SOCIAL LIFE 175 



ignorant of logical subtleties, and repeat the following 

 much as a parrot might. He called the operation in 

 question the " Quantification of the Predicate." Years 

 passed by, during which he abandoned logic and gave 

 all his time to systematic botany, for which his logical 

 training was helpful. He had been President of the 

 Linnaean Society for many years, and his name had 

 become familiar to every botanist and dabbler in 

 botany. At this time a letter in some newspaper (I 

 think the Athenceum) was brought to his notice, in 

 which the writer dwelt on the importance of this 

 "Quantification of the Predicate." He mentioned 

 the name of its young author, adding that he had 

 taken much pains, in vain, to learn what had become 

 of him, could any reader supply information ? 



Mr. Bentham called one morning in 1880, together 

 with Sir Joseph (then Mr.) Hooker, to congratulate 

 me on having just had a whole genus of flowers of 

 singular beauty called after me by the French 

 botanist, J. Decaisne (Prof, de Culture, Muse*e 

 d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris) [60]. I was amazed, 

 for I know next to nothing of botany. The story 

 was this. A beautiful plant had been sent from 

 Natal to Europe. It was described at Kew as 

 Hyacinthus Candicans, but M. Decaisne would not 

 consent to such a denomination. He pointed out 

 particulars in the plant that hyacinths have not, 

 and the absence of other particulars that hyacinths 

 have, and he renamed it. Why he pitched upon 

 my name for the purpose I do not know, but suppose 

 that he may have consulted a list of the South African 

 medallists of the French Geographical Society, and 

 finding my name among them, selected it. I have 



