Miscellaneous, 77 



OBITUARY : FRANCIS BAUER, ESQ. 



Mr. Bauer was born at Feldsberg, in Austria, on the 4th of Octo- 

 ber, 1758, and died at Kew on the 11th of December, 1840. He 

 lost his father (himself an artist) at an early age, and was initiated; 

 with his brothers, in the ready use of the pencil, under the guidance 

 of an excellent mother. He came to England in the year 1 788, with 

 the intention to proceed to Paris, where, notwithstanding the pro- 

 gress of the Revolution, artists and scientific men were allowed to 

 follow their pursuits without molestation. His brother Ferdinand, 

 scarcely less skilful in the art of delineating botanical subjects, and 

 who subsequently accompanied Mr. Robert Brown as draughtsman on 

 Flinders's voyage, had already been with Sibthorpe in Greece, and was 

 then at Oxford, busy in completing the * Flora Grieca.' Sir Joseph 

 Banks soon appreciated Mr. Bauer's rare talents, as well as his singu- 

 lar sagacity in botanical physiology, and prevailed on him to remain 

 in England. Sir Joseph, in fact, settled on him 300/. per annum for 

 life, on condition that he should reside at Kew, as botanical painter 

 to the Royal Gardens, which were then rapidly advancing to a high 

 state of perfection. The munificence of Sir Joseph enabled Mr. 

 Bauer to pursue the bent of his genius independent of the public and 

 of booksellers ; and numberless beautiful illustrations of the rare 

 plants introduced in rapid succession at Kew, by the many travellers 

 and navigators of the reign of George the Third, were the result — 

 works now deposited with Sir Joseph Banks's library at the British 

 Museum, and which all who have examined must acknowledge to be, 

 for accuracy of delineation and colouring, elegance of execution, as 

 well as for physiological and anatomical truth, unexampled at that 

 period. Mr. Bauer was also appointed drawing-master to the Princess 

 Elizabeth ; but he was a better philosopher than courtier, and his 

 services, which were given gratuitously, were soon dispensed with. 

 At that time he was occupied on the Heath tribe, then in course of 

 introduction, chiefly from the Cape, by Menzies. Engravings were 

 made from these drawings, and Queen Charlotte and the Princess 

 used to colour them under his superintendence. These were after- 

 wards sold by public auction, with other of Her Majesty's effects ! 



Towards the end of the last century, Mr. Bauer commenced his 

 illustrations of Orchideous plants, since published by Dr. Lindley. 

 He subsequently turned his attention to the diseases in corn, in which, 

 from his skill in the use of the microscope, he made discoveries of 

 great importance to agriculture, and therefore to mankind ; and 

 we may here state, that the only money which he received during his 

 long life, beyond the above-mentioned income, was fifteen guineas, 

 which the editor of one of the cheap publications of the present day 

 sent to him for some short papers on the smut in wheat. 



In 1816, the late Sir Everard Home, being engaged in some re- 

 searches respecting the anatomical structure of the foot of the com- 

 mon house-fly, communicated the difiiculties he experienced to Sir 

 Joseph Banks, who immediately introduced him to Mr. Bauer. This 

 led to an intimacy of the most lasting and most useful kind. Mr. 

 Bauer solved every diflEiculty, and, at the suggestion of Sir Everard, 

 entered on a number of other anatomical inquiries, the results of which 



