320 MEMOIR OF 
by correspondence and his modesty was such 
that he seemed to shun making anything like a 
display of his abilities, and of the extent of his 
acquirements, and it was only incidentally that 
I discovered that he paid any attention to phno- 
gamous plants. Such was his acuteness however, 
and so completely had he mastered all the diffi- 
culties that attend the study of Cryptogamic 
plants, that it was easy to perceive the phenoga- 
mous tribes would have been comprehended by 
him with great facility. 
“Tt is however as a Muscologist that Mr. 
Hobson’s name will rank in the annals of Botany. 
I do not know any naturalist who searched for 
mosses more successfully than he has done, in 
their native stations ; nor one who discriminated 
them more accurately. 
“His publication of ‘ Specimens of British 
Mosses and Hepatice’ will be a lasting testi- 
mony to his correctness and deep research into 
their beautiful families; and in this country he 
has been the first to set the example of giving to 
the world volumes which are devoted to the 
illustration of entire genera of cryptogamic 
plants, by beautifully preserved specimens them- 
