Ixxviii CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. 



But the special work of Professor Babington has been the study of 

 the EuM. For more than fifty years his earnest attention was given 

 to the plants, and by his patient plodding and careful investigation, 

 the chaotic state in which he found Eubi in the earlier days has 

 been transformed into the more systematic arrangement of recent 

 times. 



The first work specially devoted to the study of the Bubi, "A 

 Synopsis of British Rubi," was published by Professor Babington in 

 The Annals of Natural History (1846). This was afterwards issued 

 as a separate work, and was the first complete and systematic 

 account of the British Eubi that had at that time been given, but 

 both the nomenclature and arrangement were merely tentative, and 

 were modified as knowledge grew from more to more. In this 

 essay descriptions are given of thirty species and thirty varieties, 

 together with valuable notes and comments following the description 

 of each. In a condensed form, but with one or two additional 

 species, this was afterwards given in the second edition of The 

 Manual (1847). The influence of this work "The Synopsis" is 

 shewn in the fact that, in the third edition of The Manual (1851) 

 forty species and thirty varieties are described, but there is very 

 little alteration in the systematic arrangement, Eubus Leesii, E. 

 hystrix, E. pallidus, E. scaber, E. pyramidalis, being amongst the 

 additions to his former list. In the fifth edition of The Manual 

 (1862), forty -three species and nineteen varieties are enumerated 

 and described, some of the varieties of former editions being raised 

 to specific rank. The arrangement of the plants gives evidence of 

 careful thought and study ; this was much modified, and was that 

 which has since been adhered to in all his later editions of The 

 Manual : E. Colemanni, E. Bloxamii, E. rosaceus, E. jjyg'nia^us, E. 

 diversifolius, E. foliosus, being now described as species, whilst E. 

 calvatus became a variety of E. Salteri. 



In 1869 Professor Babington's great work. The British Eubi, an 

 attempt to discriminate the species of Eubi known to inhabit the British 

 Isles, was published. The value of this work can scarcely be 

 estimated. If it had been published in the form originally intended, 

 i.e. with plates illustrating each species, it would have been a grand 

 work, but I think scarcely so useful as in its present form ; its cost 

 would have placed it far above the reach of the ordinary student, 

 so that only the few more wealthy ones could have availed them- 

 selves of its help. This was the first work published in Britain in 

 which an elaborate account was given of these plants, and for the 

 first time the British student of the Eubi had a guide, helpful and 

 trustworthy. In The British Eubi, forty-three species and twenty 

 varieties are described with a fulness not before attempted, so that 

 all the minuter details, of habit, clothing, leaf form, and margination 

 are given ; but that which adds so materially to the value of this 

 work, is the commentary which follows each description, shewing 

 the fulness of knowledge and vast experience of the author, and 



