Miller's Gardeners dictionary and its abridgement

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Philip Miller's Gardeners dictionary abridged, fourth edition (published 28 January 1754) remains nomenclaturally important for its valid publication of numerous pre-Linnaean generic names suppressed by Linnaeus in 1753 but now accepted. Miller's generic concept was derived from Tournefort, who, as he explained in 1700, recognized genera of first rank based on floral and fruiting characters and genera of second rank based on vegetative characters, whereas Linnaeus recognized only first rank genera and hence had a much broader generic concept than Tournefort and Miller, who was much more conservative in outlook. At the age of 77 Miller at last adopted consistent Linnaean binomial nomenclature for species. In his Gardeners dictionary, 8th edition (published 16 April 1768), the first edition with binomial nomenclature, he named many species from Europe, South Africa, Central America, and the West Indies unknown to Linnaeus or not distinguished by him. The following paper deals with the history and purpose of Miller's works and lists many names to be attributed to him. Herbarium material from plants grown in the Chelsea Physic Garden in Miller's time and typifying some of these names is preserved in the British Museum (Natural History), London. From Miller's Dictionary there arose in direct succession a series of encyclopaedic horticultural works culminating in the Royal Horticultural Society's Dictionary of gardening (1951), of which the history is here summarised.