322 BOTANY. [Ch. XVII. 



but find so much wants rewriting, that it will not be ready 

 to go to printers for two months, and will then make a 

 confoundedly big book. Murray will say that it is no use 

 publishing in the middle of summer, so I do not know what 

 will be the upshot ; but I begin to think that every one who 

 publishes a book is a fool." 



The book was published on July 2nd, 1875, and 2700 copies 

 were sold out of the edition of 3000. 



The Kew Index of Plant-Names. 



Some account of my father's connection with the Index of 

 Plant-Names, now (1892) being printed by the Clarendon 

 Press, will be found in Mr. B. Daydon Jackson's paper in 

 the Journal of Botany, 1887, p. 151. Mr. Jackson quotes 

 the following statement by Sir J. D. Hooker : — 



" Shortly before his death, Mr. Charles Darwin informed Sir 

 Joseph Hooker that it was his intention to devote a considerable 

 sum of money annually for some years in aid or furtherance 

 of some work or works of practical utility to biological science, 

 and to make provisions in his will in the event of these not 

 being completed during his lifetime. 



"Amongst other objects connected with botanical science, 

 Mr. Darwin regarded with especial interest the importance of 

 a complete index to the names and authors of the genera and 

 species of plants known to botanists, together with their native 

 countries. Steudel's Nomenclator is the only existing work of 

 this nature, and although now nearly half a century old, Mr. 

 Darwin had found it of great aid in his own researches. It 

 has been indispensable to every botanical institution, whether 

 as a list of all known flowering plants, as an indication of 

 their authors, or as a digest of botanical geography." 



Since 1840, when the Nomenclator was published, the number 

 of described plants may be said to have doubled, so that 

 Steudel is now seriously below the requirements of botanical 

 work. To remedy this want, the Nomenclator has been from time 

 to time posted up in an interleaved copy in the Herbarium at 

 Kew, by the help of "funds supplied by private liberality." * 



My father, like other botanists, had, as Sir Joseph Hooker 

 points out, experienced the value of Steudel's work. He 

 obtained plants from all sorts of sources, which were often 

 incorrectly named, and he felt the necessity of adhering to 



* Keic Gardem Beport, 1881, p. 62. 



