212 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
ent facts in the life of such a man should be known to botanists, 
and for this reason this reswne has been prepared. 
e was born at Stoke, a village near Portsmouth, on Septem- 
ber 22d, 1800. He was the second son of Sir Samuel Bentham, 
and in his early years (1805-1807) he resided in St. Petersburg, 
to which capital his father had been sent by the English Govern- 
ment, and where he acquired a knowledge of the Russian and 
Scandinavian languages. In 1807 the family returned to Eng- 
It was in Southern France that his attention was first turned 
to botany, a copy of DeCandolle’s Flore francaise accidentally 
falling into his hands. His methodical mind was at once struck 
by the analytical tables, and testing them with the first plant 
nota Salvia pratensis), his suecess in naming it encouraged further 
udy. 
‘ For a time he managed his father’s estate near Montpellier, 
his studies being quite varied, not, only plants, but insects an 
philosphy also occupying his attention, the-last under the influ- 
ance of John Stuart Mill, who was his father’s guest for some 
months. To his credit it should be said that his agricultural 
operations were very successful, but he took time from them 10 — 
botanize in the Pyrenees and the Cevennes. 
n 1826 the family returned to England, and Bentham el 
tered Lincoln’s Inn and read for the bar, until 1832, when at the 
death of his uncle he found himself master of a house, and bis — 
ar having died the year before, he entered into his indepe 
ynee. During these six years he worked incessantly. In 18 
he was elected Fellow of ‘the Linnean Soci n 1827 he pub- 
lished his “ Outlines of a New ane Ae in which the : 
seg of the quantification of the predicate is for the first ime 
i. os 1829 he was appointed Secretary of the Royal” 
Horticultural Soviety, which position he held until 1840. Dar : 
ing ~ Lubiatarum Genera et Species. Before that time # ot 
great order was in utter confusion, and this classieal work prov” 
nguished ability as a monographer. 
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