Linnctm, 345 
The journey into England however, was, 
on the whole, highly gratifying to Lin- 
N^us. He beheld with aftoni£hment the 
colledions of Sloane, and, with rapture, 
t h e iiZ^T <!^^r M of P E T I V E R , P L U K E N E T , B U - 
DELLE, and of many others there repofit- 
ed, whofe names were familiar to him. At 
Oxfo7-d he infpecled, with no lefs fatisfac- 
tion, the Finax of Sherard, which he 
had eagerly wiilied to fee publiihed, and of 
which DiLLENius had compleated about 
a fourth part. But an undertaking of that 
nature and extent, after the death of the 
firft projector of it, demanded a patronage 
and an expence, not eafily obtained. 
About the time Linnaeus made his tour 
into this country, indigenous botany was 
on the whole in a languifhing ftate. It no 
longer felt that degree of fupport, which 
the Sherards, and Sir Hans, had afford- 
ed it. The Conful was dead ; and the de- 
clining years of James Sherard, and 
of Sir Hans Sloane, began to withdraw 
them from the buftle, and almoft from the 
bufmefs, of life. After the publication of 
JIay's Synopfis by Dillenius, in 1724, 
no 
