74 IN MEMORiAM. [Mavch, 



The renowned Lichenologist, AchariuSj has styled the subject 

 of these memoranda " Lichenologus eximius," which means that 

 his acquaintance with Lichens was profound. 



His name is honourably preserved in several species and in 

 one genus of plants. Borrera is a genus of Lichens which will 

 transmit Mr. Borrer's name to succeeding generations of licheno- 

 logists ; also several species of Algals, Lichens^ and vascular 

 plants bear honourable testimony to his knowledge of these ob- 

 scure objects, and testify by their names to his success in dis- 

 covering and distinguishing species : for example, Sclerochloa 

 Borrerif Luzula Borreri, Parmelia Borrei'i, Meloseira Borreri, 

 Calthamnion Borreri, etc. 



These testimonials from the greatest botanists of this or of any 

 preceding age — these ample honorary rewards ungrudgingly paid 

 to an amateur, to a gentleman who did not make botany the sole 

 or chief employment of his life, but who only cultivated it as a 

 relaxation from business, or as the amusement of his leisure time — 

 must be received as satisfactory proofs of his botanical merits."^ 



Tt is hoped that our readers will not be inquisitive about how 

 his time was spent when he was not engaged on botanical studies, 

 for on this subject their humble servant, the writer, cannot afford 

 them the slightest information; but he can tell them instead 

 several truths that are far more important and interesting, not 

 merely to the lovers of British plants, but to the students of the 

 science in general. 



The present generation of British botanists are more indebted 

 to Mr. Borrer than to any one of the last or the present century 

 for precise information about the distribution or localities and 

 the distinctions of British plants. His labours on these subjects, 

 if not more striking, are surely as meritorious and of as much 

 utility to the students of our native vegetation as the discovery 

 of new plants — a species of good luck which is of more importance 

 to the discoverer himself than to science or to its cultivators. 



But of this fortuitous kind of merit Mr. Borrer has his full 

 share, at least as much or more even than usually falls to the lot 

 of botanists living in a country so long and pryingly searched as 

 England has been. 



* To a very few botanists the subject of this sketch is known as one of the 

 authors of ' Lichenographia Britannica,' a history of British Lichens, printed by 

 C. Sloman, Yarmouth, 1839, 8vo. This work, which was never pubhshed, was 

 the joint production of Dawson Turner and WilHam Borrer. 



