GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



situated at Chelsea in the county of Middlesex " . . . " containing 

 3 acres, 1 rood, and 35 perches, with the greenhouse, stoves, 

 barge-houses, and other creations thereon, to have and to hold 

 the same for ever, paying to Sir Hans Sloan and his heirs and 

 assigns the yearly rent of 5, and rendering yearly to the President 

 and Council and Fellows of the Royal Society of London 50 speci- 

 mens of distinct plants, well dried and preserved, which grew 

 in their garden the same year, with their names or reputed names, 

 and those presented in each year to be specifically different from 

 those of every former year until the number of 2,000 shall have 

 been delivered." 



If the Society failed to fulfil any of the above conditions 

 or should attempt to use the ground for any other purpose than 

 a Physic Garden the deed empowered Sir Hans Sloan or his 

 representatives, to enter the garden and hold it for the benefit 

 of the Royal Society which, in that case, was to be subject to 

 the same conditions as to rent and delivery of the specimens, 

 as the Apothecaries ; only the specimens and the rent were to 

 be delivered by the new custodians to the President and Council 

 of the Faculty of Physic in London. 



To the non-legal mind all this is very confusing, but it would 

 appear that, failing the Society of Apothecaries, the Royal Society, 

 of which Sloan was then either Secretary or Vice-President, 

 should accept the same responsibilities towards the garden for 

 the benefit eventually of the Royal College of Physicians, of which 

 Sir Hans Sloan was even then President. Soon after, the College 

 of Physicians presented the Apothecaries Society with 100 for 

 the use of the garden, and for some time we hear no more of finan- 

 cial difficulties ; on the contrary, six years later an order was given 

 to build a wharf on the river side of the garden at the cost of 

 1,000, the money being borrowed on sufficient security. In 

 1732 a scheme was set on foot to erect a greenhouse wherein the 

 various temperatures of the world should as nearly as possible be 

 imitated, so that plants might enjoy an approximation to their 

 native climes. The building cost 1,891 16s., and in it we find 

 the germ of the idea that led to the erection of the great hot-houses 

 of Sioii and Kew. In the same year, a year of astonishing activity 

 on the part of the Society ; it sent out at its own expense to Georgia 

 to collect trees and plants, in order to make experiments in raising 



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