258 CHARLES CARDALE UABINGTON. 



In 1836 (at its second meeting) Babington became a Fellow of 

 the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. In 1837 (at the beginning of 

 which he "was taken with the prevalent influenza ") he made his first 

 visit to the Channel Islands, in company with R. M. Lingwood, with 

 whom and John Ball, another Cambridge friend, he had visited Ireland 

 in 1835.* He returned in 1838, and the results of his observations 

 are embodied in his Primitiic Flora S(irnlc(£, published in 1839. 

 A much more important work, however, was already in progress. 

 In his diary for 1835 is the entry: "May 11. Commenced my 

 Manual of British Botany," and with this his time was largely 

 occupied until 1813, when the last proof of the book ("which has 

 kept me most fully occupied all the winter") was corrected : the 

 preface is dated May 1st, 1843. Of this work it is not too 

 much to say tliat it revolutionized the study of British plants, and 

 gave an impetus to thought and work among British botanists to a 

 degree unequalled by any publication of the century. To say this 

 is by no means to ignore the excellence of Smith's English Flora 

 (1828), or to depreciate other books then existing, such as the 

 seventh edition of Withering's Arrangement (1830). But the bulk 

 of these, augmented as it was in the latter case by the addition 

 of a vast quantity of extraneous though not uninteresting matter, 

 rendered them cumbrous for field work ; and although the useful 

 Cuvijicndium of the Emilish Flora (which first appeared in English 

 in 1829) was sufficiently convenient in size, the descriptions were 

 meagre. Hooker's Jhitish Flora, which first appeared in 1830, 

 successfully supplied the demand for a compendious handbook, as 

 is shown by the fact that four large editions were exhausted in 

 less than twelve years. These were all arranged on the Linuean 

 system, but the fifth edition, published a year before the Manual, 

 followed the natural arrangement. But by this time Sir William 

 Hooker had become Director of Kew Gardens, and it is not 

 astonishing that his new labours left him but little time for 

 British botany. Save in its rearrangement, this edition shows 

 little advance upon its predecessors ; and the time was ripe for 

 the appearance of a new book. 



Other important reasons for the production of such a work are 

 well set forth in the preface to the first edition of the Manual — 

 a thousand copies of which, as of subsequent editions, were printed. 

 Babington tells us that, having taken up British Botany, he " had 

 not advanced far in the critical examination of our native plants 

 before he found tliat a careful comparison of indigenous specimens 

 with the works of eminent continental authors, and with plants 

 obtained from other parts of Europe, must necessarily be made, 

 for it appeared that in very many eases the nomenclature employed 

 in England was different from that used in other countries, that 

 often plants considered as varieties here were held to be distinct 

 species abroad, that several of our species were only looked upon as 

 varieties by them, and also that the mode of grouping into genera 



* Babington's account of this visit will be found in Mai). Nat. Hist. ix. 

 119-130 (183G). 



