95 



own journeys lio frequently employed collectors in tlie East, among 

 whom may be mentioned Adolf Pichler in Karpatlios, L5'cia and 

 Cyprus, the noted palaeontologist C, T. Forsyth Major in Kar- 

 l)athos, Samos, and other islands of the Aegean Sea, and Philipp 

 Taubert in the Cyrenaica. He also furthered ihe botanical 

 exploration of the Orient with financial assistance and opened the 

 pages of the '' Bulletin de THerbier Boissier " to papers on tlie 

 Oriental flora. A number of articles, mainly ]dant lists of certain 

 Aegean islands, published in the Bulletin were the result of the 

 joint work of Barbey and Major, whilst the fruits of Taubcrt's 

 expedition were incorporated in that tine work *' Florae Libycae 

 Prodromus/' which was begun by Barbey in co-operation with 

 Ascherson and finished by Dunnuf and Baratte, Avith Barbey still 

 acting as co-ed it or. 



In 1871 Barbey began a monograph of the genus Epilohiuin^ 

 for the illustration of which he secured the services of Ch. Cuisin. 

 The publication of the Avork was delayed from year to year until 

 Barbey, in 1884, saw himself forestalled by the a])pearance of 

 Hausskncclit's monograph. Fortunately 24 beautiful plates were 

 ready and, accompanied by a short diagnostic text, they were 

 issued as ^ separate volume in 1885. 



In. the same year Edmund Boissier died. It was only natural 

 that the mantle of the great phytographer should fall on Barbey, 

 but in wise recognition of his powers and abilities he preferred to 

 establish himself as the guarvlian of the legacy which Boissier had 

 left to the botanical world, and in this lie has earned tlie gratitudo 

 of the disciples of our science even more tlian by his botanical 

 publications. Under the will of Dr. Pierre Butini, Boissier's 

 father-in-law, the house containing Boissier's herbarium and 

 library became, after Boissier' s death, the property of the city of 

 Geneva. The question of finding a new home for the collections 

 became therefore urgent, and it was settled, almost at once, by 

 the acquisition of a convenient site and the erection of an adeqimt© 

 building not far from Boissier's old house at Chambesy. . Two 

 years later (1887) the new '^ Herbier Boissier ^^ was opened umler 

 the curatorship of E. Autran. Barbey continued to augment the 

 collections Avitli great liberality, and at the same time placed them 

 with equal generosity at the disposal of all botanists.^ No one who 

 has enjoyed the hospitality of the charming herbarium at Cham- 

 besy will ever forgot the debt of gratitude which he owes to the 

 memory of the two generous and public-spirited men who have 

 created and preserved this ref ugium of botanical science and set it 

 in a spot of such rare natural beauty- 



Barbey's zeal, however, did not stop there, for in 1893 he 

 founded the '' Bulletin de THerbier Boissier," which he carried 

 on at his own expense until December, 1908. It is unneces^ 

 vsary to dilate on the value of this publication, which was 

 open practically to the whole of the botanical world, and its cessa- 

 tion is a matter of great regret. Another venture of Barbey s, 

 conceived in liis usual endeavour to serve the general good, had au 

 even shorter life, namely, the publication of an '' Index botaincjue 

 universe!," a card catalogue of all the new species of vascular 

 plants of the Old World published after 1900. The fault was not 

 his; had the enterprise been supported in the spirit in which it was 



