Conclufion. 351 
convidllon of its excellence in thofe who 
were inclined to receive it, but conciliated 
the minds, and difpelled the prejudices, of 
many who had been averfe to it. 
By all thefe preliminary advances, the 
learned were prepared to fee the EngliJJj 
botany modelled according to the rules of 
the Linn^an fchool. Dr. Hill feized the 
firfh opportunity of attempting it, in his 
Flora Brltannica^ 1760 5 but it v/as execu - 
ted in a manner fo unworthy of his abili- 
ties, that his work can have no claim to 
the m.erit of having anfwered the occafion : 
and thus the credit of the atchievement fell 
to the lot of Mr. William Hudson, F.R. S. 
who, to an extenfive knowledge of Eitglijh 
plants, acquired by an attention to nature, 
had, by his refidence in the BritiJhMufeim, 
all the auxiliary refources that could favour 
his defign : accefs particularly to the Her- 
baria of almoft all the affiftants of Ray 
and DiLLENius, mentioned in the Synopjis^ 
gave him the opportunity of comparing the 
individual fpecimens of that work with his 
own ; and thus enabled him to difpel a 
multitude of doubts and uncertainties, in 
which. 
