INTERNATIONAL BOTANICAL CONGRESS.’ 193 
It is horticulture that has given us the longest series of illustrated 
journals that have ever been published: and here I must do justice 
especially to the English horticulturists. No doubt the science of our 
time requires a larger amount of analytical details than is contained in 
the plates of the ‘ Botanical Magazine,’ ‘ Botanical Register,’ * An- 
drews's Repository,’ ‘ Loddiges’ Botanical Cabinet,’ ‘ Sweet’s British 
Flower-garden,’ ‘ Paxton’s Magazine and Flower-garden,’ and other 
English journals; but what a number of forms are thus fixed by the 
engravings in these books, and what a fund of valuable documents for 
consultation they afford! One must admire the ‘ Botanical Magazine,’ 
commenced in 1793, continued from month to month with an exem- 
plary regularity, and which is now at its 5580th plate. Not only has 
it always represented rare and new species, but it has ever been con- 
ducted on a simple and uniform plan, which renders it convenient to 
consult. 
The series of plates is unique from the very beginning. Each plate 
has its number, and each article of letterpress refers only to one plate, 
by which means the quotations from the work are rendered brief and 
clear. Many editors have not understood the advantage of this simple 
arrangement. They have varied their titles, their series, their pagings ; 
they have affixed to their plates numbers, then letters, then nothing at 
all; the end of which is (and this ought to serve as a warning for the 
future) that the more they have altered and complicated the form of 
their journals, the shorter time have they 
How is it that these purely bibliographical details cause in us such 
sad recollections? Of the men just mentioned, who heve rendered 
such eminent service to botany and horticulture, England has lost three 
during the year 1865—Sir Joseph Paxton, Dr. Lindley, and Sir Wil- 
liam Jackson Hooker.* I should certainly fail in what is expected of 
me if I did not express, in the name of the foreigners attending this 
meeting, our deep regret at such serious losses. We know them all 
by their writings, and many amongst us have known personally the 
distinguished men I have mentioned. Their names follow us at each 
step in this the scene of their labours. If we admire the boldness of 
construction of the iron domes that characterize modern buildings, we 
* British science has sustained 
a Mies vh caged aging Pr wails ie usd Seated Professor W. H. 
Harvey, of Dublin. 
VOL. IV. [JUNE 1, 1866.] o 
