DAWN OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING 237 



The most celebrated member of this Society of Gardeners 

 was PhiHp Miller, keeper of the Chelsea Physic-garden, and 

 author of a well-known Gardener's Dictionary. This work first 

 appeared in 1731, and was so popular that a seventh edition 

 was brought out in 1759, and it was translated into Dutch, 

 German, and French. Each successive edition shows some 

 progress in the science of botany, and an immense increase in 

 the number of foreign plants. In the seventh edition. Miller 

 adopted the Linnsean system of classification. He had previ- 

 ously become acquainted with the great Swede during his visit 

 to England in 1736, and it was the year following that Linnaeus's 

 first great work, which revolutionized classification. Genera 

 Plantarum, appeared. Miller was a man well suited to the 

 work he undertook ; he was both practical and scientific ; he 

 first followed the system of Tournefort, then that of Ray, but 

 was sufficiently learned and clear-sighted to go with the times, 

 and adopt the improved nomenclature of Linnaeus. The 

 quantities of new plants coming in not only required skilful 

 growing, but careful arrangement and classification, and Philip 

 Miller did much good work in both ways. 



Not only were plants arriving in from America, but new 

 treasures found their way to England from distant parts of the 

 Old World also. William Sherard, a learned botanist and 

 friend of Ray and Sloane, and patron of Catesby, was, in 1702, 

 appointed Consul at Smyrna, and during his stay there, until 

 1718, employed much of his time in making a collecton of the 

 plants of Greece and Asia Minor. His younger brother, 

 James, at Eltham in Kent, had a famous garden, and cultivated 

 many of the new exotics sent home by William. Besides 

 foreign importations, gardeners at home added to the number 

 of cultivated plants by trying experiments of hybridizing, 

 producing double varieties, and more especially variegation. 

 Such things as variegated " silver-striped," or " gold-blotched," 

 lilacs, syringa, privet, phillyrea, or maple were great favourites. 



Improved methods of heating and building conservatories 

 and hot-houses made it possible not only to shelter " tender 

 exotics " and grow fruit, but to force vegetables. Attempts 

 were made to force grapes, and the experiment was tried by the 

 Duke of Rutland at Belvoir. Bradley and Switzer describe 



