74 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 



being quoted than several of those named; but, as we have 

 invited all proprietors and gardeners in the British Isles to send 

 us accounts of their foreign trees and shrubs for this work, and 

 as many of these have done so, we must refer in this place to 

 the paragraph headed Statistics, given to each tree and shrub ; 

 where, under each county, will be found the names of all those 

 seats most remarkable for foreign trees and shrubs, wfth the 

 dimensions and other particulars of the plants they contain. 



Several botanic gardens were formed during this century, 

 both at home and abroad; and the exchange of seeds and 

 plants which takes place universally among such establishments 

 increased the foreign productions of each respective country. 

 It also became the practice, in the latter part of this century, 

 for private persons and public bodies to send out botanical 

 collectors. Several of these were sent out from the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew, others by the subscriptions of individuals, and 

 some by nurserymen. 



Chelsea Garden (already noticed, p. 47.) is said by Collinson 

 to have been, in his time, the richest in plants in Europe. It 

 was brought to the highest degree of eminence during this 

 century by Miller. Its origin is unknown : the first notice 

 of it, in the books of the Apothecaries' Society, is in 1674, 

 when it was proposed to wall it round ; and two years after- 

 wards, in 1676, the Society agreed to purchase the plants 

 growing in Mrs, Cape's garden at Westminster. They may 

 probably also have had plants from the garden mentioned in 

 Evelyn's Diary for 1658 as "the medical garden at West- 

 minster, well stored with plants, under [Edward] Morgan, 

 a skilful botanist." Piggot is the name of the first curator of 

 the Chelsea Garden, noticed in 1676. Watts, mentioned both 

 by Ray and Evelyn, was an apothecary by profession, but 

 undertook the care of the garden in 1680, at 50/. per annum. 

 Miller was appointed to the garden in 1722, at the time Sir 

 Hans Sloane, when applied to for a renewal of the lease of 

 the garden, granted it to the Society in perpetuity, at a rental 

 of 5/. per annum, and on condition that specimens of fifty 

 new plants should annually be furnished to the Royal 

 Society, till the number amounted to two thousand, that 

 number, at that time, being supposed likely to exhaust the 

 botanical riches of the whole world. Miller resigned his 

 situation as curator, a short time before his death in 1771, and 

 was succeeded by Forsyth, who left it to become royal gardener 

 at Kensington in 1784, and was succeeded by Fairbairn, 

 who died in the garden in 1814. His situation is now filled 

 by Mr. William Anderson, F.L.S. H.S., &c., who has greatly 

 enriched the garden, and contributed materially to its present 

 high character. 



