14 The Irish Naturalist. Januan', 



CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTOX. 



Memorials, Journal, and Botanical Correspondence of 

 Charles Cardale Babingrton, M.A , F.R.S., &c., &c. ; Svo, 

 pp. xciv + 474; Cambridge: Macmillan and Bowes, 1897. 



This is the record of a busy life, by which British botany benefited to 

 a very considerable degree. The book presents a somewhat heterogeneous 

 collection of memorials of Professor Babington— a memoir by Prof. 

 Mavor; "reminiscences" by Rev. J. A. Babington and H. R. Francis, 

 Prof. Cowell, and Mrs. Batty ; letters of sympathy, resolutions, and 

 notices in journals and Proceedings of Societies, consequent on the 

 botanist's death ; a letter by Babington on Irish distress ; a paper on 

 Rtibi bv J. E. Bagnall ; a reprint from the Journal of Botany of the 

 Introduction to Babington's unfinished "Revision of British Rubi'' ; a 

 precis of his action with regard to the Sunday opening of the Cambridge 

 Botanic Garden ; and sundry extracts from poems by various hands. 

 Next we have Prof Babington's Journal, a brief record of every day 

 events from 1825 till 1891, strongly tinged with botany, occupying 270 

 pages; on this follow 174 pages of Correspondence, letters written to 

 British botanists, and relating to British plants, between the years 1834 

 and 1894. A bibliography of his scientific papers comes next, reprinted 

 from the Royal Society's Catalogue, and from the Cambridge Antiquarian 

 Society's Index; this is a goodly list, embracing 186 entries. Penally 

 there is an index to "Journal and Correspondence," and a separate 

 index to "Memorials." 



Such a mass of material is here collected that it is difficult to get a 

 o-rasp of the book as a whole, and one's first thought on looking through 

 it is that much might have been omitted without detracting from the 

 interest of the work, and without injustice to the memory of the man. 

 We do not need to be told that the Cambridge Antiquarian and 

 Philosophical Societies, for instance, passed formal resolutions of 

 condolence on his death, which were formally transmitted by their 

 Secretaries to the representatives of the deceased ; and the printing in 

 full of such letters appears superfluous. The Journal which he kept so 

 long and so faithfully, filled as it is with notes of plants that he found 

 and of people whom he met, appeals to us more strongly ; yet we do 

 not learn anything from such entries as ''April 12 [1834]. This day it 

 snowed more than it had done during the last winter." ''July 13 [1834]. 

 Sunday. Went to Church at Meole." ''Jan. 21 [1837]. Degree Day." 

 "Dec. 7 [1883]. Barometer 30-52." "April 12 [1889]. Dr. Kennedy's 

 funeral," In the letters, likewise, a little judicious selection would have 

 added force to Babington's correspondence, and might have prevented 

 the appearance of such pointless items as the following :— " Dear Sir,— 

 Will you kindly tell me the true name of this Chara i I am asked the 

 name, and cannot tell quite certainly.— Yours truly, Charles C. Babington." 



