year, 

 upon condition that it should for ever retain its 

 botanic character, the final grant of the gardens was 

 made over to the Company of Apothecaries by Sir 

 Hans Sloane, being one of the richest boons ever 

 offered by generous philanthropy to the cause of 

 humanity and science. 



Miller soon became distinguished in his new 

 situation, by his general knowledge of plants, and 

 especially by his skill in their cultivation. The latter 

 was evinced in a paper which he communicated to 

 the Royal Society in 1728, and which was printed in 

 the thirty-fifth volume of the Philosophical Trans-* 

 actions, on " A Method of raising some Exotic Seeds," 

 which had previously been considered almost impos- 

 sible to be cultivated in England. Two years after- 

 wards, Miller made known the present popular mode 

 of causing bulbous plants to flower in water. 



In 1730 he published, anonymously, a thin folio, 

 accompanied with twenty-one coloured plates, en- 

 titled " A Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, Plants, and 

 Flowers, both Exotic and Domestic, which are pre- 

 21 



