73 



HENEY GEOVES. 



(1855-1912.) 



(with portrait.) 



At Mr. Britten's request I have undertaken to write a short 

 memoir of my late brother, feeling that I am in a better position 

 to do so than anyone else could be, having been associated with 

 him in all his botanical work ; but for that very reason, coupled 

 with our close relationship, it is impossible for me to write of him 

 as impartially as perhaps a biographer ought. 



My brother was born in London on October 15th, 1855. 

 Our father's family came from Gloucestershire, and our mother's 

 — her maiden name was Stewart — from Scotland. Early in 1863, 

 when my brother was seven years old, we removed to God aiming, 

 in Surrey, and for about six years he attended Godalming Grammar 

 School. 



The Principal of the school, Mr. Peter Churton, who is happily 

 still with us, though a good schoolmaster, had nothing of the 

 dominie about him, being both in and out of school a friend 

 rather than a master to his pupils. He was a good general 

 naturalist, and used to take those of the elder boys who showed 

 any interest in such things for frequent natural history rambles 

 over the beautiful and diversified Lower Greensand and Chalk 

 country with which Godalming is surrounded. He generously 

 provided presses and drying and mounting paper to those who 

 wished to preserve specimens of the plants collected, as well as 

 other natural history apparatus. On several occasions he took 

 my brother and one or two of the other boys away with him on 

 summer holidays, visiting Hayling Island, the Isle of Wight, 

 South Devon, and Cornwall. These excursions gave my brother 

 an opportunity of seeing a great many fresh plants, besides 

 widening his general outlook. He was, I think, Mr. Churton's 

 favourite pupil, and I attribute his rather exceptional powers of 

 observation, and his keen desire to get at the real meaning of any 

 fresh facts or phenomena which presented themselves, to his 

 early training in practical natural history ; and the development 

 of his character was, I feel sure, largely due to Mr. Churton's 

 example and teaching. 



In 1869 our father died, and our mother was left with three 

 children and very slender means. It was necessary for my 

 brother to begin to earn something, and when we had removed to 

 London, he went, at the age of fourteen, to the office of a stock- 

 broker friend of our parents, where he remained for about ten 

 years. 



In the very early seventies we made the acquaintance of the 

 family of the late John Edward Sowerby, the botanical draughts- 

 man, who possessed a number of botanical books. I remember 

 we used to borrow the English Botany (ed. 2) a volume at a time, 

 and make drawings and tracings of the plants which we did not 

 know. The Sowerbys also gave us several books, among them 

 Journal of Botany. — Vol. 51. [March, 1913.] g 



