Page:Makers of British botany.djvu/138

 104 warranted. For instance, Linnaeus merged the genera Valerianella and Linaria into those of Valeriana and Antirrhinum respectively; Hill however recognized the generic rank of the two former.

Incidentally, it may be remarked that the acceptance of the year 1753 as the starting-point for the citation of names by the Vienna Botanical Congress has been the cause of more general recognition of Hill's activity in this direction; thus in recent editions of British Flora his name is appended to many genera and species.

The Vegetable System gained Hill the Order of Vasa, from the King of Sweden, in 1774, so that he styled himself Sir John; he was also a Member of the Imperial Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Bordeaux.

Hill died of gout on the 21st of November, 1775, at about the age of 59, in Golden Square, and was buried at Denham. Notwithstanding the large sums of money he had made, he died heavily in debt owing to the great expense entailed by the publication of the Vegetable System and his own personal extravagance. His library was sold in 1776-7, and it has already been mentioned that the copyright of the Vegetable System was disposed of by auction.

It is always a matter of difficulty to appraise a man's character, and more particularly is this true of Hill whose character, as Whiston has truly remarked, was so "mixed that none but himself can be his parallel." In the Sleep of Plants the following passage occurs: "There is a freedom of style, and assumed manner peculiar to this kind of correspondence, which would be too assuming in works addressed immediately to the public; and might not unnaturally draw upon the author a censure of self-sufficiency and vanity. This explanation, I hope, will defend me from so unfair a charge: for indeed no one knows more the narrow limits of human knowledge; or entertains an humbler opinion of the returns of years of application."