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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I July 27, 1870. 



many heartaches that night, for the numhers of entries wers so 

 large that many must have heen left out in the cold. One 

 exhibitor waB disqualified by the Committee because he would 

 not admit the Inspector into Ms garden. His blooms were very 

 good, and it :"s much to he lamented that he brought this upon 

 himself. It is the custom of the Society, in order to prevent as 

 far as they can unfair practices, to send their Inspector to visit 

 the gardens of those who enter for the Show, so that he may see 

 whether there are any Roses likely to he shown on the day. 

 This plan is, I believe, adopted at Nottingham and other places, 

 and works very well. Many of the amateurs' stands were very 

 good, but they nearly all lost points from the bad way in which 

 they set-up their blooms. None of them cut them long enough ; 

 you could scarcely see any wood if you lifted a bloom out of the 

 tube. Duplicates, too, were not uncommon, and I never saw so 

 many Roses misnamed. But as the productions of working men 

 they were the best I have ever seen ; the cottagers' blooms at 

 Hereford were not to be compared with them, and the numbers 

 of stands at Leek were larger than at any other country show 

 of the kind which I have visited. 



I am afraid, however, that the Exhibition was not a financial 

 success. At four o'clock when I left there were not twenty 

 people in the room, and last year they only took £3 at the doors. 

 Rose shows are not supported in the way they ought to be, and 

 I am afraid that the Leek Show will entail a loss on the Society, 

 like, it appears, the grand Show at Maidstone has done. It will 

 be a great pity if this is the case, as a Society like this does 

 much good. It encourages working men to stay at home in 

 (he spring and summer evenings to work in their gardens and 

 cultivate the queen of flowers. Nothing is more civilising, more 

 humanising than flowers. "We may say of the Rose that it 

 emollit mores, neque eos sinit esseferos, although my friend from 

 Nottingham proved the exception to the rule. I Baw none of 

 " the cloth" there, and wonder how it is that no clergyman in 

 those parts loves the Rose well enough to take the trouble to 

 exhibit it. But it was a most enjoyable Show, and you will 

 oblige me and the Committee (at whose request I write these 

 lines) if you will find space in " The Rose Journal " for this 

 account.— John B. M, Cajim. 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 16. 

 PHILIP MILLER AND THOMAS MAKTYN. 



Dr. Pultney says truly that Miller raised himself to a degree 

 of eminence rarely, if ever before, equalled in the charaoter of 

 a gardener. The eminence waB thoroughly deserved, for not 

 only was he a highly skilled horticulturist, but a good botaniBt, 

 the author of the best work on plants and their culture, and, 

 as Switzer his contemporary testifies, a man characterised by 

 " generosity, openness, and freedom." Tet of this " Prince 

 of Gardeners," as he was termed by foreigners, no authentic 

 portrait is known. To the French edition of his great work 

 published at Paris in 1785, entitled " Dietionnaire des Jar- 

 dinitrs de Philipe Miller," there is prefixed what Professor 

 MariyD terms " a fancy portrait of the author in a bag-wig 

 and ruffles, a costume which must appear truly ridiculous to 

 Bueh as remember the plain old-fashioned English dress in 

 which Mr. Miller always appeared." This fancy portrait I 

 have not seen, and I have been able to add little to the follow- 

 ing biographical detail?. 



He was born in 1691. His father was gardener at Chelsea 

 to the Company of Apothecaries, in which place his son suc- 

 ceeded him in 1722. To the knowledge of the theory and 

 practice of gardening he added that of the structure and cha- 

 racters of plants, and was early and practically versed in the 

 methods of Ray and Tournefort. Habituated to the use of 

 these from his youth, it was not without reluctance that he 

 embraced the system of Linnreus, but was persuaded at length 

 by the arguments of Sir William Watson and Mr. Hudson. 

 To his superior skill the curious owe the culture and preserva- 

 tion of many fine plants which in less able hands would have 

 failed at that time to adorn the conservatories of England. 

 His attention was not confined to exotics : few have heen ever 

 more acquainted with our indigenous plants, the most rare 

 species of which he cultivated with success. Miller had some 

 remembrance of Ray, and spoke with evident delight of having 

 seen that venerable botanist. He was admitted not only a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society of England, but also a member 

 of the Botanical Society at Florence ; he had an extensive 

 correspondence in foreign countries, and was sometimes by 

 foreigners Btyled Hortulanornm Princeps. Of his Dictionary 

 Linnaeus has said, " Non erit Lexicon Hortulanornm, sed Bo- 

 tanicorum." A short time before his decease Miller was induced 

 by increasing infirmities to resign his place at Chelsea, and 

 died December 18, 1771, in the S0;h year of his age. 



The works of Miller are rather important than numerous. 

 He published without his name " A Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, 

 and Flowers which are hardy enough to bear the cold of our 

 climate in the open air, and are propagated in the gardens 

 near London," in 1730, folio, with twenty-one plates. " Cata- 

 logus Plantarum Officinalium qua; in Horto Botanico Chelseiano 

 aluntur," 8vo, 1730. Of " The Gardener's and Florist's Dic- 

 tionary, or a Complete System of Horticulture, by Philip 

 Miller, Gardener of the Botanic Garden at Chelsea," the first 

 edition was published in 1724 in two octavo volumes. The 

 second edition in folio appeared in 1731, and is usually called 

 the first: third edition, 1733; fourth, 1737; fifth, 1743; an 

 additional volume, 1739 ; sixth, 1748; seventh, 1752; eighth, 

 1759; published in numbers, ninth, 1768 — "plants cultivated 

 in 1768 more than double those known in 1731 ;" and the 

 tenth, edited by Professor Martyn, in 1807. Smaller editions 

 were published to thwart pirates, the sixth edition of which 

 appeared in 1771, the last year of Miller's life. In the same 

 or the ensuing year he published " The Gardener's Kalendar " 

 in Svo, which has run through a vast number of editions. To 

 one, which appeared in 1761, the author prefixed " A Short 

 Introduction to the Knowledge of the Science of Botany," in 

 which he explains the Linnasan terms, and illustrates the 

 characters of the classes in five plates. This introduction was 

 also sold separately. He began in 1755 to publish his " Figures 

 of Plants," adapted to his Dictionary, which proceeded in 

 numbers till it amounted to two volumes in folio, containing 

 three hundred plates. His extensive correspondence with 

 botanists and others in various parts of the globe enabled him 

 to execute a work of this kind in a superior manner. From 

 the Cape of Good Hope, from Siberia, from North America, 

 and particularly from the West Indies by means of Dr. Wm. 

 Houston, he received for a long series of years a plentiful 

 supply of rare, and frequently of new species, which his suc- 

 cessful culture seldom failed to preserve. His original design 

 was no less than to give one or more species of all the genera ; 

 but this was found impracticable, and the work was therefore 

 confined to such plants as he esteemed the most beautiful, 

 useful, or uncommon. " The Method of Cultivating Madder 

 as it is practised by theDutohin Zealand," 4to, 1758. Besides 

 these publications he wrote several valuable papers in the 

 " Philosophical Transactions," one of which was " An Account 

 of bulbous roots flowering in bottles filled with water," a result 

 then lately discovered. 



Milleria was named in his honour by Professor Martyn iu 

 his " Decades Plantarum Rariarum." 



The best edition of his dictionary was edited by the Rev. 

 Thomas Martyn, Professor of Botany at Cambridge, and he 

 deserves in these pages a more than brief notice. He was the 

 eldest of the three sons of John Martyn, M.D., also Professor 

 of Botany at Cambridge and a physician resident at Chelsea. 

 After taking at Cambridge the degree of B.A. in 1756 he re- 

 moved to Sidney Sussex College and was elected a Fellow. He 

 proceeded M.A. in 1759 ; in 1761 his father, after having most 

 ably filled the botanical chair for thirty years, resigned it, and 

 the son was chosen to succeed him ; and on the election of 

 Dr. Elliston to the Mastership he was appointed one of the 

 tutors of the College. In both offices he exerted his talents 

 with assiduity; as ProfeBsor he read lectures in English instead 

 of Latin, and subsequently voluntarily extended his duties to 

 the illustration of the animal and mineral kingdoms as far as 

 they are connected with botany. 



In 1763 he published his first works, "Plantoe Cantabrigiensis, 

 or a Catalogue of the Plants which Grow Wild in the County 

 of Cambridge, disposed according to the System of Linnaeus; 

 Herbationes Cantabrigiensis, or Directions to the Places where 

 they may be found, comprehended in Three Botanical Excur- 

 sions, to which are added Lists of the more Rare Plants Grow- 

 ing in many Parts of England and Wales," Svo; and "A 

 Short Account of the Donation of a Botanic Garden to the 

 University by Dr. Walker, Vice-Master of Trinity College, with 

 Rules and Orders for the Government of it," 4to. In 1764 he 

 served proctor for the University, and in 1766 he proceeded 

 B.D. In the latter year he published " The English Connois- 

 seur," 2 vole., 12mo, and in 176S a sermon for the benefit of 

 Addenbrooke's Hospital. In the same year he lost his father, 

 and the two following were spent on a work which should per- 

 petuate that father's memory. This was editing the Doctor's 

 learned " Dissertations and Critical Remarks on the /Eneids 

 of Virgil, containing among other interesting particulars a full 

 Vindication of the Poet from the Charge of an Anachronism 

 with regard to the foundation of Carthage." To this work, 



