154 Record of the Royal Society. 



distinct plants to the Royal Society np to 1762, when the tale of two- 

 thousand was completed. After that year plants were still pre- 

 sented up to 1774, when a total of 2,550 plants was attained, and 

 from that date the records of the Royal Society appear to contain no 

 entry concerning the Garden until the year 1861, when the Society 

 of 'Apothecaries, having expressed to the President of the Royal 

 Society their intention of relieving themselves of the responsibility 

 of maintaining the Botanic Gardens at Chelsea, and the matter 

 having been referred to a Committee, the following Minute of Coun- 

 cil appears in reply to an enquiry from the Society of Apothecaries- 

 as to the decision. of the Council : 



" Oct. 24, 1861. Resolved that thanks be returned to the Master 

 and Wardens of the Society of Apothecaries for their obliging com- 

 munication, and that they be informed that the President and Council 

 of the Royal Society do not feel in a position to take any steps in 

 the matter referred to, until they receive notice of proceedings on 

 the part of the Heirs of Sir Hans Sloane consequent on the determi- 

 nation of the Society of Apothecaries." 



The Garden is said to have contained three acres one rood and 

 thirty-five perches of ground, but this area appears to have been 

 exclusive of the foreshore of the River Thames. In the ' Memoirs r 

 already mentioned (p. 88) it is stated that so long ago as 1707 

 directions were given for wharfing the Garden towards the river,, 

 and that a similar order was made in 1728. In 1771 an emba.nk- 

 menb was made at an expense of about 400. " This embankment 

 was designed only in order to recover ground which had originally 

 belonged to the Garden, but had in process of time been washed 

 away by the river." 



In 1870 the Chelsea Embankment was constructed, and, as the 

 'Memoirs ' state, the Apothecaries' Society, " as tenants of the Chel- 

 sea Garden," lost their immediate access to the river and sacrificed 

 their portion of the foreshore, while a road intervened between the 

 garden and the river. As compensation, a handsome wall, railing,, 

 and entrance gates facing the Embankment were built by the Board 

 of Works. 



It is further stated in the ' Memoirs ' that a strip of reclaimed 

 land has " been thrown in with the older portion since the construc- 

 tion of the new river-side embankment." 



In 1890 the Society had some correspondence with the Society of 

 Apothecaries on occasion of a proposal that the Gardens should be 

 sold for building purposes ; but the proposal was abandoned. 



