Henry Trimen. 161 



HENRY TRIMEN. 18431896. 



To write the memorial of a personal friend whose scientific career 

 ifaas run parallel with one's own is, at the best, a sad task. If I hare 

 not hitherto performed it for Henry Trimen it is because, as often as 

 I have attempted it, the accomplishment has seemed too painful. 



Henry Trimen was born on October 26, 1843, at Paddington, 

 Middlesex. He was the youngest of four brothers, of whom the third 

 was Roland, one of our Fellows, and a distinguished etomologist. 

 The father, Richard, traced his ancestry to a stock which, under 

 similar names, exists both in Cornwall and Brittany. He himself, 

 a man of easy circumstances, was without any scientific preten- 

 sion a great lover of Nature, and an excellent observer ; he possessed, 

 too, a keen artistic perception, and some ability in execution. 



The two younger brothers were closely associated in their early 

 bringing up. They derived from their father, both by inheritance 

 ^nd example, an early delight in natural objects. He continually 

 encouraged them in their attempts to form collections of shells, insects, 

 plants, fossils, etc., often accompanying them in country excursions, 

 -and pointing out interesting animals and plants. The elder brother 

 remembers how, when it became necessary to restrict in some definite 

 direction accumulations which were becoming unmanageable, it was 

 .solemnly decided that Henry was to occupy himself with plants, and 

 Roland with insects. Henry, however, never so completely specialised 

 as to lose all taste for other branches of natural history. These facts, 

 if apparently trivial, are worth recording, because the process by which 

 -a naturalist is now evolved has, during the last half century, undergone 

 a complete change. It may indeed be doubted whether the class itself 

 is not on the verge of extinction. 



Trimen entered King's College School in 1855. There I made his 

 acquaintance on the strength of a " collecting tin," familiar to botanists, 

 which I saw him one day carrying. It may be doubted whether, now- 

 .a-days, in a London day-school, two boys would be found to strike up 

 a life-long friendship on a common taste for field botany. 



Companionship once established, we spent most of our half-holidays 

 in excursions round London. With the ambition of schoolboys, we 

 soon projected a Flora of Middlesex. We kept careful notes of our 

 excursions, and spared no pains in the critical determination of the 

 plants we collected. The material gradually accumulated, and at last 

 we determined to undertake a detailed botanical survey of the county. 

 Latterly we had to divide the work, exploring different districts 

 separately. On one occasion, Trimen, while examining a wood in the 

 northern part of the county, encountered a fellow collector, who 



