LTNlTEAlir SOCIETY OF LONDON. Ixi 



selves in various ways, and some of whom, such as the present 

 Bishop of Chichester, kept up their acquaintance with their in- 

 structor up to recent times. It was at this period of his career that 

 Mr. Baxter edited his ' British Botany,' a work in several volumes, 

 devoted to the description and illustration of British plants. The 

 illustrations are of unequal merit ; but the amount of information 

 accumulated is extremely large, and bears witness, not only to great 

 shrewdness of perception and accuracy of observation, but to in- 

 defatigable zeal and labour. But it was in cryptogamic botany that 

 Mr. Baxter specially excelled — in this proving himself a worthy 

 compeer of his feUow labourers, Dawson-Turner, Borrer, Purton, 

 and others. It is on record that he made great changes for the better 

 in the Oxford Botanic Garden ; its level was so raised, that it was on 

 longer flooded, and it was stored with rare plants to an extent that 

 rendered it one of the most remarkable gardens of its time. The 

 number of hardy herbaceous plants and of British plants under cul- 

 tivation under Mr. Baxter's management was, considering the re- 

 stricted space at his command, greater than that in almost any 

 other establishment in the kingdom. On the death of Dr. "Williams, 

 in 1834, Dr. Daubeny was elected to the professorship, and imme- 

 diately proceeded still further to improve, and, indeed, remodel the 

 garden, in doing which he was ably and energetically assisted by 

 Mr. Baxter ; and the alterations that were carried into effect, with 

 the modifications introduced by the present Curator, have rendered 

 the Oxford garden, for its limited size, a very complete esta- 

 bhshment. 



About twenty years since Mr. Baxter retired from his curatorship 

 in favour of his son, Mr. W. H. Baxter, the present holder of the 

 office. Mr. Baxter was admitted as an Associate of this Society on 

 the 6th of May, 1817, and he died on the 1st of November, 1871 . 

 in his 84th year. 



James Charles Dale, M.A., of Glanville Wootton, and Newton 

 Montacute, Dorset, a Justice of the Peace, and in 1843 High 

 Sheriff for the county, was born on the 13th of December, 1791. 

 He was educated at "Wimborne and at Sydney Sussex CoUege, Cam- 

 bridge, where he graduated in 1815. His love of natural history, 

 particularly entomology, was shown from a child ; some of the 

 insects in his British collection, which is the finest and largest 

 known, were taken in the last century, and he followed his fa- 

 vourite pursuit, assisted by his two sons, until within a few 

 hours of his death. He had a large collection of foreign insects ; 



