Clvili FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



for Berkshire. It is said that he was the first to point out that Lastrea 

 rigida {Dryopteris rigicla) was a British plant ^. 

 Professor George Williams, Professor of Botany in the University of Oxford, 

 iLLiAMS. ^^g born at Cathcrington in Hampshire, and matriculated at Corpus 

 Christi College, Oxford, in 1777, at the age of fifteen. He took his B.A. 

 degree in 1781, his M.A. degree in 1785, and his M.B. and M.D. degrees 

 in 1788, and was elected Probationer Fellow of his College in 1788. 

 In 1796 he was appointed Shei-ardian Professor of Botany on the 

 death of the eminent botanist, John Sibthorp. He became physician 

 to the Radcliffe Infirmary and Radcliffe Librarian in 1799. He was 

 long a leading Fellow of his College, of which he was Vice-President 

 in 1832, 



Professor "Williams, though not an active botanist like his distin- 

 guished predecessor, and though he took no prominent part in teaching 

 botany, yet possessed some knowledge of British plants, and made 

 several notes respecting them in a copy of the Botanist's Guide now in 

 the Library of the Botanic Garden. Some of these notes were pub- 

 lished in Burton's Midland Flora, and one or two in English Botany ; two 

 of them concerned plants that were additions to the flora of Berkshire, 

 namely Daphne Mezereum (probably not a native in the locality given by 

 the Professor) and Orobanche Trifolii-pratensis. A specimen, gathered 

 probably by himself and labelled Viola ladea, from Otmoor in Oxford- 

 shire, is V. persicaefolia. His copy of Smith's Compendium, with MS. 

 notes of localities of British plants, is in the possession of the author. 

 These notes were made before 1819. See also the Gentleman's ilagazine 

 for March, 1834. 

 Sir J. E, Sir James Edward Smith was born at Norwich on Dec. 2, 1759, the 



Smith. eldest of seven children. His father, a Unitarian, was a respectable 

 dealer in the woollen trade ; he was a man of considerable intellectual 

 power and cultivated mind, and also a good French scholai-. The son 

 James was educated at home under the best masters to be found in 

 Norwich, and early acquired a knowledge of Latin, French, and 

 Italian. In his eighteenth year he began the study of botany as a 

 science. The first book which he could procure vv^as Berkenhout's 

 Outlines of Natural History, the author of which work died at Besilsleigh. 

 ' From this book,' says James Smith, • I first comprehended the nature 

 of systematic arrangement and the Linnaean principles, little aware 

 that at that instant the world was losing the great genius who was to 

 be my future guide, for Linnaeus died on the night of January 11, 

 1778.' Having made up his mind to study for the medical profession, 

 James Smith set out on the journey to Edinburgh on Oct. 14, 1781, 

 and there studied botany under Dr. Hope. Several letters from him 



^ See also the Flora of Warwickshire, p. 495 ; the Rev. F. L. Colvile's 

 Worthies of Warwickshire ; and the Journal of Botany for 1888, p. 147. 



