LATE JAMES LEE. XV-XVl 



As might be expected from an author, Lee's 

 Garden was always open to the curious; nor was 

 he ever backward in communicating knowledge ; 

 whereas Mr. Miller concealed the names of his 

 valuable collection in the Chelsea Gardens; and the 

 papers, which contained his foreign seeds, were in- 

 dustriously thrown into the Thames ; and such is 

 the ardour of Botany, although the acquisition was 

 often to be swam for, these were fished for up again, 

 and the names of the new plants, then introduced, 

 Was thus known to Mr. Lee, and others, in a way 

 which greatly surprised the author of the Gar- 

 deners Dictionary. 



Lee might have died rich, but he was notoriously 

 generous, and cared not what expenses he was at 

 for the attainment of rare plants ; and when he pos- 

 sessed such as might have procured him a golden 

 harvest, he chose rather to give duplicates away to 

 lovers of Botany, before the selling them to the 

 rich but careless collectors of flowers, rather led to 

 them through ostentation, than from a laudable en- 

 thusiasm in the pursuit of knowledge. He never 

 concealed his methods of propagating plants; and 

 he generally observed, that, for want of insects to 

 further the nuptials of plants, or a proper degree 

 of ventilation, or rather favouring breezes, or from 

 some defect in the escape of the pollen from the an- 

 thers, that the seeds in stove plants are in general 

 unproductive ; and for a series of years artificial 

 impregnation has been performed at Hammersmith, 



