428 OBITUARY NOTICE. 



that Miss Carpenter is eminently fitted for what she has undertaken. 

 We have not, here, a book of sentiment, or of speculative reasoning ; 

 but cautious deductions from facts, a sufficient number of which are 

 brought under the reader's view, and argument in a truly Christian 

 spirit, showing us how we may hopefully contend against crime, and 

 limit its power — an object dear to the benevolent heart, for the sake 

 of the unhappy criminals, but necessary for the security of society, 

 and preventing an incalculable amount of suffering, loss, and anxiety 

 on one side — of degradation, corruption, and ruin on the other. 



W. H. 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



Another of our greatest botanists has speedily followed Sir W. J. Hooker. Dr. 

 John Lindley died of apoplexy on the first of the month (November) at his resi- 

 dence, Acton Green, near London . He was generally known as one of the most 

 eminent botanists England has produced, and one of the most laborious and suc- 

 cessful writers on the science. He held for many years the important offices of 

 secretary to the Horticultural Society of London, and Professor of Botany at Uni- 

 versity College, London. He was the founder, and, up to his death, the Horticul- 

 tural editor of the Gardener's Chronicle and Agricultural Gazetteer, which has 

 done so much for the improvement of British Horticulture. To him, more than 

 to any other individual, without even excepting Robert Brown, who, with more 

 originality and intellectual power, was deficient in qualities fitting him for a leader 

 of public opinion, is due the high merit of having practically introduced among 

 British botanists the natural method of studying and arranging plants. In accom" 

 plishing this object he came into opposition with distinguished and excellent men, 

 whom habit, the prejudices of education, and the influence of cireumstancces, pow- 

 erfully retained in the Linnsean school. And here we have to regret both that the 

 views of a man of genius, industry and knowledge, like Lindley, were not listened 

 to with more candour, and, even if they could not be immediately accepted by 

 those accustomed to a different method, resisted with more respectful appreciation 

 of their claims to attention ; and. on the other hand, that he should have forgotten 

 at times what was due to the position and real merits of opponents, and indulged 

 in a strain of denunciation against the Linnjean artificial method as if only perni- 

 cious to science and against those who still clung to it, which was totally unwar- 

 rantable. Sir James E. Smith was a really eminent, as well as a most amiable 

 and excellent man. As a botanist he was distinguished by knowledge of species 

 and genera, and the power of characterizing them precisely and elegantly. He, 

 too, first really popularised botanical science, and to the possessor of the Linnsaa 

 collection, who had at once obtained celebrity by that circumstance, a certain 

 amount of prejudice in favour of the Linnsean system might be reasonably excused 

 and treated with respect. At all events, the use of Linnsean desoriptive language 



