Freestone (1797–1869). They rented a house in rural Acton Green, a location convenient for the Society's garden at Turnham Green. The Secretary of the Horticultural Society of London at that time was Joseph Sabine and he authorised expenditure on large projects beyond the Society's means. Lindley could only expostulate and was unsuccessful in moderating his actions. By 1830, the Society had mounting debts and a committee of enquiry was set up. Sabine resigned as Secretary and Lindley successfully defended his own position and carried the Society forward with the new Honorary Secretary, George Bentham. Middle years An eminent botanist of the time, John Claudius Loudon, sought Lindley's collaboration on his “Encyclopedia of Plants”. This covered nearly fifteen thousand species of flowering plants and ferns. It was a massive undertaking and Lindley was responsible for most of it. During his labour on this undertaking, which was completed in 1829, and through arduous study of character patterns, he became convinced of the superiority of the "natural" classification system devised by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu – a system that he believed reflected the great plan of nature as distinct from the "artificial" system of Linnaeus followed in the Encyclopaedia of Plants. This conviction found expression in A Synopsis of British Flora, arranged according to the Natural Order (1829) and in An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany (1830). In 1828 Lindley was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London and in 1833 was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Munich. Other honours came from France, the United States and Switzerland. In 1829 Lindley sought to augment his income and became professor of botany at the newly established London University while still continuing his post at the Royal Horticultural Society. He had not been to university himself but apparently was an excellent teacher, giving six hour-long lectures each week. Being dissatisfied with what was available, he wrote some botanical textbooks for his students. After the death of Joseph Banks and the death also of their patron, King George III, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew went into a decline. The Government commissioned a report on their future to be prepared by Lindley, Joseph Paxton and John Wilson, head gardener to the Earl of Surrey. The report recommended that the Gardens be retained but the Government did not accept their findings and proposed to abolish it,