PETER MACOWAX. 73 



offices is reliable, the old proverb noii bis in idem may be taken as a high 

 probability. Whichever of the Cape herbaria is burnt, the other is pretty- 

 sure to escape, at least until the wheel of time has ground out another century." 



Just a year later the fire that he so much dreaded came, and 

 demohshed the adjacent building — a flour mill, the flames licking 

 the very window frames of Professor MacOwan's Herbarium and 

 burning part of his staircase, but doing no manner of damage to 

 his precious charge. With sardonic humour he had the ruined 

 building photographed, and the photograph embellished the 

 next blue book issued from the office of the Government Botanist. 

 But it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, and so one result of 

 this fire was that a building was erected, in the rear of the South 

 African Museum, specially to accommodate the Herbarium. There 

 was nothing pretentious about the appearance of this building, 

 indeed a vast wealth of meaning lay behind the Professor's 

 euphemistic observation in his next Annual Report, that " the 

 architecture is remarkable for its simplicity, and the situation 

 is not obtrusive." In further allusion to the " congenial fitness 

 of collocation " which absolutely concealed the little Herbarium 

 behind the imposing Museum building, the usually prosaic pages 

 of the blue book contained the suggestion that " Zoology has been 

 the favoured sister, and Botany has been the Cinderella." 



Another matter that caused the orderly and methodical Pro- 

 fessor acute mental distress was the manner in -which the Govern- 

 ment book-binders treated botanical literature. Thence originated 

 the following passage in one of his reports : — 



" The Government, at its discretion, has entered into a contract to liave 

 a certain class of binding of very low quality, done at the cheapest rates, 

 in order to keep loose papers, reports, blue books and the like in form con- 

 venient for reference. I do not mean to be satirical when I agree that the 

 binding ma}- be good enough for the matter bound. But when, in ray duty 

 as Curator of the Government Herbarium, I have to requisition the binding 

 of this or that valuable botanical work — then my troubles begin. The 

 contract binding is so utterly- out of the fitness of things belonging to costly 

 reference volumes, that I cannot bring myself to send away a book which 

 has been a companion for many years to come back degraded into an eyesore 

 and a perpetual offence." 



The sequel makes some charming reading, but the curious must 

 be referred for this purpose to the report of the Government 

 Botanist for 1899. 



For many years Professor MacOwan had been connected with 

 the South African Philosophical Society (now the Royal Society 

 of South Africa). At its inception in 1877 he — then resident at 

 Som.erset East — was elected a corresponding member, ultimately 

 becoming the Society's President in 1885. The subject of his 

 Presidential address has already been alluded to above. He 

 also took an active part in the development of the Cape of Good 

 Hope University ever since its foundation, and his membership 

 on the University Council, beginning in 1876, when he was for 

 the first time elected by Convocation, lasted, through three suc- 

 cessive Councils, until 1891. During this period he frequently 

 fulfilled the functions of University Examiner in Chemistry, in 

 Botany, in Geology and in Zoology, and in 1901 the University 

 Council, in recognition of his scientific eminence, resolved to 



