FLORA OF OXFORDSHIRE. 381 
mistook him for a wolf. On one of his continental journeys he made the 
acquaintance of Dillenius, whom he afterwards induced to return with 
him to England. ‘ Dillenius (says Sherard in a letter dated Sept. 7, 1721, 
to Dr. Richardson) has brought with him most (if not all) of his Fungi 
painted, and all his Lichenes, Lichenastra and Muscos, neatly designed, 
with most of the plants he names for new in his catalogue.’ In 1726 
considerable alterations were made at the Botanical Gardens, on his 
promise to leave to it his collections. His herbarium presented to the 
University, rendered Oxford pre-eminent in the eyes of Europe for its 
Botanical treasures, ‘which included original specimens from most of the 
eminent botanists of the time, named by themselves, and accompanied by 
their remark or by queries,’ says Sir James Smith, ‘ scarcely less instruc- 
tive.” On his death, which took place in 1728, he bequeathed £3000 to 
provide a salary for the Professor of Botany, on condition that the 
University should supply £150 towards the maintenance of the garden, 
and that Dillenius should be the first Sherardian Professor. Although 
Sherard never published any works under his own name, almost all 
contemporary botanists bear testimony to his merit; see, for example, 
Bobart’s preface to the third volume of Morison, and Ray in the third 
volume of the Historia Plantarum. The third edition of the Synopsis 
was prepared under Sherard’s inspection, and he probably wrote the Schola 
Botanica, published at Amsterdam in 1689. The preface of the latter 
work, dated London, 1688, is signed S. W. A., and suggests that it could 
only have been prepared by Sherard. In 1727 he assisted Boerhaave in 
revising the MSS. of the Botanicon Parisiense. For an extended notice 
of William Sherard see the interesting memoir by B. Daydon Jackson 
in Journ. Bot., May 1874. His herbarium of British plants is at this 
date preserved by itself at Oxford; but it has been considerably tampered 
with, many specimens collected as recently as 1820 being inserted 
without collector’s name: and many plants removed to the other collec- 
tions. There are but few traces of Sherard’s work in the Oxfordshire 
Flora, but many specimens in the Dillenian herbarium were collected by 
him. He recorded Vicia sylvatica from Merley Wood, near Oxford, and 
Salix caprea acuto longoque folio, which Sir James Smith refers to 
acuminata and Sibthorp confounds with cinerea. In the Dillenian 
herbarium a form of Caprea represents it, and probably S. Smithiana 
was the plant referred to by Sherard. Stellaria palustris was another of 
his discoveries ‘about Oxford.’ He died 11th Aug., 1728, and was buried 
at Eltham, where he rests in a nameless grave. Dillenius named a genus 
of plants Skerardia in honour of Sherard, and the name is still retained. 
There is no portrait of Sherard in the Hope collection. 
John Jacob Dillenius, the first Sherardian Professor, was born at 
Darmstadt, in 1687. He was educated at the University of Giessen, 
where he published a list of plants growing in that neighbourhood; a 
work which established his reputation as a botanist, although arranged 
