274  London  Botanic  Gardens.  {Amjine"'i906arm' 
tor,  did  his  best  and  appealed  to  correpondents  at  home  and  abroad 
for  donations  of  plants,  his  efforts  were  only  partly  successful.  The 
temporary  improvement  effected  through  the  exertions  of  Nathaniel 
Bagshaw  Ward  thus  suffered  a  gradual  decline,  which  ultimately  re- 
sulted in  the  practical  extinction  of  activities  at  the  Chelsea  Garden. 
The  system  of  sending  out  collectors  of  plants  never  seems  to  have 
been  adopted  by  the  Society  of  Apothecaries,  owing  probably  to  the 
expense  which  it  entailed,  but  there  is  an  entry  in  1732  to  the  effect 
that  "  £20  per  annum  be  paid  by  the  Society  towards  the  expense 
of  sending  a  person  to  Georgia,  to  collect  trees  and  plants,  and  to 
make  experiments  concerning  raising  them  in  England,  which  sum 
was  in  the  following  year  ordered  to  be  paid  to  the  trustees  for  that 
colony."  Now  that  botanic  gardens  have  been  established  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  the  system  of  exchange  inaugurated  in  1682  at 
the  Chelsea  Garden  has  almost  entirely  superseded  that  of  sending 
out  plant  collectors,  and  all  botanic  gardens  of  importance  issue 
periodically  lists  of  seeds  or  of  plants  for  exchange. 
Turning  now  to  the  matters  which  have  been  referred  to  in  the 
opening  paragraph  of  this  section,  we  shall  find  much  to  interest 
us;  for  the  history  of  botany,  and  especially  that  of  Systematic 
Botany,  in  this  country,  is  mirrored  in  that  of  the  Chelsea  Physic 
Garden. 
Systematic  Botany  in  England  may  be  said  to  have  originated 
with  John  Ray  (if  we  except  Robert  Morison),and  the  system  which 
he  elaborated  in  his  Historia  Plantarum  marks  an  era  in  the  history 
of  botanical  science.1  Ray  acknowledges  as  his  collaborators  Samuel 
Doody,  who  was  associated  with  the  early  history  of  the  Chelsea 
1  It  does  not  fall  within  the  limits  of  this  paper  to  enter  into  details  of  the 
different  systems  of  classification,  but  the  reader  will  find  an  admirable  account 
of  the  latter  in  Asa  Gray's  "Structural  Botany"  or  Part  I  of  "The  Botanical 
Text  Book  (Sixth  Edition)."  New  York  and  Chicago,  1880,  pp.  331-344.  This 
is  a  little  masterpiece  of  conciseness  and  precision,  as  lucid  as  it  is  exact  ;  but 
the  student  who  is  desirous  of  pursuing  the  subject  further  should  consult  the 
spirited  but  subjective  account  in  the  "History  of  Botany  (1530-1860),  by  Julius 
von  Sachs  .  ,  Authorized  translation  by  Henry  B.  F.  Garnsey,  M.A.,  re- 
vised by  Isaac  Bayley  Balfour,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.S."    Oxford,  1890,  pp.  3—216. 
Bngler's  system  has  not  been  adopted,  to  my  knowledge,  in  any  of  our  Bo- 
tanic Gardens,  so  that  the  two  above-mentioned  works  contain  all  that  is 
necessary  for  our  purpose.  A  comparison  of  Bngler's  system  with  that  of 
Bentham  and  Hooker  will  be  found  in  J.  C.  Willis's  "Manual  and  Dictionary 
of  the  Flowering  Plants  and  Ferns."    Cambridge,  1897,  Vol.  I,  pp.  133-147. 
