72 OBITUARY NOTICES. [Nov. 



which his mother, herself a remarkable woman, daughter of an 

 eminent physician. Dr. Fordyce, and friend of Aiton, of Kew, had 

 purchased. He saw in it analytical tables for finding out the 

 species of a plant, which seemed to be constructed after his own 

 heart. He marched off at once into the backyard of the inn where 

 they were staying, plucked the first plant he found, and spent the 

 morning in determining its species by his new guide. It was a 

 sufficiently difficult task for a beginner, the species being a salvia, 

 but it was successfully accomplished, and thenceforward the lad 

 worked out every flower he came across without any tuition as a 

 recreation simply. Thus began in 1817 the life-work which only 

 ended sixty-six years afterwards when the great Geneva Planiarum 

 of Bentham and Hooker was completed. Few in the present day 

 are aware that the Horticultural Society grew into prosperity under 

 Bentham's management, from 1829 to 1840, with Lindley as 

 assistant-secretary. Bentham started and carried to perfect success 

 the exhibitions which became famous as the Chiswick fetes, and 

 which established the society in a financial position which it has 

 never required in late years. At that time the Horticultural 

 Society was doing good service by sending out collectors to different 

 countries, and introducing, publishing, and drawing the new plans 

 they brought home. In the work of describing these plants, which 

 include many of the species now most familiar, such as Eschscholtzia 

 and Clarlciu, Bentham took his full share, and especially described 

 and illustrated the plants brought home by Douglas, and by Hartweg. 

 Meanwhile, Bentham was getting into still more important work in 

 connection with the rich collections of the East India Company 

 brought home by Wallich, and he published monographs of the 

 Indian Labiates (or sage and mint family), and the Scrophulariads 

 (or foxglove and snapdragon family), which at once signalized his 

 patient perseverance and his singular skill in disentangling and 

 reducing to order complex groups of genera and species, into which 

 many new forms had to be incorjjorated. Fortunately, he had begun 

 his studies on the lines of the natural system, and had received 

 many useful hints from Jussien, the founder of the system, and was 

 on terms of intimacy with all the botani.sts both on the Continent 

 and in this country, who were engaged in promoting and improving 

 it. Among these were Alphonse de Candolle, Eudlicher, Eobert 

 Brown, Arnott, the elder Hooker, and, of course, Lindley. But it 

 was a long time before the artificial system of Liunieus was dis- 

 placed. Sir J. E. Smith, president of the Linnrean Society, and 

 possessor of Linuimis's collection, stuck to the old ways, and main- 

 tained them in vogue for schools and text-books. Jlr. Bentham 

 kept right on, giving up the bar, which he tried for some years, to 



