‘51 
II. Pinus Pinaster, Renkiri. 
This is the same as covers the whole of the Ida range 
and furnishes fine timber. 
IV. Cupressus horizontalis,; Kuzhiri, Dardanelles. 
These letters show that he was keenly interested in matters of 
Economic Botany and also the extent to which he had been able 
to devote his leisure moments to the study of the Syrian flora during 
his Service in the Crimean campaign. He was appointed assistant 
physician at the hospital at Renkioi in the Dardanelles and 
found time for excursions into the interior of Anatolia. Writing 
to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer on October 14, 1915, it is of 
interest to quote the final paragraph of his letter with reference 
to the Dardanelles campaign. ‘‘ What a muddle we are making— 
I was over a year on the Dardanelles some 60 years ago and 
knew we could do nothing there but lose men.” 
t was on his return from the Crimea that the chance came to 
“him to accompany Livingstone on his Zambesi Expedition and 
led to his becoming one of the most famous and distinguished 
Colonial servants that the British Empire has known. The 
story is—and we believe it to be true—that on the day after his 
return from the Crimea he met Prof. John Hutton Balfour in 
Queen Street, Edinburgh, who offered him the appointment of 
Naturalist to Livingstone’s second Expedition. Kirk with that 
eagerness and impetuosity which was so characteristic of him 
replied ‘ start to-morrow,’! Whether Prof. Balfour’s invitation 
was due to the instance of Sir William Hooker or more probably 
Report for the year 1857 (p. 4) that “ Dr. Kirk, about to start 
with Dr. Livingstone as Naturalist, studied in the Botanical 
Library and Herbarium for a length of time in preparation for 
foreign travel.’’ The Expedition left England in March 1858 and 
for five eventful years Kirk was Chief Officer—the second in 
command having resigned at the outset—and the “tried and 
valued associate ” of Livingstone. The Expedition went by way 
of Sierra Leone and the Cape and the following letter from Kirk 
was written to Sir Joseph Hooker on April 30th, 1858 in Simon’s 
Bay on board the 8.8. “ Pearl.” 
‘My dear Dr. Hooker, 
You will be glad to hear of the safe arrival of Dr. Living- 
stone and party at this port. We have made a good passage but 
in a small ship such as this we have of course had a good shaking. 
At Sierra Leone we remained for six days and I made a small 
collection of plants and of other specimens, such of these as I have 
been able to preserve under the disadvantageous circumstances 
I send off from here. The only Zoological specimens worth 
anything are the two bottles of jumping fish, I caught them a good 
way up the river, running about out of the water on the mud. 
A2 
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