Ixviii CHARLES CARD ALE BABINGTOJ^. 



On Oct. 11th, 1826, Babington took up his residence at St. 

 John's College, Cambridge. In the following year, he notes under 

 April 30th, "Went to Prof. Henslow's first lecture on Botany," 

 and on May 2nd, " Conversed with hinii after the botanical lecture, 

 and was asked to his house. Assisted Prof. Henslow in putting 

 things in order before and after the lectures." In 1830 he took his 

 B.A. degree and became a Fellow of the Linnean Society, of which 

 at the time of his death he was the "father." In 1833 he went 

 into college, and was created M.A. 



It was in this year that his more definite botanical work began. 

 We have seen that during his school days he studied the plants of 

 Bath, and on visiting that city in July, 1831, he was requested by 

 Mr. E. CoUings "to look over a list of the Bath plants, and make 

 additions and corrections. I found the list so imperfect that it was 

 determined to endeavour to complete my own list of those which 

 I had observed. I worked hard all the summer, and finished the 

 manuscript on the 15th October, having had the loan of Dr. H. 

 Gibbes's Flora Bathon. and assistance from Mr. E. Simms and Dr. 

 J. F. Davis." 



The Flora Bathoniensis was published at the beginning of 1834; 

 it contains a few critical notes and references to continental floras, 

 which indicate the lines of the author's future work, and adds 

 Euphorbia pilosa (called epithymoides) to the British Flora. 



In 1836 (at its second meeting) Babington became a Fellow of 

 the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. In 1837 (at the beginning of 

 which he " was taken with the prevalent influenza") he made his first 

 visit to the Channel Islands, in company with R. M. Lingwood, with 

 whom and John Ball, another Cambridge friend, he had visited 

 Ireland in 1835.* He returned in 1838, and the results of his 

 observations are embodied in his Frimitiae Florae Sarnicae, published 

 in 1839. A much more important work, however, was already in 

 progress. In his diary for 1835 is the entry: "May 11. Com- 

 menced my Manual of British Botany" and with this his time was 

 largely occupied until 1843, when the last proof of the book ("which 

 has kept me most fully occupied all the winter ") was corrected ; the 

 preface is dated May 1st, 1843. Of this work it is not too much to 

 say that it revolutionized the study of British plants, and gave an 

 impetus to thought and work among British botanists to a degree 

 unequalled by any publication of the century. To say this is by no 

 means to ignore the excellence of Smith's English Flora (1828), or 

 to depreciate other books then existing, such as the seventh edition 

 of Withering's Arrangement (1830). But the bulk of these, aug- 

 mented as it was in the latter case by the addition of a vast quantity 

 of extraneous though not uninteresting matter, rendered them 

 cumbrous for field work; and although the useful Compendium of 



* Babington's accoxint of this visit will be found in Maff. Nat. Sist. ix. 

 119—130 (1836). 



