him was nothing to do with his efforts, and not even American. Linnaeus had to be pushed to name a plant after Garden, and eventually Ellis persuaded him to use Gardenia as a name for the Cape jasmine, also known as Cape jessamine. His zoological interests led Garden to write about cochineal insects and about the Greater Siren, (Sirena lacertina), once called the mud iguana. One of Garden's sirens is still in the London Natural History Museum, pickled in a jar. As a doctor, he used his scientific knowledge in the smallpox epidemic in Charleston in 1760 when he inoculated over 2000 people, and he published an essay on the medicinal properties of the pinkroot (Spigelia marilandica). During the American War of Independence he sided with the British and sent congratulations to Cornwallis after the Battle of Camden. Two years later his property (including 98 Broad Street) was confiscated, he had to leave South Carolina, and in 1783 he went to live in Westminster in London. He became vice-president of the Royal Society and is said to have been respected for his "benevolence, cheerfulness, and pleasing manners". His health had been poor for a long time and he died of tuberculosis at Cecil Street, London, on 15 April 1791, aged sixty-one. References Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Walter J Frazer, Charleston! Charleston!: The History of a Southern City Raymond Phineas Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America External links Ehret and Alexander Garden – Norton-Brown Herbarium, University of Maryland Scottish botanists Scottish zoologists 1730 births 1791 deaths Loyalists in the American Revolution from South Carolina South Carolina colonial people Fellows of the Royal Society Founder Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Aberdeenshire Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British-American culture in South Carolina People from Charleston, South Carolina Royal Navy Medical Service officers Scottish emigrants to the United States 18th-century deaths from tuberculosis 18th-century British botanists 18th-century Scottish medical doctors 18th-century British scientists Tuberculosis deaths in England