42 Sketch of the Life of the late Professor Edward Forbes. 



shores of Asia Minor, and remained in lier from October to the end 

 of the year. I was thus able to make my promised excursion to the 

 Taurus, ascending the mountains to the height of 9000 feet, and 

 journeying among them for fourteen days. But though I loaded a mule 

 with boards and paper, I grieve to say I could not fill it. Everything 

 seemed to have gone out of flower to spite me, and what remained 

 were odds and ends of plants past flowering. 



"As this country, especially the alpine part (I speak of Lycia), 

 has been visited by no botanist, I gathered every fragment most 

 religiously, with a view to depositing the reliques (such as they are) 

 in the Botanical Society ; and they are now packed up and boxed in 

 the charge of the captain of an English vessel which has unexpectedly 

 come in here, and will be carried by him free of charge to some 

 English port. I have directed them to Pamplin. Open and exa- 

 mine them when they come. Bad as they are, they have a geo- 

 graphical importance, and I do not take blame to myself for their 

 badness. 



" Next week the Beacon goes to Malta ; if she had only stayed a 

 month longer, I should have had lots of plants, now only beginning 

 to flower. I remain behind with a view of rejoining her in Candia 

 in May. I go up the country, but as it ■will be impossible during 

 that journey to collect many specimens of everything, I shall confine 

 myself to making a pretty perfect set of Lycian plants for the her- 

 barium of the Botanical Society, Ward, Graham and yourself, which 

 on consideration I think will be the best way of benefiting science in 

 a country as yet unexplored, and better than laying by dubious 

 stores. I enclose a table of the winter vegetation here to give you 

 an idea of it. Lay it on the table at some meeting of the Society, 

 I have not been fortunate hitherto in seeking after materia medica 

 information, but hope to be so." 



After having carried on his researches in the ^gean Sea,he had 

 determined to proceed to Egypt and the Red Sea on a dredging 

 excursion, when intelligence reached him that he had been 

 chosen Professor of Botany in King's College, London, as suc- 

 cessor to the late Professor Don. Application for this had been 

 made by Goodsir and some other friends in his behalf, and his 

 claims were at once recognized by the electors. 



In 1843 he came to Britain with collections and drawings of 

 scenery, of antiquities, of plants, of animals, and of men and 

 manners, which in extent, variety, scientific value and artistic 

 skill have never been equalled. A sum was voted by the Trea- 

 sury for the publication of these, which Forbes intended to append 

 to a treatise on the Natural History of Aristotle, a work for 

 which he had collected ample materials. He commenced the 

 preparation of ' Rambles of a Naturalist,' and in 1843 he writes, 

 '' my leisure now I give to my long advertised ' Rambles.' The 

 cuts are done, but the middle of the book is yet unwritten." 



His introductory lecture on botany was delivered in King's 



