257 



CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. 

 (With Portbait.) 



Charles Caedale Babington was born on November 23rd, 1808, 

 at Ludlow, in which town his father, Joseph Babington, was a 

 physician. When he was four years old, the family removed to 

 Spaw Place, Humberston Gate, Leicester, and subsequently, Mr. 

 Babington having received ordination in the Established Church, 

 to Hawksworth, in Nottinghamshire. Mr. Babington had a fond- 

 ness for botany, and contributed a list of plants found near Ludlow 

 to Plymley's A</ricultiue of Shropshire. While at Ludlow he sent 

 lichens to Sir J. E. Smith, some of which were figured and 

 described for English Botany (see B. Bot. 450, 740, 887). 



When he was eight years old, young Babington was sent to 

 Needwood Parsonage, Staffordshire, for private tuition, where, his 

 diary tells us, he was not well treated. After being at another 

 private school, he was sent (in 1821) to the Charterhouse, but here 

 he did not stay long. " Not getting on well with my learning," 

 says his diary, " I was removed at my own wish from the Charter- 

 house, and went to Mr. W. Hutchins's school at Bath." His father, 

 whose infirmities had compelled him to abandon clerical duty, had 

 at this time settled in Bath. During the time that young Babington 

 was a day-scholar at the school mentioned, he " formed an intimate 

 acquaintance with the neighbourhood of Bath, and began to study 

 its botany and to collect plants and insects." His father had 

 previously taught him the elements of botany, from Lee's Intro- 

 duction and Withering' s ArraiKjement. 



On Oct. 11th, 182G, Babington took up his residence at St. 

 John's College, Cambridge. In the following year, he notes under 

 April 30th, "Went to Prof. Henslow's first lecture on Botany," 

 and on May 2nd, " Conversed with him after the botanical lecture, 

 and was asked to his house. Assisted Prof. Henslow in putting 

 things in order before and after the lectures." In 1830 he took his 

 B.A. degree and became a Fellow of the Linnean Society, of which 

 at the time of his death he was the " father." In 1833 he went 

 into college, and was created M.A. 



It was in this year that his more definite botanical work began. 

 We have seen that during his school days he studied the plants of 

 Bath, and on visiting that city in July, 1831, he was requested by 

 Mr. E. Collings " to look over a list of the I3ath plants, and make 

 additions and corrections. I found the list so imperfect that it was 

 determined to endeavour to complete my own list of those which 

 I had observed. I worked hard all the summer, and finished the 

 manuscript on the 15th October, having had the loan of Dr. H. 

 Gibbes's Flora Bathon. and assistance from Mr. E. Simms and Dr 

 J. F. Davis." 



The Flora Bathoniensis was published at the beginning of 1834 ; 

 it contains a few critical notes and references to continental floras, 

 which indicate the lines of the author's future work, and adds 

 Euphorhia pUosa (called epithymoides) to the British Flora. 

 Journal of Botany. — Vol. 33. [Sept. 1895.] s 



