Bilkmus. 163 
lately returned from Smyrna*, and having 
regretted the negledt of the C7jptogamia 
clafs, he was fo enamoured with the difco- 
veries of DiLLENius in that branch, that 
he entered into correfpondence with him, 
and procured fpecimens from him, and 
afterwards brought him to Englarid. No 
man was more clofely devoted to a favourite 
mufe than DiLlenius was to Flora and, 
after his arrival in England^ he purfued his 
ftudy with uncommon ardour, and corre- 
fponding diligence* The acquifition of fo 
able a man, w^as probably an additional mo- 
tive with the Conful, to attempt the revi- 
val of botany in the univerlity of Oxford. 
DiLLENius came into England in Au- 
guft 1721, where he had not long refided 
before he undertook a work that was much 
'defiredj that of publifhing a new edition 
of the Synopfis Stirpium Britannicarum of 
Ray. It had been laft printed in 1696^ 
and was become fcarce. Dillenius hav- 
ing firmly attached himfelf to Ray's lyf-* 
tern, and even improved it in fome parts 
(though he intimates in one of his letters 
to a friend, that he was not allowed to 
M % make 
