Thomas Andrew, T. A. Knight 239 



carried on by the under surface. His most important work 

 was, however, his investigations into the relation of plants 

 and their growth to the condition of their environment. 

 He had noticed that, however seeds are placed during 

 germination, the radicle attempts to descend into the earth 

 and the shoot attempts to ascend into the air. He used a 

 water-mill wheel in his garden, a wheel which revolved 

 rapidly on a horizontal axis on the edge of which he placed 

 his germinating seeds. He found that the shoots, no matter 

 how they were pointed at first, gradually turned their points 

 outwards from the circumference of the wheel, whilst the 

 radicles grew inwards, so that " in a few days their points 

 all met in the centre wheel." By this device Knight added 

 a new apparatus in the investigation of growth. Later he 

 paid much attention to the tendrils of Ampelopsis and the 

 clasps of ivy, noting that they showed a tendency to grow 

 away from the light. Much of his scientific work had 

 a utilitarian bias, and he published many papers of a strictly 

 horticultural nature. 



In the management of his estate at Downton he experi- 

 mented continually on the raising of hybrids, and bred a 

 large number of new varieties of fruits and vegetables, many 

 of which still bear his name. 



Knight was a man of great patience and great perseverance, 

 and seems to have had a charming personality, warm-hearted 

 and generous, a little hasty at times, but of great kindness. 



Although Linnaeus (1707-1778) does not come within 

 the scope of this volume, a few lines must be devoted to the 

 great influence his views had on English thought. Without 

 being a great investigator he remodelled the art of description. 

 He introduced new and concise terms. He re-established 

 the binomial nomenclature of plants, and he devised an 

 artificial method of classification by means of which a com- 

 petent botanist could determine the genus and species of 

 almost any flower. But he was more of a co-ordinator than 

 an investigator. He added few new facts to science, and, 

 as Professor Green states, " we cannot find that either he 

 nor any of his immediate pupils made a single discovery of 

 any importance." His great talents lay in organization. He 

 had a gift for sorting out things and putting them into what 



