291 
and in 1761 Lord Bute was made Secretary of State, and for a short 
time (1762-3) Prime Minister. He took throughout his life a keen 
interest in рди and died in 1792 а victim to his favourite pursuit. 
“Seeing a new plant on the cliff [near Christchurch, in Hampshire], 
** he сае, наев it, em received a severe fall, which brought on 
“ an illness of which he die 
Lord Bute's interest in m has scarcely received the appreciation 
it deserved. It was undoubtedly real, and was, in fact, apart from his 
brief political career, the principal "Ewa ak his ja In the 
“ Memoir and Correspondence” of Sir J. E h (vol. i., p. 402), a 
letter from Dr. Pulteney, dated Blandford, October ss MS is printed, 
describing Lord Bute's botanical library iu Hamps 
“I had lately, in my attendance upon one of the family, an PTT à 
spending a few hours in the botanical library of the late Earl о It 
indeed, very rich in books and dried specimens, as well as in vo pides же gaiii 
of plants; and 5 appears that the Earl чаво his tuste to the last, as I 
MEM all the latest expensive works. There are Mea æ pit) а more than 
а ем botanical, and quartos pe pon 05 in proportion; very many 
of the , and some very scarce ones; a заана almost 300 feet 
long, fall it ЕЎ pir growing and flourishing in the soil (notin pots), like an 
Indian grove. To this add a garden of - sane walled round, and full of hardy 
plants, and all dis within 150 yards of the s 
In a rare tract, — to Horne Tooke (who in 1760 was ap- 
pointed vicar of Brentford), and entitled * The Petition of а ан 
man” (1765), there is а view which is described as e and 
accurate m of some part of ‘Kew Green." On this two ei are 
marked as in the occupation of Lord Bute. One, “ The House in 
Church Hou It is very m that while alibi at Kew he kept 
there his been and ‘dried plants. pei the garden of this house 
and Kew Gardens tbere was a door of communication which was the 
subject at the time of ill-natured dedica ion, but сне ср бан по 
more than that Lord Bute’s books were available for the purposes of the 
rden 
gem a matter of fact this turns out to be more than probable. In We 
Kew Museums there is a copy of a slightly different version of the sam 
print, from the Politieal ү, and appended to the ая 
letterpress is the following statement :— 
* [n a series of letters some time ago, in the publie prints, signed Anti Sejanus, 
a charge was brought against the favourite, of building palaces, у. ors ke. which 
i i in the fi words : 
' side of the garden, used by him in part fora library, and in part occupied by an 
under servant of the pi family. See a letter signed J. [ . ], in the * Public 
Advertiser, of Monday, August 26, 1765." 
The second initial is lost, but it may be Pater ds that the writer 
was John Haverfield, who was a protegé of Lord Bute 
Lord Bute has a place in botanieal literature as the der of one of 
the rarest of books. It was entitled * Botanical Tables, containing the 
* different Familys of British Plants, hes ptawus by a few obvious 
* parts of fructification rang'd in а synoptica od.” It was in nine 
volumes, qua without place or date. ryander says :—“ Operis 
“ „ hujus, s splendidi magis quam utilis, duodecim tantum exemplaria 
“ impressa sunt. ". А deal of information about it will be found in 
the “ Gardeners’ Chronicle ” for December 20, 1879 (pp. 796-7). Of 
