BENJAMIN D. GREENE. 311 



desiderata he endeavored, so far as he could, to supply. He 

 gathered a choice botanical library, he encouraged explora- 

 tions, and he subscribed to all the large purchasable North 

 American collections, — beginning with those of Druminond 

 in the southern United States and in the then Mexican province 

 of Texas. These being distributed under numbers, among the 

 principal herbaria of the world, and named or referred to in 

 monographs or other botanical works, were of prime impor- 

 tance as standards of comparison. Such collections and such 

 books as Mr. Greene brought together were just the appara- 

 tus most needed at that time in this country ; and now when 

 our wants are somewhat better supplied, we should not forget 

 the essential service which they have rendered, nor the disin- 

 terested kindness with which their most amiable and excellent 

 owner always placed them at the disposal of those who could 

 advantageously use them. Mr. Greene's botanical library 

 and collections have been, by gift and bequest, consigned to 

 the Boston Society of Natural History, of which he was one of 

 the founders and the first president, and by which they will be 

 preserved for the benefit of future New England botanists, by 

 whom his memory should ever be gratefully cherished. The 

 genus Greenea, established by Wight and Arnott upon two 

 rare Rubiaceous shrubs of India, barely anticipated a similar 

 dedication by his old friend Mr. Nuttall, of a curious Grass of 

 Arkansas and Texas, and will perpetuate his name in the 

 annals of the science which he lovingly cultivated. 



