154 JOHN STEVENS HENSLOW 



some, and interest in all who attended, and thus many came 

 besides undergraduates, as Dr Ainslie, the Master of Pembroke. 



The value of " practical work " put a stop to cram, and he 

 was the first to introduce the examination of flowers, not only 

 at Cambridge but for the degrees in the University of London. 

 " He insisted," wrote Dr Hooker, " that a knowledge of physio- 

 logical botany, technical terms, minute anatomy, &c. were not 

 subjects by which a candidate's real knowledge could be tested, 

 for the longest memory must win the day, the less did it test 

 the observing or reasoning faculties of the men. He, therefore, 

 insisted in all his examinations that the men should dissect 

 specimens, describe their organs systematically and be prepared 

 to explain their relations, uses and significations in a physio- 

 logical and classificatory point of view ; and thus prove that 

 they had used their eyes, hands and heads, as well as their 

 books 1 ." 



His natural bent and interest were in the investigations of 

 the phenomena of plant-life, e.g. the colours of flowers, the 

 laws of phyllotaxis and what would now be called biometrical 

 studies, e.g. of the variations in the leaves of Paris and the 

 cotyledons of the sycamore, hybridization, teratology and the 

 origin of varieties, etc. The geographical distribution of plants 

 and the effects of external agencies upon them were also 

 specially studied, as is recorded in the note-book mentioned. 

 He was thus a genuine Ecologist without knowing it. He 

 published about 50 papers on botanical subjects during his 

 professorship from 1825 to 1861, in which he was more than 

 once the pioneer of special branches of study since taken up, 

 as in the above mentioned hybridization and varietal differences 

 under cultivation, etc. ; for experiments were made on the specific 

 identity between the Primrose, Oxlip, Cowslip and Polyanthus. 

 He raised many varieties, which were often permanent or 

 "Mutations"; though sometimes reversions appeared, concluding 

 that when one form thus changed to another that was sufficient 

 proof of identity. 



Though his occupations were necessarily much changed at 



1 Quoted in Memoir \ p. 161. 



