JOHN GILBERT BAKKR 287 



afternoon when he took me to see Hewett Wat.son, from whom I liad 

 already received much encouragenieut, at Thames Ditton, when I was 

 delighted at my cordial i-eception— thanks to my introducer — -by one 

 whose writings were characterized hy considerable asperity. A refer- 

 ence to these " quiet Sunday afternoons," wlien Baker was a frequent 

 visitor, will be found in his memoir of Watson (Journ. Bot. 1881, 

 204). 



The kindness which Baker showed to all with whom he came in 

 contact was, 1 think, his most striking characteristic — no kinder man 

 can ever have liv^ed ; the following tribute from The Garden for 

 November 9, 1901, aptly expresses the general feeling common to all 

 who knew him : — 



" The wide extent of Mr, Baker's public work is written in the 

 history of botanical science, but this slight memoir w^ould be in- 

 complete did it not put on record the pleasant memory of that 

 unfailing kindness and tender beautj^ of character that so greatly 

 endeared him to his colleagues and subordinates, as w^ell as to his 

 large circle of personal friends. Students and workers in the Royal 

 Gardens felt that in Mr. Baker they liad a genial friend as w^ell as 

 an instructor, while many a botanically-ignorant amateur, whether 

 acquainted with him or not, became aware that the learned botanist 

 would with infinite patience and kindness give time and irouLle to 

 enlighten him." 



The feeling of his colleagues, past and present, found expression 

 on the occasion of Baker's eightieth birthday, when an address of 

 congratulation was presented to him, signed by those who had been 

 associated with him during his long connection with the Herbarium. 

 The Morning Post on the following day published an interesting- 

 autobiographical account which will be found in this Journal for 

 1913, p. 42 — Baker's correction of the astounding statement which 

 attributed to Mr. Amaury Talbot the collection in Nigeria of 10,000 

 genera and 200,000 species, will be found on p. 77. Among the 

 many expressions of sympathy addressed to his son which I have 

 been privileged to see, one seems to me so accurate and so admirably 

 expressed that I venture to reproduce it : " He was of the best of 

 men. In his serene disposition he was at peace with God and man. 

 His life was one of cheerful devotion to useful and conscientious work, 

 and in it he leaves behind him a worth}^ monument. To those who 

 knew him his memory will always be fragrant." 



This notice would be incomplete without some reference to the 

 posts wdiich Baker held and to the distinctions which were conferred 

 upon him. In 1869 he \vas Lecturer on Botany to the London 

 Hospital and for thirty years (1874-1904) to the Kew Gardens : 

 " his lectures " says The Journal of the Kew Guild (1897) "have 

 always been popular, his emphatic lucid style being easy to follow, 

 whilst his kindly encouragement, pleasantness, and vein of humour 

 tend to give the tyro a relish for botan}^ which might otherwise be 

 missing " : from 1882 to 1896 he was Lecturer on Botan}^ to the 

 Society of Apothecaries at their garden in Chelsea. In 1897 he 

 received the Victoria medal of the Royal Horticultural Society, of 

 whose Scientific Committee he was an original and the oldest surviving 



