B O T A N Y. 



17 



William 

 Sherrard. 



Hitory. the Russian ambassador Romantoff, on the recommen- 

 dation of the celebrated Dr Frederick Hoffman, to 

 Constantinople ; and from tHence extended his bota- 

 nical surveys over a considerable part of the surround- 

 ing countries ; traversing Pontus and Armenia, more 

 especially, on the one hand, and Greece, with the 

 adjoining islands, on the other. The world, how- 

 ever, did not reap all that advantage which might have 

 been anticipated from his abilities, as he died prema- 

 turely in 1730; having only published descriptions 

 of three centuries of the plants discovered by him. 

 Descriptions of two more, it is true, were edited 

 from his MSS. some time after his death by John G. 

 Gmelin, whom we shall have occasion to mention 

 shortly ; but, to pass over other disadvantages arising 

 from his premature fate, those of the sixth century, 

 which he had also in a state of forwardness, were 

 never made public. 



Having said thus much as to the attempts at dis- 

 covery which were made about this time in the East, 

 we caunot quit the subject without adding, that a 

 tribute of no ordinary praise is due to the memory of 

 our countryman, William Sherrard, a native of Bush- 

 by in Leicestershire ; for though he did not live to 

 Died A. D. complete the only work of importance which he un- 

 : - ; '- dertook, A Continuation of Bauhin's Pineix, and 



otherwise published little on botany, yet no man of 

 that age exerted himself so much, without regard to 

 expence, in collecting plants of every description. A 

 long residence at Smyrna, as British consul, and the 

 use of a well-stored garden, which he laboured daily 

 to improve, gave him peculiar advantages in obtain- 

 ing and preserving the most perfect specimens of such 

 as were indigenous in the eastern countries : and so 

 well did he employ his influence in other respects, that 

 he became at length the possessor of an Herbarium, 

 containing no less than 12,000 species, which he left 

 at his death, together with a valuable collection of 

 drawings, to the university of Oxford. His brother 

 Fames Sher- James, physician in London, who died in 1737, six 

 rard. Died years after him, was likewise fond of botanical pur- 

 A. D.I 737. suits, and established the well known garden at his 

 country-seat at Eltham in Kent, which supplied the 

 materials of that splendid work of Dillenius, the Hor- 

 tus Elthamcnsis. 



While the science was thus advancing in conse- 

 quence of the travels and 'researches of botanists in 

 lupp. foreign parts, Henry Bernard Rupp, a native of 

 Giessen, and student at Jena, who had traversed ma- 

 \\y parts of Germany with incredible zeal, lodging 

 often in the meanest cottages, and subsisting on the 

 most homely fare, wrote the Flora Jenensis, in 

 which he gave some account of his discoveries, and 

 constituted several new genera, on the principles of 

 IJoerhaave. R-ivinus. The great Boerhaave, professor at Leyden, 

 torn A. D. alike celebrated throughout Europe as a physician 



1668. Died and a naturalist, besides proposing a new system of ar- 

 V. D. 1738. rangement, founded chiefly on that of Herman, con- 

 tributed to throw some light on exotic botany, by 

 describing, with his usual ability, several rare plants 



(which were cultivated under his direction in the 

 >. Celsius. un ' vers i t y garden. Olaus Celsius, professor of di- 

 vinity at Upsal, a man of great erudition, and the 

 future patron of the far-famed Linnzus, who also 

 published a catalogue of the flora round Upsal, was 



VOL. IV. PART 1. 



engaged in preparing the Ilicrolotanicoii, a work Htnry- ^ 

 illustrative of the plants mentioned in scripture, "" v~ 

 which is hitherto unrivalled by any other on the 

 subject. The two Scheuchzers of Zurich also ac- 

 quired great fame ; John James, who was professor of Julm .T;nnc 

 mathematics, by his journies through the Alps, which -Sclieuch- 

 Iie crossed no less than nine times in various direction*, "^ ^ 

 ascending to their highest peaks ; and John, the young- j,j j A '^ 

 er brother, who was a physician, by his very elaborate 1733. 

 and accurate discrimination and descriptions of the 

 grasses. The former gave the world some account of J lu J 

 his labours and discoveries in his Itinera Novem per ^ r ' el 

 Al/iinas Helvetica regiones, published at different 

 times : the latter in his Agroslographia, sen Graminun', 

 Juncorum, Cyperonim, Cyperoidum Usque ailfinium 

 Hiito/'ia, published in 1719; of which we may say, 

 with his countryman Haller, so often referred to, 

 " Immensi laboris opus, et hactenus sine pari est. 

 Difficilis classis species omnes minutissime descripsit, 

 characteres extricavit, plurimas depictas dedit, ct ab 

 integro novam historiam molitns est. Plurimas spe- 

 cies ipse detexit in Rhxtia et circa Tigurum, alias ab 

 amicis, etiam ex India Orientali habuit, alias ita de- 

 finivit, ut nunc adgnosci possunt. Confusam, etiam 

 apud Tournefortium, graminum farraginem, in classes, 



fenera, species solicite distribuit : Genera fere qua- 

 ringinta descripsit." Nor can we forbear to add with 

 him, on the other hand, " Non recusabo equidem, 

 varietates inter genera reperiri, quod eo frequentius, 

 apud quemque botanicorum, auctorem rcperitur, quo 

 studiosius ipse plantas legerit. Neque methodum 

 ubique laudavero, qux primum hie, post leviora Raii 

 tentamina, constituitur. Id potissimum incommodum 

 est, quod cum longis descriptionibus essentialia signa 

 seorsim non definiverit, ex quibus quasque planta ad- 

 gnoscitur. Synonyma etiam pauciora addidit." 



Sebastian Vaillant too, a pupil of Tournefort, and Vaillant. 

 the most expert and indefatigable botanist of his time, B A J. D 

 did great service to his favourite science, by writing on A D j-!,,, 

 the plants growing naturally round Paris, and detect- 

 ing the proper use of the pollen, by his nice obser- 

 vations and experiments on the flowers of the pellitory, 

 but still more by improving on the labours of his 

 master; for he both corrected various faults in his me- 

 thod, and, by establishing several new genera, suc- 

 ceeded in bringing many of the smaller plants, which 

 Tournefort had partly overlooked, into some form of 

 arrangement. A consumption, however, which appears 

 to have been brought on by fatigue and unseasonable 

 exposure in his botanical excursions, put an end to 

 his life in 1722, and deprived t^ie world of hi* pro- 

 mising abilities. What Vaillant did not live to accom- 

 plish, was, however, accomplished afterwards by the 

 skill and perseverance of Dillenius and Micheli. The Dillenius. 

 former a Hessian, who was some time professor of bo- Born A. D. 

 tany in his native city Giessen, and latterly at Oxford, 1684. Died 

 where he died in 1747, devoted his attention in a parti- A- D- 

 cular manner to the study and arrangement of the mos- 

 ses. His merits as a botanist were great in other re- 

 spects ; but in this branch of the science more especial- 

 ly he succeeded so well, that his history of the mosses 

 is still considered as one of the best ; and a very com- 

 petent judge has termed his descriptions " a model of Micheli. 

 perspicuity." The latter, by birth a Florentine, and f" 9 ' ^j 



' 



placed at first in the humble situation of a gardener, ^ 'D i7->9 

 t 



