366 JOHN BALL, F.R.S. 



account in the ninth volume of ' Loudon's Magazine.' In this he 

 refers to J. Ball, of Christ's College, as a geologist. 



I find amongst Sir W. Hooker's correspondence a letter (pro- 

 bably about ISll) written on the point of a journey on the 

 continent, in which he says : — " I intend studying in their native 

 places the foreign species of Hieracium, a genus to which I have a 

 good deal attended. I should much wish, if not too difficult a task, 

 to do something for that troublesome genus." 



In 1843 Ball was called to the Bar, but, like Bentham, never 

 practised. In 1846 he was appointed Assistant Poor Law Com- 

 missioner. After severe work in Muuster and Leinster he resigned 

 from ill health in 1847, and went abroad. In 1849 he was again 

 appointed, this time as Second Commissioner. It was during the 

 famine that he formed what was to be a life-long friendship with 

 the late Mr. W. E. Forster. In 1852 he resigned, and was elected 

 as Liberal member for Carlow. 



In 1855 he accepted office under Lord Palmerston as Under- 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies. He held office but for two 

 years ; but in after life he claimed, and with justice, that he had 

 effected something in the meantime for scientific interests. A 

 Colonial Minister can do much for the numerous botanical establish- 

 ments scattered over the empire, and I find plenty of evidence that 

 Ball did not leave their claims uncared for. He seems to have 

 warmly supported Sir John Bowring in establishing the fine 

 Botanic Garden at Hongkong. In 1856 the Government sanc- 

 tioned a scheme for the preparation of a series of Floras or 

 descriptions in the EngHsh language of the indigenous plants of 

 British Colonies and Possessions. I have always understood, from 

 what fell from him, that Ball had a chief hand in effecting this. 

 To him also was due the despatch of Capt. Palliser's expedition to 

 British North America, which first brought Sir James Hector to 

 the front, and to which Ball succeeded in getting Bourgeau attached 

 as botanist. I believe I am right in stating that a remote result of 

 this expedition is the present Pacific Railway. 



In the general election for 1858 Ball contested the city of 

 Limerick ; but he met with the fate which has not seldom befallen 

 Irish Liberal politicians whose views have developed less rapidly 

 than those of their party. He was defeated, and at once retired 

 from pubhc life. That he felt the disappointment keenly I have 

 no doubt ; but he never gave expression to this in a touch of 

 bitterness, or ever referred to his electoral experiences, except for 

 the sake of some good-humoured story. He cheerfully accepted his 

 fate, and botanical and geographical science gained perhaps in the 

 long run more than the political world lost. In 1856 Ball joined 

 the Linnean, and in 1868 he was elected to the Boyal, Society. 



In a lecture delivered to the Royal Geographical Society in 

 1879, Ball remarks: — "A passion for mountain-scenery led me 

 from my youth onwards to pass much of my time in the Alps, and 

 to visit other mountain districts, such as the Carpathians, the 

 Pyrenees, and the mountains of Southern Spain, to say nothing of 

 the hills of our own islands." From a very early period he must 



