Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/343

GEORGE DIONYSIUS EHRET. 317 and made a large collection of drawings of the wild and cultivated plants of Regensburg. His acquaintance with Trew seems to have been the turning-point of his career, and he continued to work for him up to the time of his writing his autobiography (1758). A MS. Life of Ehret by Trew is in the British Museum. The account contains incidental references of much interest to Collinson, Miller, Cliifort, Linnasus, Bernard de Jussieu, and others. '* Linnaeus and I were the best of friends," he says; **he showed me his new method of examining the stamens, which I easily understood, and privately resolved to bring out a Tabella of it." Miss Barton adds an interesting note, partly taken from Trew's MS. ^' This table or plate is printed on a half sheet, and contains 24 figures of the different numbers and connections of the stamens with the pistils. It was first published in Linnaeus's * Genera Plantarum,' first edition, Leyden, 1737, and is entitled ' Caroli Linnaei Classess (sic) Literae.' The letters of the alphabet are used in the original drawing ; but in the engraving they are replaced by figures. Ehret's name is omitted from the engraving. This plate, very badly copied, and, as is the custom with engravers on copper, very carelessly reversed, and without Herr Ehret's name, is also to be found in the edition of this work which was brought out at Leipzig in 1728 in 8vo after the sixth book-fair ; but in the copy of the same edition which I possess the plate is omitted. The original drawing of the Linnean classes is preserved in the Botanical De- partment of the British Museum. It is signed * G. D. Ehret, Fecit et edidit. Lug. Bat. 1736.' This drawing came into possession of the British Museum with a collection of Ehret's sketches and drawings." *'With this Tabella," adds Ehret, *'I earned some money ; for I sold it at 2 Dutch gulden apiece ; and almost all the botanists in Holland bought it of me." His account of Linnaeus is not very complimentary to the great Swede : When he was a beginner he appropriated every thing for himself which he heard of, to make himself famous." "When Ehret came to England, his principal friend was Dr. Mead, the Royal Physician. He married Susanna Kennet, a sister-in-law of Philip Miller, and found plenty of employment in illustrating such works as Brown's History of Jamaica, Hughes's History of Barbadoes, and Russell's History of Aleppo. In 1750 he was ap- pointed to the Oxford Botanic Garden through the influence of Humphrey Sibthorp, who, however, says Ehret, "became exceed- ingly jealous of me because I was more thought of in botany than himself." Ehret retained this post only a year. He had before accepting it begun to give lessons in flower-painting " to the highest nobility of England," and the remainder of his life was devoted to this work. In 1757 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. It is unnecessary to speak of the extreme beauty and accuracy of Ehret's botanical drawings, but it may be worth while to men- tion that the Botanical Department is fortunate in possessing a large number of these, which should not be overlooked by those interested in matters of this kind. We are indebted to the Council of the Linnean Society for