1864.] 23]^ [James. 



opportunity for acquiring knowledge; his childlike humility was 

 apparent even in advanced age, and he never felt himself too old to 

 learn or too wise to accept the gleanings of other minds. 



When we consider his kind and benevolent disposition, social 

 habits, and genial manners, it is not surprising that his loss is deeply 

 mourned by numerous friends, and a large circle of acquaintances 

 and correspondents, not only in this country but in Europe. 



He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society 

 forty years ago, and was among the oldest surviving members. His 

 life-long devotion to science and important public services have 

 rendered his name honored and his memory deserving a tribute of 

 respect. 



Our attention will be chiefly directed to his character as a botanist, 

 for it is that side of his full-orbed life which is most interesting to 

 us, and by which he has been most widely known. 



Some knowledge of his history and early life may be gleaned from 

 the following extract from a manuscript autobiography in my posses- 

 sion, and will serve to illustrate the preceding remarks : 



" 3Iy great grandfather, Abraham Darlington, was a contempo- 

 rary of William Penn ; and being of the same religious persuasion, 

 followed him to his province of Pennsylvania near the close of the 

 seventeenth century. 



" He first settled near Chester, a village on the right bank of the 

 River Delaware, and the oldest town in Pennsylvania. His letters 

 from his parents in England are dated from Darn Hall in Cheshire. 

 He afterwards removed to the banks of the Brandywine, our classical 

 stream in Chester County, where he continued to reside until his 

 death. His son Thomas, my grandfather, married Hannah Brinton, 

 the daughter of a Quaker family, which also came with Willianj 

 Penn. Their eldest son, Edward Darlington, my father, was married 

 to Hannah Townsend, daughter of another old English family of 

 Quakers, which had sought a refuge in Penn's province.* I was 

 born on the 28th day of April, 1782, and so far as I can trace my 



* It would not be inappropriate here to allude to an occurrence of recent date, 

 the sesqui-centennial gathering of the clan Darlington, which rallied at East 

 Bradford, Chester County, the residence of Brinton Darlington, grandson of 

 the first American progenitor, on the 20th August, 1853, at the call of some of 

 the elders of the tribe, where nearly four hundred, old and young, assembled at 

 the appointed time and enjoyed the happy reunion. On which occasion it was 

 ascertained that the total number of descendants of Abraham Darlington amount- 

 ed to one thousand five hundred and twenty-four. 



