FRANCIS BOOTT. 317 



the year 1827, two introductory Lectures on Materia Medica, 

 which gave a good idea of his excellence as a teacher. Al- 

 though he did not continue in this career, his interest in 

 medical and scientific education never abated. He was an ac- 

 tive promoter of the establishment of London University (now 

 University College), and was for more than a quarter of a 

 century an influential member of its senate and council. He 

 was successfully engaged for some time in medical practice, 

 and was for many years Physician to the American Embassy ; 

 but he gradually withdrew from professional cares and toils 

 to more congenial literary and scientific pursuits. As early 

 as the year 1819 he had become a Fellow of the Linnaean 

 Society of London ; and afterwards, for the last twenty-five 

 years, he gave it continuous and invaluable service as secre- 

 tary, treasurer, or vice-president. 



At one time it was thought that Dr. Boott might be recalled 

 to his native country and to an active scientific life. Nearly 

 thirty years ago he was offered the chair of natural history 

 in Harvard University, — a chair which had remained vacant 

 since the death of Professor Peck in 1822, although its duties 

 were for several years fulfilled by the late Mr. Nuttall. After 

 Nuttall left Cambridge to explore Oregon and California, 

 arrangements were made to endow the vacant professorship 

 properly in case Dr. Boott would accept the place. Although 

 the offer was declined, we have been told that he intimated a 

 willingness to accept it if the chair were simply that of bot- 

 any ; and when informed that he might practically make it 

 so, although the title was unchangeable, he insisted that he 

 would not be called a professor of natural history, while he 

 could pretend to a knowledge only of botany. 



Nearly thirty years ago, Dr. Boott began seriously to de- 

 vote his energies to the special work upon which his scientific 

 reputation mainly rests, namely, to the study of the vast and 

 intricate genus Carex. The first result of these studies ap- 

 peared in his elaboration of the Carices of British North 

 America in Sir William Hooker's "Flora Boreali-Ameri- 

 cana," published in 1840. Other papers upon Carices were 

 contributed to the "Transactions of the Linnaean Society," 



