HILL, John.

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A Method of Producing Double Flowers from Single, by a Regular Course of Culture. First edition of this horticultural work by the botanist who helped introduce Linnaean taxonomy into England. It is illustrated with eight plates depicting a range of tulips and veronicas, depicted with "considerable artistic and technical ability" (Olivier, p. 101).John Hill (c.1714-1775) trained as an apothecary, during which he attended lectures at the Chelsea Physic Garden. He later worked as a gardener at Kensington Palace and managed the collection of the Duke of Richmond, who enabled him to travel extensively in pursuit of new acquisitions. He applied this experience in numerous botanical publications, producing such major works as the British Herbal (1756).Hill not only helped popularize Linnaean taxonomy, he also made some influential alterations to it: "although he highly appreciated the work of Linnaeus he disliked his system of classification on account of its artificiality... many of his minor differences have been warranted. For instance, Linnaeus merged the genera Valeria-nella and Linaria into those of Valeriana and Antirrhinum respectively; Hill however recognized the generic rank of the two former" (Olivier, pp. 103-4). For Henrey, Hill's work spurred the botanical world to retain much pre-Linnaean terminology.The Method shows Hill bringing a more scientifically informed approach to horticulture than was common at the time: for many years he was a loyal participant at the Royal

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