LINNEAN SOCIETY OI" LONDON. XXV 



The genus Carex is one of the largest in the vegetable kingdom, 

 embracing, according to his computation, upwards of 600 species, 

 and is spread over every quarter of the g^obe ; and to the study 

 of these he latterly gave up most of his time, much to the 

 detriment of his health, though greatly to the interest of science. 

 Amongst other contributions to their history, he prepared the 

 monograph of 158 species, published in Hooker's ' Flora Boreali- 

 Americana,' and analyzed and determined the species in every 

 private and public herbarium to which he could gain access. 



More recently he commenced at his own expense the publication 

 of a folio work in two volumes, intended to contain no fewer than 

 600 plates and descriptions of Carices. Of this work 411 ad- 

 mirably executed plates, full of most accurate analyses of as 

 many species and varieties, are already published : he was en- 

 gaged in its continuation up to within a few weeks of his death, 

 and we understand that a considerable part of a third volume is 

 all but ready for publication. This work is without doubt one of 

 the most munificent contributions ever made to scientific botany, 

 besides being one of the most accurate ; on which account it 

 certainly entitles its author to take a much higher place amongst 

 botanists than that of an amateur, which was all his modesty 

 would allow him to lay claim to. Carex, he used to observe to 

 his friends, was his hobby ; tracing out the characteristics of its 

 multitudinous forms was his delight ; and to be the exponent of 

 the structure of every species, after an examination of every 

 available specimen, was his unselfish ambition. The work itself 

 cost him many years of assiduous labour, and a very large sum 

 of money, both drawings, engravings, and letterpress being 

 executed at his own cost. Of his own merits as author of so 

 noble an undertaking Dr. Boott could never be brought to speak 

 (nor to listen to any praise of them), and the motto inscribed on 

 the title-page of the volumes best explains his own estimate of 

 his feelings regarding them — 



" The man who labours and digests things most 

 Will be much apter to despair than boast." — Roscommon. 



A double allusion is here intended : to his own assumed incom- 

 petency for the task, and the perplexing difficulties the genus 

 Carex presents to the systematist. Again, in no part of the 

 volumes is there any allusion whatever to the duration or extent 

 of his labours, or the manifold cares that must attend the pro- 

 duction of so considerable a work ; and, indeed, the only mention 

 of himself as connected with the task he had set himself is the 



