52 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



able instance of the combination of genius and eccentricity. A big 

 man of immense physical strength and endurance, in his young days 

 a particularly clever and successful water-colour painter, one of the 

 most successful teachers of art of the day, earning, it is said, in his 

 j^almy days over £3000 a year, but generall}^ in money difficulties ! 

 Among his pupils were some of the greatest artists of his time ; he 

 was the close friend of William Blake and the associate of Bulwer 

 Lytton, Richard Burton, and many other men of mark. 



Cornelius was in his uncle's workshop at the age of twelve, and 

 soon showed an extraordinary aptitude for the construction of optical 

 and other philosophical instruments, and at the age of fourteen made 

 himself a microscope, lenses and all. His inventions and improve- 

 ments in connexion with scientific intruments and appliances were 

 very numerous, and included graphic microscopes and telescopes. He 

 was awarded the Gold Isis Medal of the Society of Arts for his lever 

 microscope for watching the movements of animalculse, and in 1851 

 a prize medal for his Graphic Telescope, fort}^ years after its intro- 

 duction. He contributed a number of articles to the publications of 

 the Society of Arts, mostly in reference to optical instruments. 



He was Chairman of the Exhibition of 1851, and lived to be the 

 oldest member of the Society of Arts. Curiously enough, from his 

 early years he had a strong bias in the direction of art, especially 

 water-colour painting. Both he and his brother John were among 

 the founders of the Old Water- Colour Society, the idea of which he 

 is stated to have originated. In its earlier years he contributed a 

 number of landscapes to its exhibitions, but later on sent his pictures 

 to the Royal Academ}^, Avhere he exhibited up to 1859. He seems to 

 have been equally attracted by the invention and construction of 

 scientific appliances and by landscape painting, the tvvo unlike 

 pursuits taking turn about in absorbing his attention. It is unusual 

 to find an extraordinary aptitude for mechanical science coupled with 

 the aesthetic facult}^ of the pictorial artist. Both sides of the man 

 are evident in the sketches of Char a, the firm sure hand of the 

 mechanical draughtsman coupled with the artistic touch which dis- 

 tinguishes them from almost all other histological drawings of these 

 plants. 



A trait of Yarley's personal character is disclosed b}^ the following 

 passage from Mr. Stor^'-'s book : — " ... In 1822 he accepted the 

 appointment of governor of some mines in Brazil, a very lucrative 

 appointment, and everything was arranged for his voyage ; but on 

 discovering that slaves Avere to be employed on the estates he at once 

 threw up the engagement, an act thoroughly characteristic of the 

 man, and illustrative of the intense aversion he had all* through life to 

 any kind of t^a-anny whether ph3^sical or moral," Though more 

 evenly-balanced and methodical than his brother John, he was appa- 

 rently none too practical in the affairs of everyday life, since some of 

 his family believed and rather resented that Dickens had drawn from 

 him the character of Harold Skimpole in Bleak House ! He died in 

 1873 in his 92nd year. 



Three of his sons were well-known electrical engineers and in- 

 ventors, and one of them, Cromwell Fleetwood Varle}^ was concej-ned 



