LINDLEY, JOHN. 



LITERATURE, ETC., IN 1865. 479 





Magistrate may be summed up in a few words. 

 He was honest in the best sense of the term ; 

 patient, forbearing, and forgiving; slow in ar- 

 riving at conclusions, but when once settled in 

 them, firm to obstinacy ; endowed- with a wis- 

 dom and tact not acquired in the schools, but 

 which guided him in administration, sustained 

 him in despondency, and rendered him calm 

 and self-possessed in the hour of success ; of a 

 genial and tender disposition, and possessing a 

 rare and quaint humor which occasionally lit 

 up with a momentary smile his sad face, and 

 enabled him the better to bear his heavy bur- 

 dons. In his administration of public affairs, 

 he ever sought the good of the nation, and the 

 interests of justice and truth, and much as some 

 of his measures were questioned at the time, 

 there are few who would now deny their wis- 

 dom or rectitude. 



LINDLEY, JOHJT, F. R. S., an eminent Eng- 

 lish botanist, and late Professor of Botany at 

 University College, born at Calton, near Nor- 

 wich, February 5, 1799, died at his residence, 

 Acton : green, November 1, 1865. His father 

 was proprietor of a large nursery garden, a cir- 

 cumstance which doubtless gave birth to the 

 taste for the study of botany so early manifest- 

 ed in the son. After leaving the Grammar 

 School of Norwich, young Lindley devoted his 

 attention to botanical science. In 1819 he 

 published a translation of Richard's Analyse 

 du Fruit, and in 1820 a work entitled Mono- 

 graphia JRosarum, in which he described several 

 new species of roses. About the same period 

 he contributed to the " Transactions of the Lin- 

 nsean Society " various papers on botanical sub- 

 jects. Sometime afterwards he proceeded to 

 London, where he became Assistant Secretary 

 to the Horticultural Society, and was engaged 

 by Mr. London to write the descriptive portion 

 of his " Encyclopaedia of Plants," the merit of 

 which, as a botanical work, was entirely due 

 to him, as was. stated in the preface.- The 

 " Encyclopaedia " was completed in 1829, and 

 . in the same year he received the appointment 

 of Professor of Botany at the London Univer- 

 sity. At this period the Linnaean system was 

 almost universally followed by English bota- 

 nists. It is one of the chief merits of Dr. Lind- 

 ley that he early saw the necessity of super- 

 seding the artificial by the natural classification 

 of plants. In an essay on this subject, pub- 

 lished in his " Introduction to the Natural Sys- 

 tem of Botany" in 1830, he clearly showed the 

 advantages of this system, and thus paved the 

 way for its general adoption in England. Two 

 years later he published the " Introduction to 

 Systematic and Physiological Botany, and a 

 Synopsis of the British Flora." In 1836 he 

 published a u Natural System of Botany," 

 wherein he took new views of botanical class- 

 ification, and proposed a new nomenclature for 

 families of plants. Ten years later, his great 

 work, " The Vegetable Kingdom " was pub- 

 lished, giving a description of all the families 

 of plants, and more especially of those useful 



to man ; a work of great labor, and generally 

 recognized as one of the most important con- 

 tributions which had at that time appeared on 

 systematic botany. In 1841 he became editor 

 of the "Gardener's Chronicle," a weekly pub- 

 lication which he conducted with great ability. 

 In 1860 he was appointed examiner in the Uni- 

 versity of London. 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROG- 

 RESS IN 1865. The very high price of paper 

 and the cost of labor, as well as the heavy bur- 

 den of taxation which rested with exceptional 

 effect on printed books, and upon all that 

 went to make up their manufacture, engravings, 

 paper, binders' cloth, and leather, etc., tended 

 to depress the publishing trade during the year, 

 and no doubt diminished slightly the number 

 of new publications undertaken, which was 

 somewhat less than the previous year; yet the 

 demand for books was so great that the number 

 of volumes sold was largely in advance of that 

 of any former year, reaching in the case of 

 school text-books in some instances to millions, 

 and in histories of the war, biographies of Mr. 

 Lincoln, etc., to numbers varying from 60,000 

 to 100,000 copies. 



The number of distinct publications, aside 

 from occasional pamphlets, reports, circulars, 

 catalogues, sermons, and official Government, 

 State, or municipal documents, was 1,802, being 

 226 less than the number in 1864. Of these 20 

 were works on military and naval science, 191 

 historical, of which 14 were histories of the war, 

 26 histories of particular battles or campaigns, 

 38 works relating to the war, but not strictly 

 histories, 39 American local and other histories 

 not connected with the war, 36 histories of 

 other countries or times, 14 historical reprints, 

 7 historical periodicals and transactions of his- 

 torical societies, and 18 works on ecclesiastical 

 history. In biography there were 150 works, 

 of which 130 were single biographies, a very 

 considerable number of them biographies of 

 President Lincoln, and 20 collective biographi- 

 cal works. In theology there were 48 works, 

 of which 18 were doctrinal and 30 polemic. Of 

 religious works, not theological, there were 81. 

 In moral and intellectual science there were 12. 

 In physical science there were 39, of which 3 

 were devoted to astronomy and meteorology, 

 10 to geology and mineralogy, 14 to zoology, 

 5 to natural philosophy, and 7 to chemistry. 

 In political and social science the number of 

 books was 25 ; in financial and statistical science, 

 112; in philology 10; in technology and me- 

 chanical science, 42 ; in agriculture, 23 ; in med- 

 ical science, 55 ; in law, legal science, and legal 

 compilations, 63. Of works on education and 

 educational science there were 42 ; of geography 

 and travels, 25 ; of essays and didactic works, 

 63; of poetry and the drama, 148. Musical 

 works numbered 37; novels and works of fiction 

 254, of which 14 were religious, and the re- 

 mainder (240) of a general character. The 

 number of books for the young was 312, of 

 which 25 were books of adventure, history, and 



