BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
———_—— 
BROWN AND HUMBOLDT. 
Bryonp the immediate pale of science, and the circle of 
its most devoted cultivators, the association of the names of 
Humboldt and Brown may seem new and strange ; — the one 
a name familiar to the whole civilized world; the other, 
hardly known to a large portion of his educated countrymen. 
Yet these names stand together, in the highest place, upon 
the rolls of almost every Academy of Science in the world ; 
and the common judgment of those competent to pronounce it 
will undoubtedly be, that although these vacant places upon 
these honorable rolls may be occupied, they will not be filled, 
in this, perhaps not in several generations. 
Upon the death of Robert Brown, which occurred on the 
10th of June last, in his eighty-fifth year, it was remarked 
that, next to Humboldt, his name adorned the list of a greater 
number of scientific societies than that of any other naturalist 
or philosopher. It was Humboldt himself who, many years 
ago, saluted Brown with the appellation of “ Botanicarum 
facile Princeps ” ; and the universal consent of botanists re- 
cognized and confirmed the title. However the meed of merit 
in science should be divided between the most profound, and 
the most active and prolific minds, — between those who di- 
vine and those who elaborate, —it will probably be conceded 
by all that no one since Linnzus has brought such rare saga- 
city to bear upon the structure, and especially upon the ordi- 
nal characters and natural affinities of plants, as did Robert 
1 Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Science, iv. 229. 
(1859.) 
