THE NEW BOTANY 203 



was the ruling pre-occupation of the period under consideration, 

 a direct outcome of colonial expansion and consolidation. Fed 

 on unlimited supplies of new material from the ends of the 

 earth the taxonomic habit became supreme. What could an 

 isolated student and recluse like Henfrey do to stem this flood ? 

 Circumstances were too strong for him, and founding no im- 

 mediate school it remained for a later generation to take up 

 the task. 



Though the history of the establishment of the New Botany 

 in England lies outside the province of this lecture, it is in- 

 structive, as a contrast in methods, to note the manner of its 

 accomplishment. Henfrey, who relied on his pen, had proved 

 ineffective to bring about a revolution. Twenty years later it 

 fell to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, then a young man, to succeed 

 where Henfrey had failed. By his enlightened teaching and 

 personal magnetism, Thiselton-Dyer aroused a widespread 

 interest in laboratory botany. But the matter was not allowed 

 to rest there. Holding as he did an important post at Kew, the 

 strategic centre, he was able to obtain appointments in the chief 

 Colleges and Universities of the country for the recruits whom 

 he had attracted. In this way, by the exercise of an acute 

 intelligence amounting to statesmanship, and in a very short 

 period of time, the New Botany became everywhere firmly 

 established. 



