AS SYSTEMATIST 313 



Three volumes were already published, but the fourth was 

 far from finished, and the fifth hardly touched. The Ceylon 

 Government applied to Hooker, and though he was now eighty 

 years of age, he responded to the call. The completing volumes 

 were issued in 1898 and 1900. This was no mere raking over 

 afresh the materials worked already into the Indian Flora. For 

 Ceylon includes a strong Malayan element in its vegetation. It 

 has, moreover, a very large number of endemic species, and even 

 genera. This last floristic work of Sir Joseph may be held fitly 

 to round off his treatment of the Indian Peninsula. His last 

 contribution to its botany was in the form of a " Sketch of the 

 Vegetation of the Indian Empire," including Ceylon, Burma, and 

 the Malay Peninsula. It was written for the Imperial Gazetteer, 

 at the request of the Government of India. No one could have 

 been so well qualified for this as the veteran who had spent more 

 than half a century in preparation for it. It was published in 

 1904, and forms the natural close to the most remarkable study 

 of a vast and varied Flora that has ever been carried through by 

 one ruling mind. 



The third of the systematic works selected for our considera- 

 tion is the Genera Plantarum. It was produced in collaboration 

 with Mr Bentham. Of its three massive volumes the first was 

 published in 1865, and the work was completed in 1883. It 

 consists of a codification of the Latin diagnoses of all the genera 

 of Flowering Plants. It is essentially a work for the technical 

 botanist, but for him it is indispensable. Of the known species 

 of plants many show such close similarity of their characters 

 that their kinship is recognised by grouping them into genera. 

 In order that these genera may be accurately defined it is 

 necessary to have a precis of the characters which their species 

 have in common. This must be so drawn that it shall also 

 serve for purposes of diagnosis from allied genera. Such 

 drafting requires not only a keen appreciation of fact, but also 

 the verbal clearness and accuracy of the conveyancing barrister. 

 The facts could only be obtained by access to a reliable and rich 

 Herbarium. Bentham and Hooker, working together at Kew, 

 satisfied these drastic requirements more fully than any botanists 

 of their time. The only real predecessors of this monumental 



