The patent was issued for preserving "a vegetable of the Brassica kind, generally known by the name of green and brown borecole, scotch or other kale with a salt solution and drying so it will keep for up to a year.
[17] Graham Stuart Thomas who knew the 1794 edition, found it "certainly the first 'quick reference' book on alpines that I have come across: he gives full particulars of descriptions and cultivation in a tabulated list.
I think he was entitled to claim: 'The Author proposes in his use of his great variety of Herbaceous Plants a more constant and uniform and gay Attraction of Gardens, than has been hitherto pointed out, or adopted'".
[21] A knowledgeable visitor, Sir James Edward Smith, founder of the Linnean Society, has left an account of Graeffer's unsuccessful try at introducing the English taste: Mr Graeffer, a very ingenious gardener recommended to the queen of Naples by sir Joseph Banks, was then employed in laying out a garden for her majesty in the English taste, to which purpose a portion of ground was allotted nor far from the palace; but unluckily in full view of a stupendous brick wall , built with Herculean labour for the purpose of keeping the above-mentioned cascade in its place.
[22]With more success, Graeffer, who must have had plenty of time on his hands, published a catalogue of the plants at Caserta, Synopsis plantarum regii viridarii Caserti (Naples 1803).