XX CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. 



To the British islands and colonies they sped forth, to the United 

 States, to Germany and Austria, Holland and Belgium, Denmark, 

 Norway and Sweden, France, Switzerland, Italy, Venezuela — 

 even to Japan. In 1894 the " Acad^mie Internationale de 

 Geographic Botanique" awarded him its gold medal. More than 

 the homage to his mind was the posy on the reverse : Laus et 

 gloria Scientiarum Domino. 



Among his titles — which, by the rule noblesse oblige, were to 

 him new burdens — I may name F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., F.S.A,, 

 Hon. Member of the Botanical Society of the Province of 

 Brandenburg, Foreign Member of the Royal Botanical Society 

 of Belgium, Corresponding Member of the Botanical Society of 

 Holland, Member of the British Archaeological Association, of 

 the Royal Archaeological Institute, of the Irish Archaeological 

 Society. The Botanical Society of Edinburgh ^^ elected him a 

 member at their second meeting. Till about 18S9 he was 

 Chairman of Committee of the Cambrian Archaeological Asso- 

 ciation. More than once or twice he was called on at a pinch, 

 in default of the advertised speaker, to describe a church which 

 he had never seen. He would crave a respite of some twenty 

 minutes ; even that hasty survey furnished stuff for a pregnant 

 discourse : the truant lecturer, bustling up at the close, has 

 been known to wish the company joy on their choice of a 

 makeshift, and himself on masking his ignorance. 



Babington belonged to the inner circle of the British Asso- 

 ciation ;i=^ first the 'Red Lion Club,'i* then the 'Thorough.' I 

 well remember his glee over Samuel Wilberforce's discomfiture 

 by young Huxley.^^ In creed, doubtless, he held rather by the 

 Bishop than by his rival, but he distrusted and hated clap-trap 

 in the room of argument and fact. In later life he lamented 

 the freak of fashion, banning Huxley's Physiology as outworn. 



To cite all records of his friendly aid to fellow-labourers 

 would drive me to rambles far and wide in a terra incognita. 

 Take a sample. In the preface (p. vii) to Memorials of John 

 Ray (Ray Society 1846) Dr Edwin Lankester writes : 



For the identification of Ray's plants in the * Itineraries,' for the botanical 

 notes, and the Catalogue of Ray's Works, I am indebted to Mr Babington of 

 Cambridge. 



