Some of the more learned students of English plants, among the lovers of botany in Norwich, had long been conversant with the works of Ray, and even the Historic Itfosoorroos of Dillon's. hey were prepared therefore to admire, and to profit by, the philosophical writings of Lineman. Hence or/. ginated the Elements of Botany, published in 1776, by Mr Hugh Rose ; who was aided in the under. taking by his equally learned friend, the Raver Henry Bryant, of whose acuteness and botanical skill no better is wanting,-than his baring found and sins yearn before, the minute Titles mimosa, for the first time in this island. Numerous pupils were ftger to improve theameires by the as sistance of such masters, and amongst ethers the writer of these pages imbibed, firm-their ardour and their friendly ossistasco, the first rudiments of a rm. auit that has proved tbe happiness and the principal object of his life..
Loudon became, of course, the focus of this science, as well as of every other. Of the English Universities, Cambridge most fulfilled its duty, in rendering its public establishments useful to the ends fa; which they were founded and paid. The names of Martyn, both father and son, have long maim. tained a distinguished rank in botany, and the latter, for many years, has inculcated the true principles of Linntean science, from the refessor's•hair. A bo tanic garden was established, .by a private individual, Dr Walker, about the period of which we are speak. ing. A Linntean Flora C,antabrigiensis, by Mr Rel. has, has renewed the celebrity of that field, is which Ray had formerly laboured ; and there has al. ways existed a little community of Cambridge bota. mists, though fluctuating and varying, according to circumstances. At Oxford, botany, so vigorously established by Sherard and Dillenius, slept for forty years under the auspices of the. elder Professor Sib. Thorp, at least as to the utility of its public founda tions. Yet even there thenctense bad many indiei. dual cultivators, and if others were. forgotten, she name of a Banks ought to render this school for ens celebrated. The roars Prufemor iiihtherp well atoned for the supineness of his ;gm and 'mode• censor. Ile piablished a Flora Oaortirstis, and am. his ineitifine into the dueled scenes of Greece, AnialY suctifteing:hiclifelto 'Abair', and sapling hi& Alive of this nivel* ,study "by= maw foundation, which prey*, far the i • • of. a rilnWitlaVP,Flanz Grim, end the subsequent as tablithineat masterthip of mutat Economy.
°Edinburgh, under the auspices of the late worthy Professor Hope, became distinguished for the culti vation of botany; as a branch of medica*education. The physiology of plants was there taught, more as siduously than in almost any other univereity of Eu rope ; and the Linkman principles were ably enforced and illustrated, not with slavish devotion, but with enlightened discrimination. Nor must the dissent ing Academy at Warrington be forgotten, where the distinguished circumnavigator Forster, of whom we have already spoken, was settled. Hem many young naturalists were trained. The neighbouring family of the Blacltburnes, possessed even to this day, of one of the oldest and richest botanic gardens in England, have steadily fostered this and other branches of natural knowledge. The same taste has spread to Manchester, Liverpool, and the country around. Westmoreland, Northumberland and Dur ham have their sequestered practical botanists, in every rank of life. Scenes celebrated by the corre
spondents of Ray are still the favourite haunts of these lovers of nature and science, who every day add something to our information, and to the cele brity_ of other parts of the same neighbourhood.
We must now concentrate our attention • to the London school, which, for about forty years past has maintained a rank superior• to most ether seats of botanical science ; • the more so perhaps for its being founded in tota• disinterestedness, both with respect to authority and emolument. Troth alone, not sys tem, has been the leading object of this school ; un biassed and gratuitous patronage its support ; and a genuine love of nature and of knowledge its bond of union, among persons not less distinguished from each other by character and opinion, than by their different and various ranks of fife. The illustrious , from the time when, after his return *vim his celebrated and adventurous voyage, he devoted him self to the practical cultivation of natoral science for the advantage of others, as he had long pursued it for his own pleasure and instruction, has been the head of this school. Here he fixed the amiable and ' learned Solander, for the remainder OP his too short • lift. The house of this liberal Meranos has ever since been, not only open, but, in a manner, at the entire command of the cultivators and admirers of this and other branches of philosophy; inasmuch as his library and museum have been devoted to their free use; and his own assistance, encouragement and information are as much at their service, as if his fortune and fame had all along depended on their favour. With such an establishment as this, aided by the perpetual resources of the numerous public and private gardens around, botany might well flou rish. The liberal spirit of the leaders of this pursuit, gave a tone to the whole. The owners of nurseries, though depending on pecuniary emolument for their support, rivalled each other in disinterested commu nication. The improvement of science was the lead ing object of all. One of this latter description took his rank among the literary teachers of botany. Lee's Introduction was much approved by Linnaeus, whom system and principles it ably exemplifies, and who became this friend and oorreopendent of its author. Travelling botanists wee dispatched, un der the patronage of the affluent, to enrich our gar dens from the Alps, the Cape of Good Hope, and the various parts of America. Every new acquisi tion was scrutinized, and received its allotted name and distinction, from the hand of the correct and classical Solander, who one was admiring with Collinson, Fothergill, or Pitcairn, the treasures of their respective gardens, and another labouring with the distinguished Ellis, at the more abstruse deter mination of the intricate family of marine produc tions; whether sea-weeds, corallines or shells. His own acquisitions, and those of his friend and patron, in the fairy land of the South-Sea Islands, the ha zardous shores of New Holland, or the nearly fatal groves and swamps of Java, were at the same time recorded by his pen, as they were gradually perpe tuating by the slow labours of the engraver. To this band of zealous naturalists the younger Linnaeus was, for a while, associated, as well as the excellent and zealous Broussonet, who though not unversed in botany, devoted himself most particularly to the more uncommon pursuit of scientific icthyology.