BOTANICAL ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 173 
equally great whether we class him with the older or the 
modern school. In fact, so far as botany in this country is 
concerned, he may be regarded as the founder of the latter. 
It is to him that we owe the establishment of the structure 
of the ovule and its development into the seed. Even more 
important were the discoveries to which I have already 
referred, which ultimately led to the establishment of the 
group of Gymnosperms. ‘No more important discovery,’ 
says Sachs,”! ‘ was ever made in the domain of comparative 
morphology and systematic botany. The first steps towards 
this result, which was clearly brought out by Hofmeister 
twenty-five years later, were secured by Robert Brown’s 
researches, and he was incidentally led to these researches by 
some difficulties in the construction of the seed of an 
Australian genus.’ Yet it may be remembered that he began 
his career as naturalist to Flinder’s expedition for the explor- 
ation of Australia. He returned to England with 4,000 ‘for 
the most part new species of plants.’ And these have formed 
the foundation of our knowledge of the flora of that continent. 
Brown’s chief work was done between 1820 and 1840, and, as 
Sachs ~ tells us, ‘was better appreciated during that time in 
Germany than in any other country.’ 
MopeEerNnN ScHOOL. 
The real founder of the modern teaching in this country 
in both branches of biology I cannot doubt was Carpenter. 
The first edition of his admirable ‘ Principles of Comparative 
Physiology’ was published in 1838, the last in 1854. All 
who owe, as I do, a deep debt of gratitude to that book will 
agree with Huxley in regarding it as ‘by far the best 
general survey of the whole field of life and of the broad 
principles of biology which had been produced up to the 
time of its publication. Indeed, he adds, ‘although the 
fourth edition is now in many respects out of date, I do not 
21 History, 142. 22 Loc. cit., 189, 140. 23 Memorial Sketch, 67. 
