BENJAMIN D. GREENE. 311 
desiderata he endeavored, so far as he could,to supply. He 
gathered a choice botanical library, he encouraged explora- 
tions, and he subscribed to all the large purchasable North 
American collections, — beginning with those of Drummond 
in the southern United States and in the then Mexican province 
of Texas. These being distributed under numbers, among the 
principal herbaria of the world, and named or referred to in 
monographs or other botanical works, were of prime impor- 
tance as standards of comparison. Such collections and such 
books as Mr. Greene brought together were just the appara- 
tus most needed at that time in this country ; and now when 
our wants are somewhat better supplied, we should not forget 
the essential service which they have rendered, nor the disin- 
terested kindness with which their most amiable and excellent 
owner always placed them at the disposal of those who could 
advantageously use them. Mr. Greene’s botanical library 
and collections have been, by gift and bequest, consigned to 
the Boston Society of Natural History, of which he was one of 
the founders and the first president, and by which they will be 
preserved for the benefit of future New England botanists, by 
whom his memory should ever be gratefully cherished. The 
genus Greenea, established by Wight and Arnott upon two 
rare Rubiaceous shrubs of India, barely anticipated a similar 
dedication by his old friend Mr. Nuttall, of a curious Grass of 
Arkansas and Texas, and will perpetuate his name in the 
annals of the science which he lovingly cultivated. 
