Biographical Notice of H. G, Florke, 201 



constituted the whole science; and being a great partisan of the 

 Linnean system^ he viewed with an evil eye the progress of the 

 natural system. 



During the last twenty years of his life, Florke occupied him- 

 self almost exclusively with the study of lichens, and especially 

 of the Cladonice. On quitting Berlin, he had commenced 

 editing his 'Deutsche Lichenen/ This publication he continued 

 at Rostock, and issued in succession ten fasciculi, containing 

 200 natural examples accompanied by excellent critical notes. 

 Although he did not use the microscope in the analysis of his 

 lichens, nevertheless this collection is distinguished for the 

 exactitude of its determinations, and it is still one of the best that 

 we possess. 



Afterwards came out his ' Commentatio nova de Cladoniis, 

 difficillimo Lichenum genere.^ This is the most remarkable work 

 of Florke. He laboured in the preparation of it during nearly ten 

 years, and had collected for its composition a quantity of mate- 

 rials truly immense. His ' Commentatio ^ is a chef-d'oeuvre of 

 patience and precision in the diagnoses, and is still the manual 

 and indispensable clue for whoever shall engage himself in the 

 morphological labyrinth of the genus Cladonia. 



Florke was desirous to complete and illustrate this latter work 

 by a series of natural specimens of Cladonise, corresponding 

 exactly with the descriptions of his types. In fact he issued in 

 1829 the first three fasciculi of his 'Cladoniarum exemplaria 

 exsiccata.' But there the work rested ; for whilst he was pre- 

 paring the last fasciculi, he was struck with a cruel malady 

 which interdicted for ever his scientific labours. 



The last years of Florke's life were replete with misfortune. 

 A first attack of apoplexy surprised him in the midst of his 

 labours in 1831, and left him paralyzed. In 1833 and 1834 

 the courageous professor endeavoured, nevertheless, to renew his 

 course of lectures, and caused himself to be carried in a chair to 

 direct, as far as he was able, the studies of his pupils. But in 

 1835 a fresh attack of apoplexy prostrated him entirely, and he 

 died, after long months of suffering and of deep melancholy, on 

 the Gth of November, 1835, in the seventy-first year of his age. 



Florke, by his works, has himself inscribed his name in the 

 annals of the history of plants. Some friends have, moreover, 

 endeavoured to transmit the remembrance of him to future gene- 

 rations. Weber and Mohr have dedicated a Phascum to him 

 under the name of Phascum Florkeanum ; Miihlenberg has con- 

 secrated to him the genus Fiorkeana, in the family of the Lim- 

 nanthaceaj ; and Elias Fries, in naming the Cladonia Fiorkeana, 

 has manifested his desire to eternize the labours of the Meck- 

 lenburg cryptogamist on the genus Cladonia, 



Ann. &^ Mag, N. Hist, Ser.3. VoLxix, 14 



