OCCUPATIONS 275 



begun, it will be remembered, on a vaster scale by himself 

 and T. Thomson, but abandoned for want of support, to lie 

 for fifteen years in the limbo of the incomplete with only 

 the dim regretful hope that the half used material might some 

 day be worked up by younger hands. 



The first part of the new issue had appeared in 1872 ; the 

 last was to appear in 1897. Of these, the last three volumes, 

 issued after his retirement, contained 2500 pages. 



Some points from the correspondence connected with 

 this work will be noted later. To continue the bare outline 

 of his occupations, two of his old Kew interests were still 

 in his hands, the ' Botanical Magazine ' and the ' Icones 

 Plantarum,' those illustrations of new and rare plants from 

 the Kew Herbarium, for the continuation of which Bentham 

 had left a considerable legacy (7000). Two volumes of the 

 * Icones ' (200 plates), from 1890 to 1894, were devoted to the 

 Indian Orchideae, while in 1895 his ' Century of Indian Orchids ' 

 appeared in the ' Annals of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens.' 

 Bentham had also left him the duty of revising his ' Hand- 

 book of the British Flora.' Of this he brought out four fresh 

 editions, the fifth to the eighth, between 1887 and 1908. 



In 1886 he published the third and final edition of his 

 ' Primer of Botany,' * the rashest and most profitable of my 

 undertakings,' as he called it to Asa Gray, adding in particular 

 a section on The Movements of Plants including the carnivorous 

 ones ; then a fourth edition of the ' Student's Flora ' in 1897 ; 

 while in 1896 he edited from a manuscript in the British 

 Museum, Banks's Journal during Captain Cook's first voyage. 



In 1888 he was commissioned by the Government of the 

 Straits Settlements to publish a Flora of those colonies, in 

 conjunction with Dr. King, 1 the head of the Calcutta Gardens, 



1 Sir George King, K.C.I.E., M.B., LL.D., F.R.S. (1840-1909) ; Indian 

 Botanist, Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, and of cin- 

 chona cultivation in Bengal 1871-1898 ; greatly increased production of quin- 

 ine and established a method of distributing it at a low price ; organised a 

 Botanical Survey of India and became the first director 1891-98 ; founded 

 Annals of Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, and contributed monographs ; 

 published ' Materials ' for a Malayan Flora. Sir Joseph's correspondence with 

 Sir G. King was very extensive, but most unfortunately on the death of the 

 latter his letters were all destroyed. 



