78 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 



it on the surface. Depend upon it they will grow if cool 

 and damp enough. 1 



Some points in its development quite baffled him ; he 

 writes (July 6, 1841) : 



The examination of the Cabbage was made on the Island 

 and several times since, and I send it in despair of under- 

 standing its organisation. You will remark that the radicle 

 is pointing away from the funiculus and is on the upper side 

 of the seed as it hangs, and how it gets there, supposing the 

 foramen of the ovule to be where Lindley 2 describes it should 

 be, I cannot conceive, for in its turning it must go f round 

 the seed. I suppose Brown understands it all ; the flowers 

 I nowhere saw, but he has them in the museum from 

 Anderson. 



Brown, it may be remembered, was the inheritor of the 

 collections of Sir Joseph Banks, who had sailed with Cook. 



Two grasses form most rich and nutritious fodder for 

 cattle, as we proved by some sheep being let loose on the 

 Island, who soon ran wild, and though they were landed 

 hungry and lean, they very soon fattened and thrived. 

 Goats, pigs, rabbits, sheep, and perhaps small cattle, would 



1 After his return, however, he had to confess to Boss (Sept. 14, 1845) 

 that the seed he himself brought back to Kew ' never vegetated, though we 

 sowed all and in all manner of situations.' He wished to name the plant 

 Rossia kerguelensis, but ' our friend Brown had already applied the MS. name, 

 given both because of the anti-scorbutic nature of the plant and because 

 Pringle wrote upon scurvy, which has not much to do with the matter, it must 

 be confessed.' (To Ross, September 1, 1845.) 



2 John Lindley (1799-1865). Like Brown and Bentham, Lindley, a hard 

 worker and man of versatile powers, took a conspicuous part in building up 

 the natural system of classification set forth by Jussieu as against the artificial 

 system of Linnaeus ; the convenience of which was merely for identifying plants. 

 Through the friendship of Sir W. J. Hooker (for he was an East Anglian) he 

 became assistant librarian to Sir Joseph Banks : then Assistant Secretary and 

 Secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, 1822-60 ; Professor of Botany 

 at University College, London, from 1828 ; editor of the Gardener's Chronicle, 

 1841, till his death. He was mainly responsible for Kew Gardens being pre- 

 served and made over to the nation as the headquarters of botanical science, 

 though knowing full well that his opposition to officialdom would exclude 

 him from receiving any appointment. His chief works were The Theory and 

 Practice of Horticulture, 1840 ; The Vegetable Kingdom, 1846 ; the editing of 

 Botanical Register, 1829-47, and various works on the Orchids. In his views 

 of species he has been described as an evolutionist without knowing it. 



