Nov. 1895.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 4:67 



prevailed are now entirely superseded, the chief interest of 

 this paper will be in tracing how a skilful investigator 

 attacked a difficult question with imperfect instruments, 

 and arrived at a sound conclusion. 



But it would be more than could be compressed into an 

 address like this to remark on tlie many points of interest 

 in Brown's works. I cannot do more than merely mention 

 his masterly treatment of some most difficult families : the 

 morphology of the flower of Orchidacere and Asclepiadacece, 

 and their mode of fecundation occupied his attention, perhaps 

 the attraction was the very difficulty which attended their 

 study ; while his treatise on that newly discovered wonder 

 Rafflesia, in which he grouped together that extraordinarily 

 aberrant form with Hydnora, Brugmansia, Cytinus, etc., 

 and his constitution of the natural family Eaffiesiacea:', will 

 always remain as one of his most notable works. 



Enough will now have been said to revive your interest 

 in this most e.xtraordinary man. And while we feel a 

 peculiar satisfaction in noting that he was a Scotchman by 

 birth and education, and that his work commanded the 

 respect and admiration of foreign as well as British 

 Botanists, we may for our own advantage draw the moral : 

 we mark as special features of his work his clear and 

 concise style ; his reticence, which prevented him from 

 rash hypothesis, so subject to later demolition : lastly, his 

 transparent honesty, which led him at times to indicate to 

 the reader where the weak point or deficient observation 

 lay. If only those who now write on kindred subjects, 

 with perhaps a mere fraction of Eobert Brown's ability, 

 would follow him in these characteristics, how much fewer 

 would be the obstacles which writers themselves unwittingly 

 place in the way of the progress of their science. I should 

 like to see the Structural and Physiological Memoirs of 

 Eobert Brown prescribed as a classic to be read by all 

 aspirants to a degree of Bachelor of Science in Botany ; 

 such experience would bring untold aiivantages to style and 

 accuracy of thought, at the same time the information 

 actually so gained would be such as ?till maintains its 

 value, for the writings of this most remarkable man, though 

 often dealing with freshly broken ground of the science, 

 have maintained their position as much as those of any 



