Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/411

 is 8. ii. *ov. is, i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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botanist, or his patronage of the science at larare> was considerable enoxtgh to incline Petiver to apply his name to a new plant, which Miller retained in his ' Dictionary,' but which has since passed into the genus Polynmia of the Limueau system : the author has, nevertheless, retained Uvedalia as the trivial epithet. "

" Horticulturist," " florist," and " arbori- culturist " he certainly was, his garden of exotic productions at Enfield being especially famous. It was noticed in Archceologia, vol. xii. p. 188 (1794), where it is stated that in the matter of greenhouses and stoves which were rare in England before the close of the seventeenth century Charles Watts at Chelsea and Uvedale at Enfield led the way. Apparently at the time when this article was written, though the garden was still extensive, all traces of the greenhouses, or indeed of anything but the cedar, had disappeared. The same may be said of his " physic garden," if that ever was a distinct and separate one.

Uvedale' s success as a botanist, however, does not rest solely upon his exotic gardens at Enfield, for he seems to have compiled during his long and busy life a collection of dried plants or, as he calls it, his hortus siccus which, it is believed, was sold on the death of his widow in 1740 to Sir Hans Sloane, and now, in fourteen folio volumes, forms part of the Sloane Herbarium in the Natural History Museum at South Kensing- ton, and represents vols. cccii.-cccxv. in that fine collection. I have heard it said that this acquisition of Sloane's Herbarium was the primary cause of the formation of the present Natural History Department of the British Museum.

Through the courtesy of Dr. A. B. Rendle, the Superintendent of the department, I was enabled notwithstanding that it was war- time to inspect this most interesting col- lection on a visit which I paid there last January for that purpose. I was much surprised at the wonderful state of preserva- tion in which the specimens were, many of which must now be more than two centuries old. I cannot do better than describe it in Mr. Boulger's own terms :

" This collection, in fourteen thick volumes' having generally several specimens on a page, is as varied as it is extensive. It is arranged according to Ray's classification, and contains specimens of the earlier genera, alyce, lichens, mosses and ferns, though mainly made up of flowering plants. The plants are in admirable preservation, most of them being labelled in Dr. Uvedale's own handwriting."

It would rci'in as if the specimens had originally been preserved in smaller folio pages than those now shown, and were

probably remounted when Sir Hans Sloane- acquired them. I copied the following MS. title-page from the first of these volumes :

Collectio Plantarum siccatarum et dispositarum

juxta methodum

Joh : Raii ( in red ink)

in Historia plantarum generali

et synopsi methodico Stirpium Britannicarum

a

Roberto Uvedale M.D. * Enfieldiensi (in red ink) et aliis.

Again, I prefer the description " scholar '*" to that of " schoolmaster " in the ' Diet. < f Nat. Biog.' That he was a scholar of some eminence is clear apart from his academic distinctions from the fact that he was invited to, and did, contribute the ' Life of Dion ' to the translation of Plutarch's ' Lives,' edited by Dryden and others, which appeared in 1684.

Many of Uvedale's letters are extant; some in the Sloane MSS. in the British Museum, which are very cursorily alluded to in Hut chins. Mr. Boulger speaks of these,, the earliest of which is dated 1671, and the latest 1716/17, and of numerous others of his given in Nichols's ' Literary Illustra- tions' (vol. iii. pp. 321-57) and in the ' Richardson Correspondence,' ranging from 1695 to 1721. They would appear, however, to contain little of general interest.

I have recently been afforded the oppor- tunity of inspecting the originals of some of these letters to Dr. Richard Richardson, the eminent Yorkshire physician and botanist, by the fortunate circumstance of the ' Richard- son Correspondence,' which formed part of the library of the late Miss Richardson Currer, having been offered for sale in May and June last by Messrs. Sotheby & Co. of London, where it was on view for a few days previously, and I am accordingly able to make a few slight additions to Mr. Boulger's remarks. This very interesting collection fell to the substantial bid of 200J. offered by Mr. Quaritch, and I was at first very much afraid that this meant that it would " cross the pond." But I was much relieved when I learnt subsequently that it had been purchased for the Bodleian Library at Oxford, so that it will not, at all event s.leave- the count ry. I think that it is not very difficult, perhaps, to surmise why the governing body of the Bodleian should have- been anxious to secure this treasure, for the 'most voluminous of all Dr. Richardson's

tainly entitled to one of Divinity or of Laws, or oi both, but not of Medicine.
 * This degree is incorrect. The "Dr." was cer-