The South Australian Naturalist. 41 



asked him Avhat I had seen; but he answered me, 'That is my 

 little secret.' He was capable of the most generous actions. 

 \Yhen old, much out of health, and quite unfit for any exertion, 

 he daily visited (so Hooker told me) an old man-servant, who 

 lived at a distance (and whom he supported), and read aloud 

 to him. This is enough to make up for any degree of scientific 

 penuriousness or jealousy." 



Brown died in 1858, and was buried in Kensal Green Ceme- 

 tery, London. He had lived a lonely life, uncheered "by the 

 happy fireside clime of weans or wife," but he had won the 

 admiration and homage of learned societies in all parts of the 

 world. During his lifetime they had loaded him with honours. 

 He was made an F.R.S. in 1811, a D.C.L. had come from Oxford, 

 France had made him a foreign Associate of the Institute of 

 France ; the rare distinction, for a foreigner, the Prussian order 

 "Pour le Merite," was conferred; he was granted by the 

 British Government an annual pension of £200 ; and there were 

 other marks of distinction. At his death eminent scientists 

 recounted in many languages his intellectual triumphs. He 

 had bequeathed to the world more than many emperors and 

 statesmen, and more than he had left had died with him from 

 his extreme diffidence to publish his discoveries. To South Aus- 

 tralians his memory should be especially precious : in the pris- 

 tine vigour of his early manhood he had stood on the deck of 

 the ship whose keel had been the first to ruffle the waters bath- 

 ing our shores, and his had been the first eyes to read the 

 volume of our Botany. 



Authorities. — The succinct account of Brown contained in 

 "An Introduction to South Australian Orchids," by Dr. R. S. 

 Rogers, M.A. — a book that should be in the library of every 

 field naturalist — is a model of condensed biography. J. H. 

 Maiden, F.R.S., the clever and painstaking Sydney botanist, in 

 his book, "Sir Joseph Banks,'" has portrayed Brown and other 

 Avorthies whom all good Australians should honour. The ac- 

 count of Brown in "The Dictionary of National Biography" is 

 authoritative and valuable. 



