34 MEMORIALS, ETC., OF C. C. BABINGTON. 



increase our knowledge and promote the study of British botany— 

 Borrer, Winch, George Johnston of Berwick (" one of the nicest men 

 I have yet met with among the naturalists "), Henslow, Edward 

 Forster,* John Ball— excursions in the days before railroads, when 

 travelling was done by coach or gig. Notes of the plants collected on 

 these expeditions are often given — sometimes in a form which causes 

 regret that the proofs were not submitted to a botanist for revision, 

 who would have suppressed certain temporary names which now 

 appear for the first time. Perhaps the most readable entries are 

 those recording Babington's visits to Ireland, in which his botanical, 

 archcTological, and topographical notes are combined with comments 

 on the work of that curiously futile body the Irish Church Missions, 

 in which, throughout his life, he took a keen and practical interest. 

 The notes on Iceland are also readable enough, but the proof-reader 

 should not have allowed a Professor of Botany to write in one 

 sentence — " mignionette and a small fuscAia." But it seems to us 

 impossible to suppose that such entries as " June 20. My aunt 

 Bedford went to Clevedon. I went by rail .... for a few days"; 

 or " Sept. 22. To London and Cambridge by railway," can be of 

 the faintest possible interest to any human being ; and the greater 

 part of the Journal, which occupies 258 pages, consists of entries 

 of this kind. The Journal, indeed, as we have hinted above, shows 

 a distinctly limited range of interest : we find nothing to show that 

 art or general literature had any special attraction for the writer, 

 and very little, if anything, bearing upon other topics of importance, 

 apart from those already mentioned. 



The "Botanical Correspondence" is the most interesting portion 

 of the book, though even here we find trivialities which a less par- 

 tial editor would have excluded. Babington was an excellent 

 correspondent ; many whose names have since become familiar 

 will recall with pleasure the kind and encouraging letters received 

 in reply to those which, not without some trembling hesitation, 

 they ventured to address to the author of the Manual. The letters 

 begin with one addressed to Dr. (afterwards Sir) W. J. Hooker, 

 dated Nov. 24, 1834 — a long and interesting one, like that which 

 follows it. Euphorbia Characias, Viola imherhis, Leontodon palustre 

 are the main subjects of the first letter; Erica Mackaijii, Crepis 

 tectorum "of our English authors," Polygonum Fiaii, of the second. 

 As is often the case, one gets a better idea of the man from his own 

 letters than from his biographers or eulogists. It is refreshing to 

 find him writing about a man who was supposed to have nearly 

 destroyed Trichomanes at Killarney : — "The TricJwmajies hsLS been 

 nearly extirpated by a rascal of a gardener. I wish I had him to 

 duck in the lake : I would keep him under till he was just not 

 dead, and then let him recover, and give him another dose"; and 

 it is delightful to find one of the methods traditionally ascribed 

 to the Inquisition commending itself to our Protestant Professor. 

 And how human is this (to Borrer) : — " Have you seen Hooker's 

 4th edition ? He has given Christy credit for conjoint work with 

 me. Nothing can be more incorrect. He was out with me on 

 three days during seven weeks, on two of which he was under my 



