EDWARD SllEARBURN MARSHALL 9 



questioned this. Nine years later, however, Marshall himself (J. Bot. 

 1S99, 357) expressed his conviction that ** Mr. Beeby was ri^-ht in 

 considering Festaca hfierophj/lla as probably introduced at Witley." 



I detail the incident at some length because it shows that Marshall, 

 although diihcult to convince, was willing to own up when he was 

 convinced, and also because it illustrates his somewhat over-readiness 

 to regard as British, ]jlants whose antecedents suggested the im- 

 probability of this — Siiitjriuchiiun californicum, already mentioned, 

 is a case in point. On the other hard, he did much towards estab- 

 lishing the claims of plants whose nativity had been regarded as doubt- 

 ful — e. g. the one standing in our books as Aconitum Napellus ; 

 this he regarded as " a true native in Somerset and in several other 

 western counties" (Fl. Som. Supp. 8), and it was difficult to regard 

 it as otherwise in the stations where he showed it to me. Marshall 

 was also a staunch defender of the nativity of PcBoma corallina 

 and Allium Ampeloprasuni on the Steep Holm — of which R. P. 

 Murray gives the Hora in J. Bot. 1S91, 269; he made several 

 excursions to the island and introduced from it to his garden the two 

 plants above mentioned : he also regarded A. triquetrum as native in 

 Cornwall (J. Bot. 1918, 56). 



His views as to specific rank also underwent modification : thus 

 the Raniuiculus first mentioned by him (J. Bot. 1889, 230) as 

 R. Flamumla var. petiolaris and subsequently published and figured 

 (J. Bot. 1892, 289, t. 328) as R. petiolaris — a preoccupied name for 

 which B. scotic?fs was substituted (J. Bot. 1898, 103) — was later 

 (J. Bot. 1900, 185) "after much consideration " regarded as a subspecies 

 — a view which had been previously urged upon him by Mr. Arthur 

 Bennett and other botanists. 



It seems right to add that, although so much of his time was 

 devoted to botany, MarslialFs clerical work was in no way neglected : 

 the ordinary duties of a country clergyman, which are perhaps more 

 numerous than is sometimes supposed, were conscientiously and 

 methodically performed. His parish, though straggling, was not a 

 large one, as reckoned by inhabitants, and he had the help of a 

 curate, but he took his full share of work, usually preaching twice on 

 a Sunday. His sermons were much appreciated by the more educated 

 members of his fiock, but were, I gathered, regarded by the poorer 

 classes as rather over their heads — "too clever," as one of them 

 expressed it. Marshall was a thorough " Church and State " man — a 

 moderate High Clmrchman of the degree indicated in the Anglican 

 thermometer as "E.P. and altar lights," but with no symjmth}^ with 

 the more advanced members of that school. Although he did not 

 readily brook contradiction, he was a most pleasant companion. 



It would be presumptuous on the part of one who claims no high 

 position among British botanists were he to attempt to estimate that 

 which Marshall had attained. But a letter received since his death, 

 from one who himself stands in the first rank of our botanists, con- 

 tains an appreciation which appears to me so just that I propose to 

 print it in place of expressing any opinion of my own : 



" His death is a great loss to British Botany. He was unsur- 

 passed as a collector of the critical flowering plants, both in point of 



