2 AliAMSON and CraI'.TRKi:, 77/r Ih-rlnviiDii of Jolni Dalton 



catalogue. With the science in tliis conditiun, though we can at 

 once understand Dalton's early enthusiasm for plants, it is not to be 

 wondered at that so active and fertile a brain should turn in 

 its maturer period to more fundamental and constructive studies. 

 It was through his botanical studies tliat he discovered his colour 

 l:>lindness. In a letter he gives a vivid account as to colour sensations 

 wiien looking at a Cranesl)ill. 



Dalton continued his interest in botany for many years, and 

 through it made a number of friends who were distinguished as 

 botanists. Chief among these is Edward Robson, from whom he 

 received a very large number of the [)lants in the herbarium. Robson 

 was a draper by trade in Darlington. He was a critical systematic 

 botanist of considerable repute in his time, and though little of his 

 work was original, his name is well known in the contemporary 

 floras. He was a friend and correspondent of Withering, and supplied 

 him with many of the records for the north of England. He also 

 contributed notes and specimens to .Sowerby for the first edition of 

 "English Botany."' Robson was not only an enthusiastic collector, 

 but also a gardener. Dalton writing in 1798 to his brother,* 

 mentions having spent some hours in examining Robson "s " Hortus 

 Siccus"' and " Botanic Garden.' Many specimens in this collection 

 are derived from this garden. Dalton and Robson continued to 

 exchange plants for some considerable time, and some of these 

 j)lants sent by Dalton are recorded in Withering's " Arrangement 

 of British Plants," evidently sent through Robson. One of these, 

 Couvolvuhis soldanella, from Walney Island, is definitely attributed 

 to Dalton (Withering, Ed. 3., vol. ii., p. 240, 1796). Another, 

 Thalictrum majiis (i.e., p. 502), though attributed to Robson refers, as 

 we know from a letter, to plants collected by Dalton. 



During his tour in 1797, Dalton refers more than once in his 

 letters to botanical excursions and to botanists. Thus we know 

 that he went to call on Withering, whom, on this occasion, however, 

 he did not see. Also, when in London he visited Curtis, 

 author of the " Flora Londifiiensis," and famous especially in con- 

 nection with the "Botanical Magazine." Among numerous other 

 botanical contributors only one other calls for mention : this is Dr. Hull, 

 a native of Manchester, who published in 1799 a "British Flora," 

 at that lime, apart from Witherings work which extended to four 

 volumes, the only flora written in l'2nglish : certainly the first in a 

 small size. 



The herbarium itself would seem to have been started originally 

 with a view to its becoming part of the museum of Mr. 

 Crosthwaite, in Kendal, if we may judge from the following extract 



* I'lic original letlcis in tlie Soiiuly's possfssioii are tliosc rcUried to. 



