Its first introduction was in his History of Plants (1751), but it was unsatisfactory since the Species Plantarum was not published until 1753. Hill next explained it in 1758[1], but it was not until two years later that the first British Flora, arranged on this system, appeared[2]. According to Pulteney[3], Hill performed this task "in a manner so unworthy of his abilities, that his work can have no claim to the merit of having answered the occasion: and thus the credit of the atchievement fell to the lot of Mr William Hudson F.R.S."
Mention has been made of Hill's Vegetable System[4], a work which consists of 26 folio volumes and was undertaken at the suggestion of Lord Bute. It was commenced in 1759, and the date of the last volume is 1775, the year of Hill's death. No expense was spared in its production, the paper is of the best, and there are 1600 plates: with regard to these the title-page of the work states that they were designed and engraved by the author, but it appears from other sources that they cost four guineas each to engrave, and since it is stated on the auctioneer's announcement of the sale of the copyright (1782), together with some of the original drawings and the remaining sets, that the engravings were made by the best masters under the immediate supervision of the author, it must be concluded that Hill was not the actual engraver although he may have made the original drawings. Attention is drawn to this point, since it casts some doubts as to whether Hill engraved those plates, signed by him, illustrating some of his other works, for instance, The British Herbal, and A Method of Producing Double Flowers from Single[5], of which some are very good indeed, and, if Hill were the engraver, shew that he had considerable artistic and technical ability.
- ↑ The Gardeners New Kalendar...The System of Linnaeus also explained, London, 1758.
- ↑ Flora Britanica sive Synopsis methodica stirpium Britanicarum post tertiam editionem synopseos Raianae...nunc primum ad C. Linnaei methodum disposita, London, 1760 (some copies are dated 1759).
- ↑ Loc. cit.
- ↑ The Vegetable System Or, the Internal Structure and The Life of Plants; Their Parts and Nourishment Explained; Their Classes, Orders, Genera, and Species, Ascertained and Described...London, 1759—1775.
- ↑ London, 1758.
