194 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxxvii 



lecturer, but he was not induced by his facility there to over- 

 estimate the importance of the ex cathedra discourse. The 

 practical class, formerly an optional excrescence, became 

 the chief of his wea])ons. With what unfailing assiduity did 

 he pursue his goal ! With now and again a set-back, his 

 persistence gave us what is probably the best-equipped 

 botanical Laboratory in these isles. And his teaching de- 

 veloped ])ari passu. 



Susceptible to all the new influences, retentive of what 

 was best in the old, he took his course amidst the changes of 

 his eventful epoch with a sure and steadfast sanity. He was 

 never lost in mere detail. He was ever seeking the thread 

 which was to prove the guide through the maze. He was 

 an exponent of the big things of his science, for he was of the 

 breed of the great generalisers. And not of those who 

 generalise before they have been through the mill in which 

 details are ground. Darwin had the broad outlook, but he 

 served his apprenticeship at " minutiae," nor was that training 

 lost. So Balfour in his Rhododendron papers saw deep, 

 noted much of what might seem trivial distinctions, but he 

 always came back to the wide survey. It was in this aspect 

 that he appealed so much to his fellow-botanists. He was 

 the Mentor — the Master of the Craft, if you like — to his 

 botanical peers. It was a unique position. Some have 

 published more, others may have made more profound dis- 

 coveries, others proved " best sellers " in their lucid exposi- 

 tions, but amidst them all — it was. What does Balfour thinlc 

 of it ? There was a clarity of judgment, an appreciation of 

 evidence, a sanity too strong to be swayed by the " new 

 thing " of the hour. And so it was that he who published 

 much came to him for advice, that he who travelled much 

 came for confirmation of his generalisations, that he who 

 discovered much came to discuss the effect and bearings of 

 what he had found on what was known. 



An enormous worker, he taxed his own good constitution 

 to the uttermost. When engaged on a task which held his 

 interest his ardour was extreme. Even in his failing years 

 he held on, often for nights on end, till one, two, and three 

 in the morning. Absorbed in his specimens, he was oblivious 

 of time. Even to eye-fatigue he seemed impervious. It was 

 always with him " more light." The number of lamps and 



