OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: MAY 24, 1864. 307 



Society as early as in the year 1819, under the Presidency of its found- 

 er, his friend, Sir James Edward Smith ; and afterwards he served it 

 continuously for the last twenty -five years of his life, as Secretary, 

 Treasurer, or Vice-President. Nearly thirty years ago he was offered 

 the vacant Chair of Natural History in Harvard University. But the 

 ties of family and of a large circle of attached friends bound him to 

 England. About this time, gradually relinquishing medical practice, 

 he began to devote himself to the study of the intricate genus Carex, 

 one of the largest and most difficult genera of the vegetable kingdom. 

 This genus, so admirably illustrated by Schkuhr at the beginning of 

 this century, has since attracted the particular attention of American 

 botanists, as is shown by the caricological writings of Muhlenberg, 

 Schweinitz, and of our surviving associates, Dewey and Torrey. But 

 since the publication of Dr. Boott's account of the British-American 

 Carices, in Sir William Hooker's Flora Boreali-Americana, in 1840, 

 he has been the unrivalled head of tliis department. In his principal 

 work, entitled " Illustrations of the Genus Carex," he has accom- 

 plished for this genus, now that its known species are nearly six 

 hundred, what was done by Schkuhr half a century ago, when less 

 than a quarter of these species were known, and has done it upon a 

 far gi'ander scale, and with unparalleled fullness of illustration. Three 

 folio volumes of this great work, with over four hundred plates, have 

 been produced within the last six years ; and a fourth volume, left in- 

 complete when his long enfeebled strength finally gave way, is about to 

 be published by his family. To this work Dr. Boott devoted not only 

 many years of assiduous labor, but a large sum of money ; the draw- 

 ings, engravings, and letter-press having been produced at his sole ex- 

 pense, while the larger part of the copies have been fi'eely presented 

 to those, both in Europe and in this countj^j^, who were most interested 

 in the subject. It has, therefore, been well said to be '' one of the 

 most munificent contributions ever made to scientific botany, besides 

 being one of the most conscientious and scrupulously accurate, — on 

 which account it certainly entitles its author to take a much higher 

 place among botanists than that of an amateur, which is all his mod- 

 esty would allow him to lay claim to." 



Modesty, scrupulous accuracy, entire disinterestedness, a winning 

 simplicity and cordial frankness, were characteristics of Dr. Boott. 

 Most of our naturalists and professional men who have visited England 

 within the last thirty years can testify to the kind, even aflfectionate 



