LIFE OF FLOWER 87 



friend of the late Director, with whom he had been 

 brought into specially close contact during the long 

 period the latter presided over the Zoological Society. 



The Archbishop of Canterbury, in a brief speech 

 previous to unveiling the bust, referred to two traits in 

 Flower's character which had specially struck his 

 Grace, and which were seldom found associated in the 

 same individual, one of these being his great love of 

 talking on his own special subjects of study, and 

 the other that, in spite of this, he never bored even the 

 least interested of his hearers. During his Directorship 

 Flower had done more to popularise the museum, and 

 museums generally, than had any other man of science. 



The proceedings closed with the usual vote of thanks 

 to the Chairman. 



In addition to writing numerous scientific memoirs, 

 Flower found time during his tenure of the Directorship 

 of the museum to prepare for publication two volumes of 

 considerable interest. The first was the one on The 

 Horse, issued in 1891, to which fuller reference is made 

 in a later chapter; and the second, the well-known 

 Essays on Museums, which appeared in 1 898, and consists 

 of a collected series of essays, articles, addresses, etc., 

 on natural history and kindred subjects. A melancholy 

 interest attached to this volume (which is dedicated to 

 Lady Flower), since, as we are told in the preface, it 

 was compiled during a period of enforced restraint from 

 active occupation, which was evidently only the prelude 

 to the final breakdown. 



It was also during his Directorship of the Museum 

 that The Study of Mammals saw the light. 



