PROMINENT YORKSHIRE WORKERS. 
I1].—JOHN GILBERT BAKER, F.R.S., F.L.S., M.R.TA., V.M.H. 
(PLATE II.) 
AT the meeting of the British Association, held at York a few 
months ago, an opportunity was afforded of welcoming back to 
Yorkshire many prominent workers in the field of natural 
science. To few, however, was a more sincere welcome 
accorded than that given to the veteran Yorkshire botanist, 
Mr. John Gilbert Baker, who, notwithstanding his years, took 
a prominent part in the work of Section K, and was as 
enthusiastic and active as many there who were about half-a-cen- 
tury his junior, and surely it must be admitted that tew have done 
so much for the furtherance of the study of plants of their 
county as Mr. Baker has done for Yorkshire. Without the 
many years of untiring energy in studying the flora of the 
broad-acred shire which he has given, our knowledge of the 
plants of this beautiful county would be much more meagre. 
As it is, we can take pride in the fact that the plants of our 
county are as well known as are those of any similar area in the 
British Isles, and this has been made possible by the industry, 
example, and encouragement of John Gilbert Baker. 
Whilst listening to the paper and debates in Section K, in 
August last, Mr. Baker must have been forcibly impressed with 
the difference in the state of our knowledge of botany at the 
present time compared with the year 1847, when, as a 
scholar at the Friends’ School, at Bootham, in the same city, 
the subject of our sketch had developed sufficient interest in 
botany to be appointed Curator of the herbarium of that school. 
And from that time until to-day he has had his hobby well 
before him, and has kept abreast with the study of plant life as 
it has progressed with the years. This, of course, so far as 
was humanly possible, as, particularly during the last decade, 
such rapid strides have been made in such a multitude of 
directions that it is not now possible fer any single individual to 
be familiar with the details of the various branches of even 
botanical science. 
Mr. Baker was born at Guisborough, in Cleveland, on 
January 13th, 1834, and naturally has always an affectionate 
regard for the plants of his native place. At the meeting of the 
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union held at Guisborough last year, he 
1907 January I. 
