302 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



older figures, stating which are copies and which originals, though 

 perhaps thought curious hy some few people, are omitted, partly 

 because they are foreign to the purpose of this work, and partly to 

 make room for additional references now given to infinitely better 

 figures." 



This Preface was retained in subsequent editions ; but the 

 interesting running comments with which Stokes accompanied 

 his lists of authorities in the second edition of Withering, and 

 in his own subsequent works, no longer appear in the editions 

 of the former for which Withering and his son were solely 

 responsible. 



The genus Stohisia was described by L'Heritier,''' during the 

 fifteen months of assiduous toil in 1786-7 when he was in 

 London with Eedoute, Broussonet, and the Dombey herbarium f ; 

 but in founding it he says nothing as to the man whose name it 

 bears. In 1790 Stokes was elected an Associate of the then 

 recently founded Linnean Society ; and, though we have no 

 evidence of his taking much, if any, part in the progress of 

 British botany after the publication of his edition of Withering, 

 his two later works were both essentially botanical. 



In the Linnean Society Lists for 1792 and 1794 Stokes is 

 described as of Kidderminster, and in those from 1796 to 1830 

 inclusive as of Chesterfield. 



In 1796 Miss Seward stayed ten days with Dr. and Mrs. 

 Stokes at Chesterfield. | She writes § of Stokes as "a worthy and 

 ingenious man, but a dissenter, and consequently a democrat," 

 and she elsewhere ]j speaks of his political sentiments having been 

 injurious to his interest. In 1798 Dr. and Mrs. Stokes stayed 

 with Miss Seward for three days at Matlock and at this time Miss 

 Seward writes *' to a friend : — 



" Dr. Stokes is an extremely skilful physician, on the 

 testimony of the ingenious and candid of his own profession, and 

 on the proofs of his successful treatment of several very difficult 

 and dangerous cases. His devotion to the study of medicine, and 

 those sciences most nearly connected with it, as chemistry, 

 botany, and mineralogy, has not allowed him to cultivate his 

 taste for eloquence and poetry, sufiiciently to authorize those 

 unhesitating decisions on their subjects, which have often more 

 tenacity than happiness. His voice in speaking, and his address, 

 have each that insinuating softness which his wife's want, and 

 which evince at once the man of education and the gentleman. 

 It is curious to observe how totally these graces forsake him when 

 he reads either oratoric prose or verse aloud. He has absolutely 

 no impassioned or metrical intonation." 



In 1812 Stokes published A Botanical Materia Medica in four 

 volumes, which is furnished, like his Withering, with a catalogue 

 raisonne of his authorities and full synonymy and references to 



* Sertiim Anglicum (1788), p. 27. 



t See Journal of Botany, l'J05, pp. 2G6, 272, 325. 



J Letters of Anna Seward, iv. 253. § Ibid. iii. 229. 



11 iv. 268. H Vol. V. pp. 150-2. 



