OBITUARY 



CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. 



n^HE late Cambridge Professor of Botany was born November 23, 

 1 1808, at Ludlow, becoming in due course a student at St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, and in 1861 succeeding Professor Henslowin the 

 chair of botany at the University. Though he retained this professor- 

 ship till his death, on July 22, it is many years since he took any 

 active part in the work of the botanical school, which was, however, 

 raised to a high standard of efficiency by Dr. Vines' efforts, and now 

 flourishes under the direction of the deputy-professor, Mr. F. Darwin. 

 Babington's chief work was on our native flora and its relations, and 

 found its expression in his " Manual of British Botany," the first 

 edition of which appeared in 1843, and the eighth in 1881. For the 

 discrimination of plants, especially of the more critical species, it is 

 unequalled. In connection with his work on the British Flora he 

 devoted much time and care to the elucidation of the Brambles, his 

 "British Rubi," an octavo of more than 300 pages, appearing in 1869. 

 To him we also owe a useful " Flora of Cambridgeshire," published 

 in i860. In 1846 he visited Iceland, and on his return communicated 

 a list of the plants gathered to the Transactions of the Edinburgh 

 Botanical Society (vol. iii.) ; in 1871 his revision of the flora of the 

 island appeared in the youvnal of the Linnean Society; localities are 

 given for 467 species of flowering plants and ferns. He also published 

 a large number of separate papers on the botany of Great Britain 

 with Ireland and the Channel Islands, which will be found in the 

 publications of the Linnean Society, the Journal of Botany, the Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History, the Edinburgh Botanical Society's 

 Transactions, Henfrey's Botanical Gazette, and elsewhere. Their 

 number in the Royal Society's Catalogue reaches 131. The " law of 

 priority in nomenclature " even provoked a letter from him to the 

 Journal of Botany (1864, p. 94), British insects formed another 

 subject of interest to Babington, and several papers on them will be 

 found in the Entomological Society's Transactions and other journals 

 devoted to this branch. 



It is evident that the professor's life had been a busy one ; his 

 energies, moreover, were not used up by scientific work, for he was 

 well-known in the neighbourhood of Cambridge in connection with 

 philanthropic undertakings. He died on July 22nd. 



