Page:Hortus Kewensis, 1st edition, Volume 1.djvu/14

 Rh actual translation of Dodonæus; and Parkinson's Paradisus terrestris little better than a compilation from other books. Miller's dictionary is certainly a more original work than either of these; it is seldom, however, if ever, that the author has quoted either of these books as authority, without having been induced by some additional reason, to believe that the plants alluded to were actually cultivated here at the time stated.

Several Manuscripts preserved in the Sloanean Collection at the British Museum have been made use of in this part of the Work, particularly No 3370, intitled, Horti Regii Hamptoniensis exoticarum Plantarum Catalogus; to which another hand-writing has added, by Dr. Gray. On a blank page in this book is the following memorandum: "This Catalogue I took from one " which the Intendant of the garden they were in " at Hampton-Court, lent to me upon the place, " with liberty sufficient to inspect the Plants: they " were brought from Soesdyke, a house belonging " to Mr. Bentink, afterwards Earl of Portland, " about the year 1690, and given by him to King " William."

The abbreviation ''Br.Mus. H.S.'' signifies the Sloanean Hortus siccus, kept in the British Museum; from whence much information, principally concerning the Plants cultivated by the Dutchess of