JOHN RALFS. 291 



that he was on a visit to Dr. Fox, with a view to consulting the 

 Bristol surgeon, and was then better and able to get about with one 

 crutch. For many years afterwards his health was so bad that he 

 was often unable to do any botanical work for months together. 



In 1818, after several delays occasioned by illness, his great 

 work was published, ' The British DesmidieaV probably the finest 

 monograph which has appeared of any group of British plants. 

 The descriptions are complete and lucid, the synonymy is very 

 carefully worked out, and the analyses are in Ralfs's characteristi- 

 cally terse style. Particular attention is given to the reproductive 

 states of the plants, which had been previously observed in very few 

 species. An appendix contains descriptions of the species not known 

 to occur in Britain, and the small number of these is an evidence 

 of the leading position Ralfs had taken up as an authority upon the 

 group. In a few years he had raised the number of known British 

 Desmids from four to a hundred and eighty. Mr. E. Jenner's 

 beautiful drawings contributed much to the value of the work, for 

 he was not only an excellent draughtsman, but a good botanist, and 

 well acquainted with the Desmids. During the preparation of the 

 work Balfs had extensive correspondence with Brebisson, Kutzing, 

 Montagne, and other leading foreign algologists. Berkeley seems 

 to have been of great assistance in many ways. 



In the autumn of 1819, writing to Mr. Berkeley from Ilfra- 

 combe, Ralfs says : — " I have done very little this summer, as 

 I have enjoyed but very few days of sufficient health to go out." 

 During the year, however, he sent two short papers to the Edinburgh 

 Bot. Soc, "On the mode of growth of Oscillaturia, Calothrix," &c. 

 In 1850 he contributed to the same Society a paper on the Xusto- 

 chineai, with figures and descriptions of twenty-two species. In this 

 year he went to France on a visit to the Count and Countess de 

 Morambert, friends of his late wife, who had recently died at their 

 Chateau in the Dordogne. During his stay in France he visited 

 Brebisson and Lenormand, and when at Paris he made the personal 

 acquaintance of Decaisne, Thuret, and Montagne. In 1851 he 

 contributed another paper to the Edinburgh Bot. Soc, "On 

 Chantraiisia." 



In 1850 he undertook the arrangement of the Diatoms and 

 Desmids for the fourth edition of Pritchard's ' Infusoria,' but, 

 through repeated illnesses, was only able to complete the Diatoma- 

 cea, and this contributed to the delay in the publication of the book, 

 which did not appear until 1861. His work, however, was very 

 thorough, and gave an account of the whole of the known Dia- 

 tomacere, both recent and fossil. 



The sudden failure of his eyesight about this time rendered 

 future microscopical research impossible, thus putting a stop to the 

 great work of his life, and he does not seem to have recovered from 

 the shock for many years. He turned his attention more and more 

 to working out the Flora of West Cornwall. In 1880, when the 

 Penzance Nat. Hist. Soc. was resuscitated, he took a leading part 

 in its proceedings, and contributed a number of papers on the Flora 

 of the Vice-county. To the Fungi he gave special attention, and 



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