LTNNEA'N" SOCIETY OF LOI^DOX. 5.I 



7nr Bioloi^ie der Pflaiizen,' begun in 1870, and completed with 

 the seventh volume in 1896. 



He became a Member of the Leopoldino-Carolinische deutsche 

 Akademie der Naturforscher in October 1819 under the cog- 

 nomen of Meyen II. His fellow townsmen in 1897 paid him 

 the civic honour of conferring the freedom of Breslau oa the 

 occasion of the jubilee of his doctorate. 



Rev. William Colenso was the son of a saddler in Penzance, 

 where he was born in 1811. He bec;ime a printer and book- 

 binder in London, and passed some time in the service of the 

 British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1883, when Coleaso was 

 only twenty-two years of age, the Church Missionary Society 

 determined to establish a printing establishment as part of their 

 method of propaganda in the then little-known islands of New 

 Zealand, and Colenso was selected to take charge of that enter- 

 prise. He has left an account of his pioneer work as printer and 

 missionary in his ' Fifty Yeirs ago in New Zealand.' It was 

 uphill work for many years, but by the end of 1837 he had not 

 only acquired a command of the Maori language, but had com- 

 pleted the translation and printing of the entire JSTew Testament 

 into that tongue. From about 1840 he began to devote himself 

 more especially to mission work, but he ever kept an open eye 

 to the flora of his new home. He publislied a small octavo 

 entitled ' Excursion to the Northern Island of New Zealand in 

 1841-42,' issued at Launceston in 1844 ; and in the following year 

 he described some new ferns in the ' Tasmanian Journal.' It was 

 in 1844 that he was ordained by Bishop Selwyn, after a period of 

 preparation ; it may here be mentioned that he was a first cousin 

 of the Bishop of Natal, for whose character and writings he ever 

 had cordial sympathy and esteem. 



His untiring energy and enthusiasm for New Zealand life and 

 surroundings brought him into great intimacy with the Maori 

 race, and on different occasions he was enabled to act as mediator 

 between the white and coloured population. On 15th June, 

 1865, he was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society. On the 

 occasion of the New Zealand Exhibition in 1865 at Dunedin, he 

 drew up an essay on the Botany of the North Island, which was 

 republished at Otago in the same year. From time to time 

 he published papers dealing not only with the botany, but also 

 the customs, legends, plant-names, &c. of the natives. He kept 

 up a correspondence with home authorities, collected plants, 

 and sent them to England with full de:?criptions ; in this his 

 local knowledge led him to place too great stress on slight 

 peculiarities of habit, and to regard small variations as worthy 

 of specific distinction. "When the compilation of the ' Index 

 Kewensis 'was in progress, he spontaneously off'ered to give the 

 sum of fifty pounds towards the printing ; and although this offer 

 was not accepted, because the requirements of the work were 

 otherwise provided for, the fact remains as a testimony to the 



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