32 THE JOUEXAL OF BOTANY 



weather of 1805-6 is strengthened by the circumstance that when 

 Buchanan, who was at this time on furlough in England, returned to 

 India early in 1807, he brought with him a nomination from the 

 Court of Directors as successor to Roxburgh when the latter should 

 retire. 



That the name John Roxburgh should be absent from Mr. N. 

 Bonham-Carter's "family-table" printed by Sir George King, is due 

 to the fact that he was not the son of one of the three ladies whom 

 Dr. William Roxburgh married. More difficult at first sight is 

 the task of reconciling Mr. Bonham-Cai-ter's "family-table" with the 

 known facts in the history of William Roxburgh, junior. This 

 William was the active coadjutor of his father during the height of 

 Dr. William Roxburgh's career. Yet Mr. Bonham- Carter's chart 

 shows that the only William, junior, of whose existence his family 

 was aware, was the j^oungest son of Dr. Roxburgh by his third wife. 

 Sir George King, fully realising the difficulty, has suggested that 

 the name attributed by the Bonham- Carter family to Roxburgh's 

 youngest son may be erroneous. 



To the courtesy of the late Mr. Frederick Henry Norman, also a 

 descendant of Dr. Roxburgh and his first wife, the writer is indebted 

 for another family-table which agrees with that ])rinted by Sir George 

 King save in two particulars. It queries, as Sir George King had 

 independently queried, the accuracy of the name William as applied 

 to one of Roxburgh's sons by his third marriage ; it states that, by 

 his first wife, Roxburgh had a son William, brother-uterine of Mary 

 Roxburgh, from whom both the Norman and the Bonham- Carter 

 families are descended. This son, Avho is shown in this table as 

 senior to his sister Mary, died young. The Writer is further indebted 

 to the courtesy of Miss Mary Ann Tucker, granddaughter of 

 Dr. Roxburgh and his third wife, for yet another family-table, 

 which agrees substantialh" with that of Mr. Bonham-Carter and 

 shows that one of her uncles, brother-uterine of her mother, really 

 was named William Roxburgh. 



The difficulty then is purely imaginary. There were two William 

 Roxburghs, junior; the eldest and the youngest of Dr. Roxburgh's 

 laAvful cliildren were named after their father. The statement in the 

 Norman " family-table " that the first " William Roxburgh, junior " 

 died young, is coiTect in the sense that this William Roxburgh, 

 junior, had died before the second William Roxburgh, junior, was 

 baptised. But the first "William, junior," whose name recui*s so 

 frequently in his father's published works, lived sufficiently Ions; 

 to become his father's Assistant and to accomplish much notable 

 botanical exploration. His claims to recognition, and to an 

 honourable place in the Biograpliical Index of British ami Irish 

 Botanists, are by no means confined to his association with the 

 name Fhmingia prostrata Roxb. f. 



The nomination of Buchanan as Roxburgh's successor in 1806 is 

 not the only circumstance which points to this as the year in which 

 William Roxburgh died. About the same time the residence of John 



