LIFE OF FLOWER 19 



ment of his country, for he was created a C.B. in 1887, 

 three years after his first appointment to the British 

 Museum, and five years later (1892) followed the 

 higher distinction of the K.C.B. But this does not 

 exhaust the list of official honours, for in 1887 Sir 

 William received from Her Majesty, the late Queen 

 Victoria, the Jubilee Medal. Had he lived to the date 

 of its foundation, it is possible that Flower might 

 have been admitted by his Sovereign as one of the 

 original members of the Order of Merit. 



From His Majesty the German Emperor Sir William 

 Flower received the distinction of the Royal Prussian 

 order, "Pour la Merite," an honour of which he was 

 justly very proud. As a distinguished friend pointed 

 out in his letter of congratulation on learning of the new 

 distinction, "it is the one European decoration which an 

 Englishman may be proud to wear, and bestowed, as I 

 believe it to be, with the sanction of the very few who 

 have already got it. It is the one order which real 

 work, apart from rank and wealth and courtiers' trick, 

 alone can win." As another eminent friend described 

 it on the same occasion, it is truly < c the blue riband of 

 literary and scientific decorations." 



Numerous foreign scientific societies, it is almost 

 unnecessary to observe, were proud to claim the name of 

 Sir William Flower on the list of their honorary members 

 or associates. It is however by no means easy to give a 

 complete list of these honourable distinctions, for Flower 

 was not one who followed the fashion of adding every 

 possible combination of letters to his name in every book 

 or paper he wrote. Perhaps the most important of 

 these distinctions was that of Foreign Correspondent 



