A SKETCH 



OF THE 



PEOGEESS OF BOTANICAL INVESTIGATION 

 IN MIDDLESEX. 



WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



In this chapter those botanists who have puMished on the Flora of Middle- 

 sex are mentioned in chronological order, the nature and extent of their 

 'investigations are sta,ted, and a short account of their writings given. 



In the case of some of those who died previously to the commencement of 

 the present century, particiilars of their lives are added : Turner, Johnson, 

 Flukenet, Boody, Petiver, Buddie, Blackstono and Curtis are so treated. In 

 this part of the subject we have drawn largely on the collection of letters 

 .and other MSS. formerly belonging to Sir H. Sloane, Petiver and others, now 

 in the British Museum. These are quoted as Sloane MSS. ; there is an ex- 

 cellent catalogue of them by Ayscough, printed in 1782. Besides this inex- 

 haustible mine of information, we have derived much assistance from the 

 following books among others : * — 



Philosophical Letters between the late learned Mr. Ray and several of his ingenious 



Correspondents. Published by W. Derham. Lond. 1718.t 

 Historical and Biographical Sketches of the Progress of Botany in England. By 



Richard Pulteney, M.D., F.E.S. 2 vols. Lond. 1790. 

 Biographical Notices of various Botanists in Sees' Cyclopcedia. [By Sir J. E. Smith.] 



Lond. 1819-20 (but many of the volumes really published several years before). 

 Literary Illustrations of the ISth Century. By John Nichols, F.S.A. Vol. i. 1817, aiid 



vol. iv. 1822. 

 Correspondence of Linnaeus and other Naturalists. Edited by Sir J. E. Smith. 2 vols. 



Lond. 1821. 

 Extracts from the Literary and Scientific Correspondence of Richard Richardson, M.D.; 



F.R.S. [Edited by Dawson Tiu:ner.] Yarmouth, 1835. 



» As the following sketch does not profess to give a full history of the progress 

 British Botany, so neither are the biographical notices intended as complete lives. Some 

 „ew— i.e. unpublished— matter will, however, be found here, which it is hoped may beoi 

 use to future biographers. 



t In the Correspondence of John Ray, pubhshed in 1848 by the Eay Society, are some 

 additional letters to Petiver aud Sir Hans Sloane, printed from the originals in the 

 Sloane MSS. 



