"V the late Sir J. E. Smith. I 3 



the descriptions by Sir James. From 1800 to 1804, appeared 

 the Flora Britannica, in 3 vols., which comprised all the Pheno- 

 gamous plants, the Filices and Musci. This work was translat- 

 ed word for word into German. The Compendium Florce Bri- 

 tannicce is a pocket abridgement of this, and is in the 5th edi- 

 tion. He was selected by the executors of the late Professor 

 Sibthorpe of Oxford, to edit a very splendid work on the Flora of 

 Greece, and he had to write the letter-press from very scan- 

 ty materials. Three volumes folio have been published, and 

 it is supposed that it will extend to ten. The professor left 

 an estate to defray the expence, which, when the work is com- 

 pleted, is to afford a salary for professor of rural economy in 

 Oxford. His Introduction to Physiological and Systematic 

 Botany has passed through five English editions, besides several 

 American ones. In 1812 he published his Grammar of Botany^ 

 which gives a sketch of the natural orders. During a large por- 

 tion of his literary life he was engaged in contributing botani- 

 cal articles to Rees'^s Encyclopcedia, which in fact include a 

 complete system, and are constantly referred to as of the high- 

 est authority. In the 2d volume of the Supplement to the 

 EncyclopcBdia Britannica, he wrote an article which includes 

 a review of the modern state of botany. He occasionally con- 

 tributed very elaborate articles to the Linncean Transactions. 

 His last and greatest work is the English Flora^ the 4th vo- 

 lume of which was published in London the day its author 

 died, March 15, 3828, at Norwich ; it includes the Phenoga- 

 mous plants and ferns, and is not a translation of the Flora 

 Britannica, but an entirely new work. When we consider 

 all these works, and the very elaborate character of many 

 of them, we cannot but admire his diligence and application, 

 especially as he was of a very feeble constitution; and how 

 many may say of him as the younger Pliny wrote to his 

 friend of his uncle, the elder Pliny. " Erat incredibile stu- 

 dium, summa vigilantia. Itaque soleo ridere, cum 7ne qui- 

 dam studiosura vocant ; qui si comparer illi, sum desidiosis- 

 simus." * Sir James, as we have seen, evinced a very early 



• Plin. Epist. 3. 5. 



