LIITNEAN SOCIETr OF LONDON. 55 



Already in 1859 Oliver planned and carried out courses of 

 lectures to the young gardeners at Kew, which he continued till 

 1874, when a government grant was obtained for the work on a 

 widened plan. He revised the Garden Guide, first written by 

 Sir W. J. Hooker, from its 22nd edition in 1863 to its second 

 issue of the 29th edition, virtually the 30th, in 1885; he initiated 

 the Museum Guide in 1861, on to the 6th edition in 1875, the last 

 three in conjunction with J. E. Jackson. 



Another supplementary task which engaged Oliver's attention 

 during 1858-9, was the arrangement of the British Herbarium 

 belonging to the Linnean Society. In his diary Geoi'ge Bentham 

 records on the 16th April, 1858: "remained in town on a com- 

 mittee with C. C. Babington and Dr. Alexander [afterwards Prior] 

 for superintending the formation of a British herbarium ; spent 

 the morning with them routing out the old bundles in the Society^s 

 stores." On the 14th May: " After breakfast to the Linnean 

 Society till two, with Dr. Alexander and Mr. Oliver commenced 

 the selection of tiie specimens for the British herbarium of the 

 Society." On the completion of his task, Oliver read a short note 

 on the 15th December, 1859, giving an account of the work, which 

 came out in our Journal, Botany, iv. (1860) pp. 194-198. Mention 

 is made there of the "Marks suggested by Joseph Woods in his 

 'Toui'ist's riora' are made use of to indicate in the 'Catalogue' the 

 more or less perfect state of the specimens representing each 

 species respectively." The fifth edition of the 'London Catalogue' 

 is that referred to, and the copy in the herbarium is a testimony 

 to care bestowed upon the work done by the reporter on that 

 herbarium. 



The period following Oliver's settlement at Kew, especially the 

 years succeeding his appointment as Keeper, seem to mark the 

 full flood time of productive energy in the establishment. Sir 

 J. D. Hooker was working, so far as his official duties permitted, 

 on the ' Genera Plantarum ' with Bentham, whose time was given 

 up to that work and the 'Flora Australiensis'; the 'Botanical 

 Magazine' was conducted by the Director, and Oliver began the 

 'Mora of Tropical Africa.' Many smaller works absorbed the 

 energies of the stafl:', such as the Botany of the Speke and Grant 

 Expedition, which filled the 29th volume of the Linnean Society's 

 Transai-tions, in 3 parts, issued in 1872-5, and numerous shorter 

 papers, all testifying to the high pressure under which work was 

 done in the great establishment of Ke^v. 



Mr. James Britten, who knew Oliver well, and had exceptional 

 opportunities of knowing the private and unofficial side of his 

 chief, in a recent number of the 'Journal of Botany,' iv. (1917) p. 91, 

 refers to Oliver as a lecturer, at the early hour already mentioned: — 

 " I do not think he was an ideal lecturer: his manner v.'as somewhat 

 jerky and abrupt, and was not such as to encourage questioners — 

 indeed, I do not remember that such a one ever presented him- 

 self." . . . "Daniel Hanbury came in connection with his 

 important researches into the history of drugs, which took ultimate 



