GEORGE BENTHAM. 537 



It has been stated that Mr. Bentham was over sixty years old 

 when he undertook the Flora Aiistndiensis, and he was seventy-seven 

 when he brought this vast work to completion, assisted only in notes 

 and preliminary studies by Baron von Midler of Melbourne. About 

 the same time he courageously undertook the still greater task of a 

 new Genera Plantarum, to be worked out, not, like that of Endlicher, 

 mainly by the compilation of published characters into a common 

 formula, but by an actual examination of the extant materials, 

 primarily those of the Kevv herbaria, — this work, however, in con- 

 junction with his intimate associate, Sir Joseph Hooker. This work 

 is the only "joint production " in which Mr. Bentham ever engaged. 

 The relations and position of the two authors made the association 

 every way satisfactory, and the magnitude of the task made it neces- 

 sary. The training and the experience of the two associates were 

 very different and in some ways complemental, one having the greatest 

 herbarium knowledge of any living botanist, the other being the widest 

 and keenest observer of vegetable life under " whatever climes the 

 sun's bright circle warms," as well as of Antarctic regions, which it 

 warms very little. It would be expected, on the principle "juniores 

 ad labores," that the laboring oar would be taken by the younger of 

 the pair. It was long and severe work for both ; but the vetei-an 

 was happily quite free from, and his companion heavily Aveighted 

 by, onerous official duties and cares; and so it came to pass that about 

 two thirds of the orders and genera were elaborated by Mr. Bentham. 

 In April, 1883, the completion of the work (i. e. of the genera of 

 Phaniogamous plants, to which it was limited) closed this long and 

 exemplary botanical career ; and the short account which he gave 

 to the Linnean Society on the 19th of that mouth, specifying the 

 conduct of the work and the part of the respective authors, was his 

 last publication. 



In this connection, mention should also be made of the essays (which 

 be simply calls " Notes ") upon some of the more important orders 

 which he investigated for the Genera Plantarum, — the Composite, 

 the Campanulaceous and the Oleaceous orders, the Monocotyledoneue 

 as to classification, the Euphorbiacea;, the Orchis family, the Cype- 

 racese, and the Gramineae. These are not mere abstracts, issued in 

 advance, but critical dissertations, with occasional discussions of some 

 general or particular question of terminology or morphology. When 

 collected, they form a stout volume, which, along with the volume 

 made up of his anniversary addresses when President of the Linnean 

 Society, and the paper on the progress and state of systematic botany. 



