234 TIIK .lUL'KNAL OF ]JOTANV 



Newcastle, ^vll() nnlil lier death in 1902 was actively interested in 

 her husbancVs botanical work and prepared the diagrams for his 

 lectures. Their son, as the pages of this and other journals show, 

 has inherited his father's devotion to botany. 



In 1863 the Journal of Bofnnij was established by Berthold 

 Seemann (1825-71) in succession to the long list of Kew Journals, 

 the last of wdiich appeared in 1854 ; its sub-title " British and 

 Foreign " indicated that it would give due prominence to British 

 botany. The first number contained a paper by Baker " On some of 

 the British Pansies. Agrestal and Montane." In the succeeding 

 volume Seemann dedicated to him the genus Bal^eria, separated from^ 

 JPlerauiIra, to Avhich it is now general W restored : Bdkeria of 

 Andre (BromeliacesR) and Bakerella Van Tieghem (Loranthaceae) 

 remain to commemorate him. Baker's contributions to the Journal 

 were very numerous, sometimes extending over many numbers, 

 dealing principally with the petaloid monocotyledons ; his monograph 

 of SeJaginella occu})ied a considerable portion of the volumes for 

 1883-85. In 1870, with a view to obtaining more support from 

 British botanists, Baker and Trimen were appointed assistant-editors. 

 The former took no active part in the work, although his name 

 remained on the title-page until 1875 ; his active cooperation, how- 

 ever, continued until 1895, when the strained relations then existing 

 betw^een the British Museum and Kew caused a cessation of his 

 contributions, although his interest in the Journal continued. For a 

 list of these, reference must be made to the Royal Society's Cata- 

 logiie ofScientiJic Papers, wherein Baker's contributions to periodicals 

 occupy many pages. 



In May 1864 occurred a catastrophe which, distressing as it was 

 in its immediate effects, Avas attended by happj' results for botany — 

 Baker's house and business premises were completely destroyed by 

 fire, and his herbarium (with that of John Storey) and libi-ary, 

 including unpublished MSS., perished in the flames. A subscription 

 was at once set on foot by the leading British botanists, which was 

 generously responded to : " the subscription." said Baker in a letter 

 to those who had contributed, " is far more than sufficient to replace 

 all my botanical belongings which money can restore." In January 

 1866 Baker was appointed first assistant in the Kew Herbarium — a 

 post which he retained until 1890, when he succeeded Daniel Oliver 

 as Keeper, in which capacitv he remained until his retirement in 

 1899.' 



The forty-three years spent at the Kew Herbarium formed a 

 period of ceaseless botanical activity : a complete catalogue of Baker's 

 output v.-ould fill many more pages than are at our disposal. His 

 first work at Kew was the completion of Sir William Hooker's 

 Synopsis Filicum, of w^hich he prepared a second edition in 1874; a 

 supplementary list to date is published in vol. v. of the Annals of 

 Botany (1890-91) ; he monographed the Ferns of Brazil for M;ir- 

 tius's Flora Brasiliensis and in 1887 published a Ilamlbook of 

 Fern Allies. "When I first came to Kew," he says in his preface 

 to the Jlandhook of the IriclecG (1892), *' I found the groups of 

 plants that enter largely into horticulture that most wanted working 



