MEMOIR OF THE 

 REV. CHARLES ALEXANDER JOHNS 



When, in 1900, I had completed my first revision of Johns 

 " Flowers of the Field " for its twenty-ninth re-issue, I had a kindly 

 appreciative letter from the veteran chief of British botanists, Sir 

 Joseph Hooker. In this he writes : " When you shall have to 

 prepare a still other Edition I venture to suggest that a few lines 

 of Preface as to who Johns was ; and an outline of the successive 

 enlargements of his work would be very interesting." The time 

 has now arrived when this suggestion can be adopted, though the 

 story to be told is but a simple tale of long-continued literary 

 industry prompted by an enthusiastic love of Nature and a zeal 

 for education 



Charles Alexander Johns was a Cornishman by descent, al- 

 though he happened to be born in Plymouth. He was the 

 grandson of Tremenheere Johns, a solicitor of Helston, his father 

 being Henry Incledon Johns, and he was born on the last day of 

 the year 181 1. 



In 1832 Henry Incledon Johns published by subscription a 

 little volume entitled " Poems addressed by a Father to his Chil- 

 dren, with Extracts from the Diary of a Pedestrian and a Memoir 

 of the Author." From this it appears that the father of the author of 

 "Flowers of the Field "was fondof long solitary rambles, of drawing, 

 of poetry and of flowers. He was, however, placed as junior clerk in 

 a bank at Devonport, then Plymouth Dock ; and, after many years, 

 became co-partner in the concern. In 1825, however, the bank 

 failed, and Henry Johns was compelled to fall back on his early 

 artistic attainments and become a drawing-master. On the title- 

 page of his " Poems " he is described as Professor of Drawing to the 

 Plymouth New Grammar School, and he tells how, as his own 

 health failed, he was assisted in his teaching by his daughter. 

 The excellence of Miss Johns' illustrations have undoubtedly 

 contributed largely to the success of her brother Charles's chief 

 work. Henry Johns had married in 1803 ; and, though there is 



