THE HISTORY OF THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE Xlli 
garden at Eltham, in Kent, which furnished the materials 
for Dillenius’s book, is characterized as by far the richest 
then extant. Sherard accumulated wealth in London by 
practising as an apothecary, and subsequently retired to his 
country seat, where he devoted the greater part of his time 
to the cultivation of plants obtained from all parts of the 
world, though the bulk of the extra-European species were 
from America and South Africa. What in those days was 
termed the dry stove presented the greatest novelty, for the 
gardeners of that period appear to have succeeded better 
with succulent plants than any other class in their flue- 
heated houses. Sherard had, for the period, an exceedingly 
rich collection, comprising the genera Aloe, Haworthia, 
Gasteria, Cotyledon, Crassula, Mesembryanthemum, Opuntia, 
Pereskia, Phyllocactus, Euphorbia and Kleinia. Of Mesem- 
bryanthemum alone fifty-four species are figured and de- 
scribed, and a clavis to the species is given, founded upon 
characters afforded by the leaves. 
Purure MILuer. 
Before introducing the founder of the Botanical Magazine 
himself, | should like to add a few words respecting that 
remarkable man, Philip Miller (the ‘“ Hortulanorum Prin- 
ceps” of his day) and his publications, for they certainly 
mark an epoch in the history of gardening. Miller was born 
in 1691, and was the only man whom Pulteney knew who 
had seen the botanist Ray.’ In 1722 he was appointed 
Curator of the Chelsea Botanic Garden, a post he held for 
the long period of forty-eight years, and died in 177 1, the 
year after his retirement. He was a Fellow of the Royal 
Society, and enjoyed the friendship of some of the leading 
botanists of the day, though detractors of his merits were 
not wanting. His work, however, has rendered his name 
imperishable. Among his pupils were W. Aiton, author of 
* Ray was purely a botanist ; a I find the oo omc 
reference in Pulteney’s Sketches (i., 7) :—‘‘ Among t the riety of 
notes in this catalogue (Catalogus Plantacon eurca Casiabese 7am nas- 
centium. _ Cantab., 1660) t ere is one Rorwil not of public celled tn the 
,u 
ipsis accepimus, quotannis Floralia celebrant, quibus de floru m elegantia 
certatur, et victori florum sertum velut + eee porrigitur. Hine 
gloriantur, Nordvicum suum, dicendum esse vel urbem in horto vel 
hortum in urbe situm.”’ (Op. cit., p. 97.) 
