MR. CAKKUTHEKS S RETIREMENT. 



183 



Immediately after his appointment (which was dated Feb. 15th, 

 1871) Mr. Carruthers was called upon to appear before the Royal 

 Commission on Scientific Instruction, which was then sitting. 

 Opinion was openly expressed that its deliberations might result 

 unfavourably to the British Museum, and especially to the Depart- 

 ment of Botany. Mr. Carruthers gave evidence on the 28th of 

 April, and had no difficulty in rebutting the adverse statements, 

 many of them based on hearsay evidence, which were made in 

 regard to the Department. In the preparation of his case he had 

 the advantage of the help of Dr. Trimen, who had been appointed 

 assistant two years previously. At the time of this ap)pointment, 

 two young men of promise were anxious to obtain botanical work, 

 and it was after much deliberation that Dr. Trimen rather than 

 Mr. Dyer was chosen for the post. 



The future historian of the botanical establishments of this 

 country will find ample material in the evidence tendered by Sir 

 Joseph Hooker, Mr. Bentham, Mr. Ball, and Mr. Carruthers, pub- 

 lished in the Reports of this Commission. The three first-named 

 were strongly opposed to the existence of a Department of Botany 

 at the British Museum, and Nature lent itself to the advocacy of 

 their policy. The sufficiency of Mr. Carruthers' s defence is manifest 

 from the fact that the Department remained untouched. The 

 historian must not overlook the Appendix to the Report, in which 

 he will find Mr. Ball's evidence dissected by Mr. Carruthers in a 

 style which may be thought somewhat merciless, though it cannot 

 but be owned that the provocation was great. I came into the 

 Department in September, 1871, while the controversy was_ still 

 raging. The first thing that struck me was the perfect cordiality 

 and frankness which Mr. Carruthers showed towards his sub- 

 ordmates — qualities which have been conspicuously manifest in all 

 his relations with his staff during his twenty-four years' Keepership. 



The permanence of the Department being secured, Mr. Car- 

 ruthers devoted himself to its development. The first necessity 

 was an assistant to undertake the arrangement of the cellular 

 cryptogams, and for this purpose Mr. George Murray, who had 

 studied at Strasburg under De Bary, was engaged : he entered the 

 Department on Oct. 18th, 1876. Previous to this, however, the 

 legal proceedings as to the disposal of Dr. Welwitsch's collections, 

 in accordance Avith the will of that botanist, had caused Mr. 

 Carruthers much anxiety. Readers of this Journal were kept 

 acquainted with the facts of the case, and its satisfactory termi- 

 nation, after nearly three years' litigation, is duly chronicled in 

 our volume for 1873 (pp. 380-2). The nation is indebted to Mr. 

 Carruthers and his fellow-executor, Mr. Justen, for the splendid 

 set of Dr. Welwitsch's Angolan collections now in the British 

 Museum. The enumeration and description of these was under- 

 taken by Mr. Hiern, but his removal from London caused him to 

 abandon the work, after a considerable portion had been done. 

 It will be pleasant news to botanists that Mr. Carruthers has just 

 succeeded in inducing Mr. Hiern to resume the work, and there is 

 every reason to hope that this fitting monument to Dr. Welwitsch's 



