104 
society and conversation the highest satisfaction. It is his name 
(because of his interest in science and especially botany) that is per- 
petuated in the genus Clintonia of Rafinesque, Samuel L. Mitchell, 
David Hosack and Amos Eaton, botanists of eighty years ago, were 
among his intimate friends. It is therefore not strange that in the 
influence of such associations, his son, the late Judge Clinton, should 
have found such taste for scientific pursuits as were his by inherit- 
ance strengthened and stimulated. 
_ Born in New York City, on the 13th day of April, 1807, George 
William Clinton, as early as his eighteenth year, was a devoted student 
of botany and a zealous and indefatigable collector. A diary, kept 
by him at this early age, including the notes of an excursion made by 
him into the \yestern part of the State, immediately after the comple- 
tion of the Erie Canal, is still in existence to testify to that conscien- 
tious regard for scientific truth, which, to the close of his life, dis- 
tmguished him. The little volume seems to recognize Professor 
Amos Eaton, of the Rennselaer Institute, as the guide of his botanical 
studies. His correspondence at this period, a portion of which is 
still preserved, shows that he was in receipt of letters from Rafinesque 
and others, whose names, to us, seem almost to belong to a mytho- 
logical age. 
His father died suddenly in February, 1828, while still governor; 
and, almost at once, upon the advice of near friends, among whom 
was Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer, he relinquished the studv of 
medicme, to which he had already given the attention of two or three 
years, and, abandoning altogether the natural sciences, engaged with 
characteristic ardor and assiduity in the study of the law. As though 
to make his divorce from his earlier pursuits the more complete, he 
gave away his herbarium and his botanical library. Thereafter, for 
nearly half a century, he devoted himself to his profession, practising 
at the bar for more than twenty-three years, and, afterwards, occu- 
pymg an honored place in the judiciary of the State for more than 
twenty- four years. 
In 1836, he became a resident of Buffalo, where he lived until 
t88i, the recipient of the highest honors which his towns-people 
could bestow,^ His great ability and high character were recognized 
by the State in his appointment as one of the Regents of the Uni- 
versity, in 1856; and Hamilton College, his alma mater, about the 
same time, honored him with the degree of Doctor of Laws. 
In 1861, upon the establishment of the Buffalo Society of Natural 
Sciences, he accepted its presidency; and thereupon, returning to 
his first love, with all the devotion of his youth, he began an unre- 
mitting and most industrious exploration of the botany of the region 
m which he lived, giving to the undertaking almost all the leisure 
M^hich remained after the performance of public and private duties. 
It may seem strange, yet the statement scarcely requires qualification, 
that in the interval of thirty-three years in which his attention had 
been turned aside from botanical pursuits, so complete had been his 
negkct of the favorite study of his early days, that, although he re- 
membered a large proportion of the native plants of his neighbor- 
hood, he was almost entirely unacquainted with the natural system of 
r 
