WILLIAM STARLING SULLIVANT. 



4OI 



ous species to which he has given his authority have there- 

 fore been admitted and recognised by the most eminent bota- 

 nists of our time Schimper, Miiller, Lindberg, etc. More 

 than ten years ago a very honourable account of his works as 

 a bryologist was published in the Botanische Zeitung of Leip- 

 sic, which, for botany, is the highest European authority. 



"Another remarkable trait of' the character of your la- 

 mented brother was his perhaps too liberal disposition to work 

 in science for the benefit of others, without credit for himself. 

 Not only did he give his time to the determination of an im- 

 mense number of specimens which were sent to him by stu- 

 dents, or by so-called authors, etc., but often, without claim- 

 ing his right of authority, he determined the species, prepared 

 descriptions of the new ones, when he well knew that they 

 would be published under the names of his applicants. He 

 has thus fixed a far larger number than those which were pub- 

 lished in his name. Even lately he examined a large collec- 

 tion of mosses in which his opinion was requested, prepared 

 descriptions of new species, remarks on interesting ones, etc., 

 and from this work a catalogue was made by the same appli- 

 cant, the notes copied as well as his remarks, and thus the 

 authorship was literally taken from him, and not even a word 

 of credit was given for his work. Such absence of scientific 

 honesty was not even resented by your brother, who merely 

 alluded to it as a poor reward for hard work. A character as 

 was his, without trace of envious or jealous feeling, marked 

 by true kindness for everybody, by a ready disposition to ac- 

 knowledge and help every effort for the advancement of his 

 science of predilection, to recognise errors and to correct them 

 without the slightest word of depreciation, could but excite 

 admiration and love ; and, indeed, your brother was truly and 

 sincerely loved by the few who knew him well ; for he was not 

 open to everybody. A man of few words, he never talked of 

 himself or his doings, and thus only those who had the privi- 

 lege of being intimate with him would recognise his noble 

 nature." 



