184 MR. CAERUTHERS'S RETIREMENT. 



industry, and to Mr. Carruthcrs's activity on behalf of the insti- 

 tution lie represented, will be completed at no distant date. 



The next important demand upon Mr. Carrathers's energies 

 was connected with the transference of the Department of Botany 

 to the Natural History Museum : this took place in 1880. Those 

 who remember the small crowded gallery, the insufficient accom- 

 modation, and inconvenient arrangements, at Bloomsbury can alone 

 fully appreciate the extension which took place when the botanical 

 collections were moved to South Kensington. But the superin- 

 tendence of the moving and rearrangement of these was not Mr. 

 Carruthers's most important work. As a compensation for being 

 deprived of the advantages of the British Museum library, the 

 Government made a large grant towards the formation of a natural 

 history library in the new building, and each department was 

 allotted a handsome sum for expenditure in connection with its 

 special work. Mr. Carruthers's knowledge and appreciation of 

 botanical literature was exercised to such admirable effect that 

 it may be doubted whether a finer botanical library exists than 

 that of the Natural History Museum. 



In 1887 Mr. Carruthers became President of the Linnean 

 Society, and it fell to his lot to superintend its centenary, which 

 took place in 1888. Not only then, but throughout his term of 

 office, Mr. Carruthers took the greatest interest in the affairs of the 

 Society. Fourteen years before, a crisis had arisen in its history, 

 which, as will be seen by a reference to this Journal for 1874, was 

 not unattended by painful incidents and serious differences of 

 opinion. No one, however, now doubts that the result of the 

 alterations then introduced was beneficial, and these results were due 

 in no small measure to Mr. Carruthers's action. His presidency 

 was in every way a marked success, and it is pleasant to record 

 that it is to be commemorated by a portrait, to be placed in the 

 rooms of the Society, which Mr. Hay has just been commissioned 

 to paint. 



If we contrast the present state of the Department of Botany 

 with its condition when Mr. Carruthers assumed the Keepership, 

 we shall be able to form some notion of its development. The two 

 assistants have increased to five. The important special herbarium 

 of British plants, the separate collections of fruits and woods, the 

 useful series of plates and drawings, the arrangement of the 

 valuable collection of original drawings — one of the finest in 

 existence — and of MSS., the development of the public galleries, 

 have all been carried out under his guidance. He has secured for 

 the nation many important collections, and has immensely developed 

 the cryptogamic portion of the herbarium, which at Bloomsbury 

 occupied only one small gallery. Important contributions to 

 science, such as Mr. Crombie's Enumeration of British Lichens 

 and Mr. Lister's Monograph of Mycetozoa — both recently noticed 

 in these pages — have been issued under his editorship. He has 

 assisted in every possible manner those who have desired to consult 

 the collections, and — if a fault in that direction be possible — has 

 been almost too ready to answer enquiries of the most trivial nature. 



