236 THE JOURNAL OF BOTATfY 



land &c. xiv. 69.-88) contain much information of interest to bio- 

 graphers. To the third edition of Hooker's Shidenfs Flora (1870) 

 he contributed the "account of Ruhus, Eosa, and Hieracium,'''' and 

 liis general assistance is acknowledged in tlie preface to that work. 



Besides these more important works, Baker was a constant con- 

 tributor to botanical periodicals — among them the Bulletins of the 

 Boissier Herbarium, the Boyal Botanical Society of Belgium, and 

 of the lloyal Gardens, Kew, the J^afiwalist, the Gardeners'' Chronicle 

 (includmg popular monographs of Crocus, Agave, Yucca, Narcissus, 

 Aqudegia, &c.), and the Botanical Magazine, in the preparation of 

 whicli, apart from his own contributions, he Avas of the greatest 

 help to Sir Joseph Hooker. His last published pa])er — ■" on the 

 Botany" and Physical Geography of the Holy Land " — ajDpeared 

 in the Gardeners' Chronicle for December, 1917. 



This enormous output could only have been achieved by steady 

 and sti'enuous work, and Baker's industry was unflagging, not only 

 during his official hours at the Herbarium, but at home ; when he 

 was living at Bichmond, before he took up his residence at the 

 Herbarium, his tall figure, with a bundle of dried plants under his 

 arm, was a familiar object as he passed across the Gardens. He Avas 

 a very rapid worker ; and this, Avhile enabling him to bring together 

 in addition to his own observations a vast amount of material, thus 

 greatly facilitaiing the work of those who succeeded him, was not 

 without its drawbacks : the criticism of a friendly reviewer of the 

 Handboolc of the IridecB (Journ. Bot, 1893, 155) sums these up by 

 saying that "Mr. Baker is a rapid worker and gets over a great deal 

 of ground, but he lacks a certain fineness of touch, so that a want of 

 finish is occasionally evident." In the same way his offhand deter- 

 minations — " in a large sense," to quote one of his fre(|uent expres- 

 sions — were sometimes open to challenge, as he himself was always 

 ready to admit. 



Although by no means devoid of other interests — he had a keen 

 literary sense and a great love of poetry, of which he could repeat 

 vast quantities — botany was the chief concern of his life, and he was 

 always ready to place his knowledge at the disposal of all who con- 

 sulted him, whether personalh' at the Herbarium or by letter. This 

 was especially the case in connection with the Botanical Exchange 

 Club, to whose Beports he was a constant contributor ; but it extended 

 to the humblest inquirer. During my two years at Kew, it was 

 amusing to notice the different attitude assumed by Oliver and Baker 

 to the casual visitor — the former discouraging, almost to rudeness, 

 the latter friendly and sympathetic, sometimes to Oliver's hardly 

 disguised disapjiroval. On my first day in the Herbarium (August 

 1889), when I had been somewhat over-awed by an interview \\'\\\\ 

 Hooker and a little terrified by Oliver's abru])t manner. Baker at once 

 put me at my ease and took me home with him to one of thos§ 

 " high teas " which his intimates will always remember with pleasure, 

 and introduced me to his family, including his son, whose name is 

 now almost as familiar to botanists as his father's, but who then, at 

 the age of five, was sitting on the floor with his sister, absorbed in 

 problems of elementaiy arithmetic. I recall, too, a pleasant Sunday 



