Philip Miller and the plants from the Chelsea Physic Garden presented to the Royal Society of London, 1723–1796

Abstract

Summary From 1723 to 1796 the Society of Apothecaries of London presented annually to the Royal Society of London 50 dried specimens of plants grown the previous year in the Chelsea Physic Garden, this being a condition of Sir Hans Sloane's deed of gift of the Garden to the Apothecaries in 1722. These herbarium specimens are now in the Department of Botany, British Museum (Natural History), London. Many represent plants recorded in successive editions of Philip Miller's Gardeners Dictionary and, together with Miller's own specimens also in the British Museum (Natural History) and Ehret's drawings, may serve to typify binomials published in the 8th edition (1768) of his Dictionary. They were listed from 1723 to 1774 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society; the lists here contain six long-overlooked binomials Galium verrucosum Huds. (syn. G. valantia Weber), Gypsophila pilosa Huds. (syn. G. porrigens (L.) Boiss), Briza pinnata Huds. (= Demazeria sicula (Jacq.) Dumort.) Euphorbia hispanica Hud...