18431882] BENTHAM 449 



forgotten, the clover case. How I wish I knew what plants Letter 342 

 the clover took the place of; but that would require more 

 accurate knowledge of any one piece of ground than I suppose 

 any one has. In the case of trees being so long-lived, I should 

 think it would be extremely difficult to distinguish between 

 true and new spreading of a species, and a rotation of crop. 

 With respect to your idea of plants travelling west, I was 

 much struck by a remark of yours in the penultimate Linnean 

 Journal on the spreading of plants from America near 



of Naval Works. George Bentham was attracted to botany during a 

 "caravan tour" through France in 1816, when he set himself to work out 

 the names of flowers with De Candolle's Flore Franc^aise. During this 

 period he entered as a student of the Faculte de Theologie at Tours. 

 About 1820 he was turned to the study of philosophy, probably through 

 an acquaintance with John Stuart Mill. He next became the manager of 

 his father's estates near Montpellier, and it was here that he wrote his 

 first serious work, an Essai sur la Classification des Arts et Sciences. In 

 1826 the Benthams returned to England, where he made many friends, 

 among whom was Dr. Arnott ; and it was in his company that Bentham, 

 in 1824, paid a long visit to the Pyrenees, the fruits of which was his first 

 botanical work, Catalogue des Plantes indighies des Pyrenees, etc., 1826. 

 About this time Bentham entered Lincoln's Inn with a view to being 

 called to the Bar, but the greater part of his energies was given to 

 helping his Uncle Jeremy, and to independent work in logic and juris- 

 prudence. He published his Outlines of a New System of Logic (1827), 

 but the merit of his work was not recognised until 1850. In 1829 Bentham 

 finally gave up the Bar and took up his life's work as a botanist. In 1854 

 he presented his collections and books (valued at ,6,000) to the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, and for the rest of his life resided in London, and worked 

 daily at the Herbarium. His work there began with the Flora of Hong 

 Kong, which was followed by that of Australia published in 1867 in seven 

 volumes octavo. At the same time the Genera Plantarum was being 

 planned ; it was begun, with Dr. Hooker as a collaborator, in 1862, and 

 concluded in 1883. With this monumental work his labours ended; 

 " his strength . . . suddenly gave way ... his visits to Kew ended, and 

 lingering on under increasing debility, he died of old age on Sep. loth 

 last "(1883). 



The amount of work that he accomplished was gigantic and of the 

 most masterly character. In speaking of his descriptive work the writer 

 (Sir J. D. Hooker) of the obituary notice in Nature (Oct. 2nd, 1884), from 

 which many of the above facts are taken, says that he had " no superior 

 since the days of Linnaeus and Robert Brown, and he has left no equal 

 except Asa Gray" (Athenceum, Dec. 3131, 1850; Contemp. Rev., May, 

 1873; "George Bentham, F.R.S.," by Sir J. D. Hooker, Annals Bot., 

 Vol. XII., 1898). 



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