SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 379 



Botany Bay. He it was, too, who suggested the means 

 of transplanting the bread-fruit tree from the South 

 Sea Islands, to the West Indies, (the object of Captain 

 Bligh's unfortunate voyage,) and of also naturalizing 

 there the mango of Bengal. The fruits of Ceylon and 

 of Persia were successfully, through his exertions and 

 experiments, brought from thence to the West Indies 

 and to Europe. So little did his love of plants end, like 

 that of other botanists, in mere description and classifica- 

 tion, in the composition of a catalogue, or the preparation 

 of a Herbal ! Horticulture, indeed, was a subject the 

 usefulness of which was sure strongly to attract hi 

 care, and accordingly the Society for its improvement 

 owed its success, if not its origin, to him. The British 

 Museum was a constant object of his anxious care, and 

 during the forty-two years of his official trusteeship he 

 paid unremitting attention to its concerns, and largely 

 endowed it with presents; he bequeathed to it his 

 noble library and all his principal collections. 



I have already said that his published works bore no 

 proportion either to his scientific labours or his exertions 

 in behalf of learned men. They consisted only of some 

 tracts on agricultural and horticultural subjects, as the 

 mildew in wheat, and Merino sheep on Indian and spring 

 wheat on the Spanish chesnut on Roman forcing- 

 houses and some others. 



For the last thirty years of his life, Sir Joseph Banks 

 suffered frequently and severely from gout; and during 

 the last fourteen years he was so much a martyr to it, 

 that he could take no exercise on foot. He tried various 

 expedients to lessen the violence of the attacks, such as 

 giving up the use of fermented liquors, and abstaining 



