60 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
LINNÆAN SOCIETY. 
The 4th of December, 1849, will ever be memorable in the annals 
of the Linnean Society, from the honour it was enabled to confer on 
itself by the election of Mr. Brown to the Presidency. It should, 
however, be generally known, for the sake of those members who have 
taken an active interest in the welfare of the Society, that the election 
of this eminent man has been an object of their frequent solicitude for 
the last twenty years ; but the unwillingness of Mr. Brown to accede 
to the wishes of his friends in 1828, when Lord Stanley (the present 
Earl of Derby).was elected as the successor of Sir James Edward Smith, 
and at the subsequent elections of the Duke of Somerset and of the 
late excellent Bishop of Norwich, could not be overcome, though no 
members of the Society more strongly urged the claims which the 
Society had upon Mr. Brown, than these distinguished men. 
To those who know Mr. Brown, this reluctance on his part to accept 
of the distinction implied by the late election, is felt to be consonant 
with their estimate of his character; for the modesty which invariably 
attends the highest intellectual attainments was never more conspicuous 
than in this great botanist. But whatever tribute is due to the extra- 
ordinary sagacity and learning of Mr. Brown, those who are privileged 
with his intimacy feel that the singular simplicity, the sterling integrity, 
and the affectionate solicitude and tenderness of his nature, task their 
regard for him quite as much as his high scientific attainments command 
their respect and confidence ; and we rejoice that a Society endeared 
to us by its objects, and by the association of many whom we have loved 
and lost, and of others who survive to sympathize with us in our love of 
plants, is under the care of one so eminently calculated to promote its 
prosperity. 
Mr. Brown took the chair at the meeting of the Society on De- 
cember the 18th; and the interest excited by the event was shown by 
the presence of many who do not ordinarily attend its meetings. He 
briefly acknowledged the compliment that had been paid to him by the 
Society, and made a just and due acknowledgment of the great ser- 
vices rendered to botany by Dr. Wallich, by appointing him one of the 
Vice- Presidents. 
The vacancy in the council has been filled by the election of Dr. 
Charles Morgan Lemann, one of the most zealous botanists of the 
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