244 Charles Darwin. 



boyish pursuit of flowers, devotes himself to the 

 study of the characters of plants as revealed by the 

 herbarium specimens which the field botanist so 

 copiously furnishes, and by which method he, too, 

 can discover " new species," and .obtain prompt rec- 

 ognition. The closet botanist performs the further 

 useful service of " revising " intricate families and 

 genera of plants, unravelling the entanglements of 

 previous authors, and making such changes in the 

 classification and names as are best suited to secure 

 the maximum personal credit. 



I need not tell this audience that Charles Darwin 

 belonged to neither of these classes of botanists. A 

 lover of nature, he yet never wasted precious time 

 in the idle pursuit of rarities. Thoroughly familiar 

 with the distinctive characters upon which botanical 

 classification rests, he yet never pursued to any 

 marked extent the investigation of specimens from 

 the hortus siccus. I doubt whether a single species 

 of plant was ever named after him by reason of his 

 having either discovered .it in a wild state or de- 

 tected its specific distinctness by the examination of 

 its characters. I even doubt whether he possessed 

 an herbarium in the accepted sense of the word. 



And yet this man has probably contributed more 

 to our real knowledge of plants than any other single 

 botanist. 



In what, then, have Darwin's botanical investiga- 

 tions consisted ? 



There is a little French book entitled "Voyage 

 d'un Botaniste dans sa Maison," a title which, allow- 

 ing for the characteristic hyperbole of the French 



