Considered as a systematist there can be no doubt that Hill knew his plants; and although the systematists of the period were overshadowed by Linnaeus, Hill preserved his independence of thought, and did not hesitate to express his opinions when they differed from those of his great contemporary. Although he highly appreciated the work of Linnaeus he disliked his system of classification on account of its artificiality, and he intended to bring forward a natural system of his own. It is not, I think, too much to say that time has justified his criticism; and many of his minor differences have been warranted. For instance, Linnaeus merged the genera _Valerianella_ and _Linaria_ into those of _Valeriana_ and _Antirrhinum_ respectively; Hill however recognized the generic rank of the two former[88]. Incidentally, it may be remarked that the acceptance of the year 1753 as the starting-point for the citation of names by the Vienna Botanical Congress has been the cause of more general recognition of Hill's activity in this direction; thus in recent editions of _British Flora_ his name is appended to many genera and species[89]. The _Vegetable System_ gained Hill the Order of Vasa, from the King of Sweden, in 1774, so that he styled himself Sir John; he was also a Member of the Imperial Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Bordeaux. Hill died of gout on the 21st of November, 1775, at about the age of 59, in Golden Square, and was buried at Denham. Notwithstanding the large sums of money he had made, he died heavily in debt owing to the great expense entailed by the publication of the _Vegetable System_ and his own personal extravagance. His library was sold in 1776-7, and it has already been mentioned that the copyright of the _Vegetable System_ was disposed of by auction. It is always a matter of difficulty to appraise a man's character, and more particularly is this true of Hill whose character, as Whiston[90] has truly remarked, was so "mixed that none but himself can be his parallel." In the _Sleep of Plants_ the following passage occurs: "There is a freedom of style, and assumed manner peculiar to this kind of correspondence, which would be too assuming in works addressed immediately to the public; and might not unnaturally draw upon the author a censure of self-sufficiency and vanity. This explanation, I hope, will defend me from so unfair a charge: for indeed no one knows more the narrow limits of human knowledge; or entertains an humbler opinion of the returns of years of application." Nothing could be more proper than this, but against it must be set the opinion of men of his own time, as expressed in the quotation on p. 88, taken from Baker's _Biographica Dramatica_.