Clxii FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



Mai-ch 17, 1828. He was buried at Lowestoft. There is a bust of him 

 by Chantrey in the rooms of the Linnean Society, and an engraving 

 by Pastorini. The genus Stnithia was named after him by Aiton, and 

 several British plants bear his name. His herbarium and his corre- 

 spondence in nineteen volumes are among the treasures of the Linnean 

 Society, which also became possessors, by purchase, of the library and 

 herbarium, &c. of Linnaeus. His widow lived to be 103 years old, 

 surviving him nearly fifty years. Sir James' herbarium contains 

 a few plants fi-om Berkshire which have priority as regards discovery, 

 namely, Habenaria chloroletica, H. hifolia, Listera ovata, Potamogeton lucens, 

 P. perfoliatum, and P. densiim. It has also Dr. Beeke's specimens of species 

 of Trifolium, T. prociimheyxs, T. minus, and T. filiforme, and Mr. Bicheno's 

 of the genus Rubus. 

 Baxter. William Baxter was born at Rugby on January 15, 1787, and was 



appointed Curator of the Botanic Garden, Oxford, in 1813. ' At this 

 time,' says a writer in the Gardeners' Chronicle for Nov. 4, 187 1, * Botany 

 in Oxford had sunk to its lowest level ; Sherard, Dillenius, and 

 Sibthorp belonged to the past. Dr. Williams, who was Professor of 

 Botany, although an elegant scholar, added nothing to botanical 

 science, and for practical instruction in botany the students at Oxford 

 had recourse to the teaching of Mr. Baxter.' In 18 17 Mr. Baxter was 

 made an Associate of the Linnean Society, and in 1825 he issued his 

 Stirpes Cnjptogamae Oxonienses, a work which contains some Berkshire 

 plants. He also made a collection of flowering plants, mosses, and 

 epiphyllous fungi, when the study of the latter plants was limited to 

 a very small number of botanists. In 1831 he visited Rugby with his 

 son, the late Mr. W. H. Baxter, for the purpose of ascertaining what 

 plants grew in that neighbourhood, having it in contemplation to 

 publish a Flora of the district ; but this design he never carried into 

 effect, and the manuscript notes for this undertaking, which came 

 into the present writer's possession through the kindness of his 

 grandson, the present Mr. Baxter, have been given to Mr. Bagnall. 

 the author of the Waricickshire Flora, who will incorporate them in the 

 next edition of that work. About 400 plants are enumerated in Mr. 

 Baxter's Rugby list. In a subsequent publication, his British Phaeno- 

 gamous Botany, Mr. Baxter writes : * How often is a little simple flower 

 the source of most delightful and pleasing recollections ! Hill Morton 

 is the birthplace of my mother, and the circumstance of merely 

 recording the name of this humble plant [Peplis Portula\ after having 

 seen it in such abundance there, seems to lead me back to the happy 

 days of my childhood, many of which were spent amongst my relations 

 and friends in that pleasant village.' In 1832 a Natural History 

 Society was founded at Oxford, and Mr. Baxter took a prominent part 

 in its work. In 1834 he commenced the publication of his British 



