26 President's Address. 



Karl IIeinrich Emil Koch, one of the most eminent 

 horticultural botanists, was born on liis fatlier's estate, 

 Ettcrsbcrge, near Weimar, on June 6, 1809. From 

 early boyhood Koch exhibited an ardent love for plants, so 

 much so, indeed, that it seriously interfered with the 

 regularity of his training at school. His father, who seems 

 to have been a man of a stern and unsympathising dispo- 

 sition, and who had already decided that his son Karl 

 should succeed him in farming his estate, would make no 

 allowance for the peculiar bias and precocity of the little 

 botanist, but considered all his pursuits in collecting and 

 studying plants as but another name for a life of idleness. 

 His mother, on the other hand, had a kind and loving 

 nature, but even she could not understand the peculiar 

 conduct of the boy ; and when in consequence of the 

 warlike times his parents removed to Weimar he was 

 obliged to conceal in a hay-loft his treasures, — books, 

 pamphlets, and his self-collected herbarium. But Koch 

 soon found friends outside his family circle who could 

 appreciate his peculiar talents and his earnest devotion to 

 botanical pursuits. Such an one was Fischer the head 

 gardener of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who took a deep 

 interest in him when he was only ten years of age, and 

 afforded him facilities of advancing his knowledge, and 

 even went the length of allotting him a plot of ground in 

 the castle gardens to cultivate just as he chose. This 

 piece of ground lay near a favourite walk of the Grand 

 Duke Karl August, and also of Goethe ; here the latter 

 was perfectly astounded on finding an arrangement of living 

 Ijlants similar to that of the natural system of Jussieu, all 

 accomplished by the hands of this little boy, only eleven 

 years old, and, on the poet asking him who had taught him to 

 do so, he received the striking and interesting reply, " I 

 think it out for myself that it must be right," a most 

 beautiful illustration of how a human being can either 

 deductively or inductively grasp the divine idea from his 

 having, at first, been made in the image of God, at least 

 as regards knowledge. Goethe was delighted with this 

 answer, and was in consequence led to take a deep interest 

 in the boy and to honour him with his friendship, as he 

 exclaimed, " We shall now work together ; bring me every- 



