WILLIAM GRIFFITH 



1810 1845 



By W. H. LANG 



Early training medical appointment under the East India Company his 

 travels the magnitude of his collections his method of work 

 results of researches mainly published posthumously the ovule and 

 fertilisation Santalum Loranthaceae Balanophora Avicennia his 

 gymnosperm work illustrated by Cycas^ discovery of the pollen-chamber 

 Rhizocarps and Liverworts pre-Hofmeisterian work Griffith's rela- 

 tion to his times. 



It might have been assumed that all the names of British 

 botanists whose work has been or is to be considered in this 

 course of lectures would have been familiar to their successors 

 of to-day, even if their works were too often neglected for the 

 last words of scientific progress in a summary of literature. 

 The question has however been put to me by more than one 

 botanist in the last month or two, " But who zvas Griffith ? " 

 That this should be possible seems in itself ample justification 

 for including his name in this list of British botanists. 



For Griffith has claims to be regarded as a great botanist. 

 It is true that he failed to break through the limitations of his 

 time and period that he left no new and more correct general 

 views to modify the science. But this is true of all his con- 

 temporaries, indeed it is true of most botanists. To recreate 

 the department of a science in which a man labours requires 

 a combination of ability and fortunate chance that is given to 

 few. 



Griffith had the ability, the power of independent observation, 

 the readiness to speculate, the careless prodigality of labour. He 

 did not however, in the fraction of an ordinary working life that 



