METHODS OF WORK 183 



over rocks is another thing. Then again where are their roots ? 

 How opposed to late ideas of the absolute distinction of the 

 three great divisions. Also please to take a bottle of spirits, 

 .and deposit specimens in it. I shall not be very sorry to get 

 back to Malacca, this is a delightful place truly, but one is 

 interrupted, and the lectures at the Medical College consume 

 much time. For botany no place can exceed Malacca." 



And again, 



" What a business it will be to settle the types of the families 

 from which the names must eventually be taken ; this will 

 never be done by dried-plant botanists ; but by examination 

 of development, which I am convinced will alone give the key." 



As to Griffith's methods of work, we learn from a memorial 

 notice of him by Mr M'Clelland that whenever possible after 

 the business of the morning was finished the rest of the day 

 was devoted " to the examination and dissection of plants under 

 the microscope, drawing and describing all peculiarities pre- 

 sented." " Even on his death-bed his microscope stood beside 

 him with the unfinished drawings and papers and dissections 

 of plants on which he was engaged the day on which the fatal 

 symptoms of his disorder came on." 



All his work shows the same characters of direct individual 

 observation and interpretation of the facts before him, repeated 

 examination of the same point, and almost a prodigality of 

 labour in recording his observations in drawings. At first under 

 the influence of Robert Brown, he used the simple microscope 

 with triplet lenses, but later he employed the compound micro- 

 scope and in the year before his death writes hopefully of 

 ordering a first-rate microscope when he obtains the arrears 

 due to him from the Directors. 



Griffith's high attainments were appreciated by the distin- 

 guished circle of English botanists of his time with whom he 

 corresponded. Mr Solby, to whom he always sent home his 

 papers for submission to the Linnean Society ; Robert Brown, 

 to whose work he constantly recurs with admiration, and whose 

 judgment he trusted absolutely; Lindley; Sir William Hooker, 

 who looked forward to his being settled permanently in charge 

 of the Calcutta gardens, and Dr Wight may be named. 



