216 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



managed by a committee of twenty-one assistants, thirty livery- 

 men, and twenty yeomanry. They built a greenhouse which 

 cost them £138 in 1680. Two years after, Dr. Hermann of Ley- 

 den visited the- garden and offered to exchange some plants. 

 To effect this, Watts was sent over to Holland. In 1685 the 

 expenses of the garden, besides Watts's salary, reached £130, so 

 the Company, unable to carry on the garden at that rate, ar- 

 ranged to give Watts £100 a year, out of which he was to keep 

 up the garden, and he was allowed to sell fruit and plants. The 

 same sort of arrangement was afterwards made with his suc- 

 cessor, Doody, a good botanist, and famous collector of native 

 plants, chiefly cryptograms, who was given the post in 1693. 

 In 1722 Sir Hans Sloane, having acquired land at Chelsea which 

 included the garden, gave the site to the Apothecaries' Company 

 on condition that it was always to be a Physic Garden, and 

 Philip Miller was made the curator. Another condition of Sir 

 Hans Sloane's was, that the Company should present fifty new 

 plants annually to the Royal Society (of which he was Presi- 

 dent) until they had given two thousand. They, however, con- 

 tinued the annual gift until 1773, and gave in all 2,550 species. 

 Under Philip Miller's care the garden increased in importance, 

 and many able curators succeeded him. After the middle of 

 last century it was much neglected by the Apothecaries' Com- 

 pany until 1898, when the Charity Commissioners handed it 

 over to a board of management appointed by the London 

 Parochial Charities and several learned societies, to be main- 

 tained for scientific and educational purposes. Thus once more 

 the Physic Garden is fulfilling the wishes of its founder. 



Sir Hans Sloane had for many years taken a lively interest 

 in the garden. In 1684 he wrote Ray an account of a visit 

 which he paid to it. 1 " I was the other day at Chelsea, and find 

 that the artifices used by Mr. Watts have been very effectual for 

 the Preservation of his plants, insomuch that this severe winter 

 has scarce killed any of his fine plants. One thing I much 

 wonder to see Cedrus Montis Libani . . . should thrive so well, 

 as without pot or green House, to be able to propagate itself 

 by Layers this spring. Seeds sown last Autumn have as yet 

 thriven very well." There were four cedars planted in 1683, 

 1 Ray's Philosophical Letters, 1718. 



