282 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



mustered less than nine. On the last club-day we were 

 seven, agreed to reduce the number from twelve to seven. 

 . . . Murdoch never misses. Barrow is a good attendant. 

 Of my attendance you are quite sure, as I have no other 

 dinner on Thursday when in London." 



The very last years of Banks 's life showed many 

 evidences of his vigour of mind. He was following atten- 

 tively the doings of his younger botanical friends : W. J. 

 Hooker at home, Caley at St. Vincent's, Dr. Wallich at 

 Calcutta, and John Reeves 1 at Canton. This last-named 

 gentleman was Inspector of Tea for the East India Com- 

 pany, and had been a faithful correspondent since the 

 days of William Kerr. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles wrote 

 encouragingly of his own fine management of affairs in 

 Sumatra, and his discovery of a new botanist in Dr. 

 Thomas Horsfield, of Philadelphia. Captain Scoresby, 

 another man rising into fame, had much communication 

 with Sir Joseph on his projects of Polar discovery. Mr. 

 T. A. Knight, with his gardening experiments, and Major 

 Rennell, active as ever in geography and topography, 

 were among his older friends who kept closely in touch 

 with him. Another devoted correspondent was Lady 

 Hester Stanhope ; a good letter writer, and an excellent 

 narrator, who entertained Banks for several years with 

 gossip, and her own philosophy, from Syria.. 



Nor did the circumstance of Banks's physical weakness 



1 Reeves is a man not to be forgotten. " During the whole period of 

 his residence in China, 1812-31, he contributed largely to English 

 horticulture . . . not only by his own direct shipments but also by 

 collecting plants during the spring and summer, establishing them well 

 in pots, previous to the shipping season, and then commending them to 

 the care of the captains of the Company's ships, to whom he was also 

 always able to recommend the most desirable plants for transportation 

 to England, and to whom he succeeded in communicating the enthu- 

 siasm which animated himself. ... He was either the immediate or 

 indirect source from which we derived the Chinese Azaleas, Camellias, 

 Moutans, Chrysanthemums, Roses, and numberless other treasures, 

 which have been for so many years the glory of English collections." 

 Bretschneider : History of European Botanical Discoveries in China 

 (London, 1898). 



