INTRODUCTION 3 



In Robert Brown we have the greatest botanist of his day, 

 for thirty years keeper of the Botanical Department of the 

 British Museum. It is doubtful if any greater intellect than 

 Brown's has ever been devoted to the service of Botanical 

 Science. 



Sir William Hooker was the first Director of Kew, and 

 under his genial administration the foundations of that great 

 institution were most truly laid. Born under the star of 

 Linnaeus, his own researches lay in the systematic field more 

 especially among the Ferns and Bryophytes. 



J. S. Henslow was for many years Professor of Botany at 

 Cambridge, but it is his life as Rector of Hitcham in Suffolk 

 that finds special prominence in the interesting Memoir which 

 formed the subject-matter of his son's lecture. The account 

 given of his educational methods will be read with interest in 

 these days when " Nature Study " has been sprung on the world 

 as a new thing. 



John Lindley was a man of the most amazing energy and 

 his scientific output was prodigious. Though he attained high 

 distinction in many fields of Botany, being an accomplished 

 Systematist and Palaeobotanist, probably his greatest service 

 was on the scientific side of Horticulture. Considering the scale 

 of production, the work of Lindley maintains a remarkably high 

 level. It is recorded of him that he never took a holiday till he 

 reached the age of 52. His was the dominant personality in 

 Botany of the early and mid-Victorian era. 



William Griffith had the energy and power of endurance 

 of Lindley, under whose influence he came. Trained to the 

 practice of medicine he took service under the East India 

 Company where he was able to devote the priceless intervals 

 between his official duties to botanical travel, collecting, and the 

 morphological investigation of Indian plants. The results of 

 his brief but remarkable career are embodied mainly in his 

 voluminous illustrated notes which were published posthumously 

 in 1852. The name of Griffith has been happily linked with that 

 of Treub, his brilliant successor in our own times. 



Arthur Henfrey belonged to a very different type. Com- 

 pelled by ill-health to the life of a recluse, his short life was 



