J. 
August 19. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 815 
named in honour of him hy his friend Sir Edward 
Smith, delicately indicates and commemorates that he 
was distinguished among the students of the science in 
which he most delighted. 
He was horn at Loughborough, Feb. 17, 1780, of 
Anabaptist parents, and, after the education of a com¬ 
mon elementary school, apprenticed to Mr. Harris, 
apothecary, of that town ; whence, at the determination 
of his apprenticeship, he was induced to commence 
practice at Leicester, under all the disadvantages of 
religious prejudice against him as a Calvanist, and 
with the strictest regard to economy, wdiich prevented 
him from purchasing hooks in his favourite science of 
botany, which he had pursued with eagerness from a 
boy. 
In the Philosophical Transactions are inserted his 
observations on the Sleep of plants, the rare plants of 
Leicestershire, history of the deadly nightshade, his¬ 
torical memoir on lichens, and the case of a man whose 
heart was found enlarged to a very uncommon size. 
After taking his doctor’s degree at Edinburgh he came 
up to London, where the patronage of the Earl of Bath, 
to whom he was related, might be productive of the 
most beneficial consequences to his interests. He v r as 
graduated in 1704, with Dr. Garthshore, notwithstand¬ 
ing the opposition of the senior students to the practice 
of conferring degrees on applicants who had not resided 
and attended lectures. The subject of his inaugural 
dissertation was Cinchona officinale, which was inserted 
in the University’s Thesaurus Medicus. After being 
introduced to the Earl of Bath by the celebrated Mrs. 
Montague, acknowledged as a relation from the family 
pedigree, and appointed physician to his person, with a 
handsome salary, he lost, within a year after, his patron, 
with whom he was just about to travel on the Continent. 
A medical vacancy happening at Blandford, by the re¬ 
moval of Dr. England to Bristol, and Dr. Cuming being 
far advanced in years, Dr. Pulteney quitted the metro¬ 
polis, as unfavourable both to his paternal income and 
his constitutional timidity; and, under the recommenda¬ 
tion of Sir George Baker and Sir William Watson, 
began his career at Blandford, without intermeddling in 
the common convivialities and gossipings of the place, 
or the cabals of his medical brethren, and was not long 
iu establishing that degree of reputation which neces¬ 
sarily brings with it pecuniary affluence. In 1799 he 
married Miss Elizabeth Galton, of Blandford, a lady 
whose disposition and attainments comprehended every 
i requisite to give durability of happiness to his domestic 
j life; and, though this union never placed him iu the 
situation of a parent, he experienced, in an amiable 
relation of his wife (during the latter part of his life), 
the affectionate attentions of a daughter. He made 
himself completely master of the writings of Linnaeus ; 
his “General View” of which was out of print iu four 
years, and which was translated into French by M. 
Millin de Grandmaison, with additional notes. The 
Royal Academy of Stockholm presented him with two 
medals struck in honour of Linnaeus, one by the com¬ 
mand of the King of Sweden, the other at the expense 
of Count Tessin, both engraved in his Life of Linnaeus 
by Mr. Basire, in his best maimer. His next publica¬ 
tion was “ Historical and Biographical Sketches of the 
Progress of Botany in England, from its origin to the 
Introduction of the Linmeau System,” 2 vols., 8vo., 
1790, intended to be prefatory to a descriptive Catalogue 
of English Plants, or rather to an abbreviated Flora, as 
the original MS. is intituled, which would have recorded 
the first discoveries of every plant. Pie furnished 
botanical materials to Dr. Aikin’s England Delineated, 
Mr. Nichol’s Leicestershire, and the new edition of 
Mr. Hutchins’s Dorsetshire ; and his arrangement was 
agreeable to the alterations of the Linnsean system, in¬ 
troduced by Thunberg and Hedwig. 
Dr. Pulteney had suffered from a pulmonary complaint 
at the early period of his life; and a return of this was, 
what he always piroguosticated would be, fatal to him. 
On October 7, 1801, he w r as attacked with symptoms of 
inflammation on the lungs, and there was reason to 
apprehend his liver was similarly affected. 'When he 
found the ordinary remedies, under his own direction, 
did not succeed, he was the first to announce to those 
about him the approach of his dissolution, and died 
October 13th. {Gentleman s Magazine.) 
The following letter, dated August 31st, 1780, is the 
only one in this collection from 
DR. PULTENEY TO SIP.. FORSYTH. 
As you were so kind as to say you would endeavour to supply 
some of the deficiencies of my Herbarium Anylicum, when 
you sent me some exotics, I have herewith enclosed a cata¬ 
logue of such English plants as are either totally wanting 
to me, or of which my specimens are exceedingly imperfect, 
and I shall be obliged to you for specimens of any of them, 
whether they are the produce of the garden, or whether 
from the places of growth in the natural situation. 
Any specimens of exotics that you can spare I should be 
glad to receive, and if there are such among them as I 
should happen to have already, and you think it of im¬ 
portance, I will return them. Be pleased to say, when you 
write, whether any specimens of the Hardwell Cliff fossils 
would be acceptable to you, as I believe in that case I could 
spare you a few, having a few duplicates by me. 
I have enclosed some specimens of the Genliuna fill - 
formis and Pinguicula villosa; I hope the capsules of the 
former are forward enough to contain seed that will vege¬ 
tate. There is some sand sent with the letter, among which 
I believe is seed of the Pinyuieula. These plants grow on 
our heaths in a sandy soil, by the side of little rills that run 
down into the bogs. 
GOSSIP. 
The first pillar of The Crystal Palace was raised at 
Sydenham on the 5th instant, and from the arrange¬ 
ments made there is no reason to doubt that it will be 
completed and thrown open to the public by the 1st of 
May, 1853. The arrangements of the garden, of course, 
will proceed at the same time, and this autumn will 
not be lost as the best planting time for the out-door 
deciduous shrubs and trees. The purchase of the Palms 
from Messrs. Loddiges has been completed. 
Mr. J. C. Stevens had a sale by auction of Cochin 
China Fowls, on the 2nd instant, at his rooms in King- 
street, Covent Garden, and another at Deptford, on the 
6th. In the first sale, the fowls were generally of a 
superior description to those in the sale at Deptford. 
