6 Prominent Yorkshire Workers—John Gilbert Baker. 
kindly contributed an account of the botanical attractions of the 
area, which proved very useful to those taking part in the 
excursion. 
Soon after he was born, his parents removed to Thirsk, and 
we find that in 1843 he was attending the school belonging to 
the Society of Friends at Ackworth, a school which has trained 
so many first-rate naturalists. By 1846 he was carefully 
collecting and studying the plants found growing in the vicinity 
of his school. In 1850 he had made his first contribution to 
botanical literature, in a paper entitled ‘On the Occurrence of 
Carex Persoonit in Yorkshire,’ printed in the ‘ Phytologist.’ 
Four years later he was:so thoroughly familiar with the flora of 
his county that he issued a valuable Supplement to Baines’ 
‘Flora of Yorkshire.’ In the following year he read a paper, 
at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association, on the 
classification of British plants according to their geological 
relations. This paper was one of the first, if not the first, on 
this important subject. 
For seven years, commencing 1859, he acted as distributor 
for the Botanical Exchange Club, and wrote its reports. It is 
interesting to remember that this Club is still in existence, and 
is carried on on almost the same lines as it was when Mr. 
Baker was its secretary. 
By 1862 he had published his ‘ North Yorkshire: Studies of 
its botany, geology, climate, and physical geography.’ This 
volume, which was dedicated to Hewett Cottrell Watson, was 
printed at Thirsk. It contained 366 pages and four maps. 
Unfortunately, a fire at the author’s residence, which occured in 
1864, soon after the publication of the work, consumed the 
entire stock, thus making this a scarce volume. In 1888 the 
Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union commenced to reprint this work in 
its Transactions, and early last year the final part of this second 
edition was completed, and issued to the public. This second 
edition, which has been brought down to date, was reviewed in 
these columns for June last. It contains 688 pages, and maps, 
and a carefully compiled list of the mosses, prepared by Mr. 
M. B. Slater of Malton, a life-long friend of Mr. Baker’s. 
Not only did the fire referred to destroy the stock of the first 
edition of ‘North Yorkshire,’ but it also burnt Mr. Baker’s 
extensive library and herbarium. By the efforts of the members 
of the Botanical Exchange Club, and other botanists, however, 
the loss was to some extent repaired. 
In the same year the ‘ Naturalist ’—then under the editorship 
Naturalist. 
