132 



HENRY BOSWELL. 



Mr. Elliot says he "found this genus in a very unsatisfactory 

 state of confusion." I do not myself see that " confusion " can be 

 otherwise than " unsatisfactory " ; but I think those who work at the 

 genus, or who read the above comments upon his "revision," will 

 agree with me that Mr. Elliot has done little to extricate Pentas 

 from its undesirable condition. Eather has he added with no 

 sparing hand new elements of chaos, some few of which I have 

 here tried to reduce. 



The responsibility for publishing the paper, however, rests with 

 the Council of the Linnean Society. The publications of this, as of 

 all learned bodies, are necessarily unequal in value; but it is always 

 supposed that a certain standard of excellence is demanded, higher, 

 at any rate, than that which would be exacted by the editor of a 

 scientific periodical. Yet it is not easy to believe that a "revision" 

 marked by the defects which I have mentioned in my opening 

 sentence would have been passed for publication in any botanical 

 journal ; and it is astonishing — a stronger word might be applied 

 with perfect accuracy — that such a paper as this should find a place 

 among the publications of a body of the standing of the Linnean 

 Society. 



HENRY BOSWELL. 



The death of Mr. Henry Boswell, at Oxford, on February 4th, 

 deprived us of one of our most competent bryologists. He was 

 born at Oxford, of an old city family : the date of his birth, accord- 

 ing to information obtained from his sister, being Jan. 27th, 1837. 

 He was very precocious, and at the age of two was able to read. 

 From his boyish days he was fond of flowers. At the age of 

 twenty-five he succeeded, on the death of his father, to the old- 

 established business of portmanteau-maker in the Corn Market, 

 which he carried on till the end of 1895. His chief botanical 

 field-work was done in the fifties, at which time he became well 

 acquainted with the botany of the district. 



The first published note by him with which I am acquainted is 

 one on "Additions to the Flora Oxoniensis," which appeared on 

 pp. 99-101 of the Phytologist for 1860, in which several plants 

 additional to the counties of Oxfordshire and Berkshire are men- 

 tioned ; also an excellent paper on "Oxfordshire Mosses " appeared 

 in the same volume, in which about 120 species are enumerated ; 

 additions to this are given in vol. v. of the same Journal. 



Boswell contributed many valuable papers to the Journal 

 of Botany; the first of these appeared in 1872, entitled "The 

 Mosses of Oxfordshire and the Neighbourhood of Oxford." His 

 contributions were mainly restricted to information regarding 

 British Mosses, but in 1887 he contributed an interesting list of 191 

 species of Jamaica Mosses and Hepatica?, thirty-eight being new to 

 the island, and one, Scapania r/randis, before unknown. In 1892, on 

 p. 97, he contributed a valuable paper on " New Exotic Mosses," 

 in which eight new species are described. In 1890 he wrote a 



