OBITUARY NOTICE. 429 



st a time when more correct language was scarcelj known, might be regarded as 

 a venial offence. Yet, irritated at the discouragement he had himself received, 

 Dr. Lindley was an angry critic on Sir J. E. Smith, having even so recently as in 

 his "Descriptive Botany," made a fresh attack on this eminent man for the use of 

 Linnaaan descriptive language, now, indeed, well-known to be erroneous, but when 

 employed nearly universal, and that when in this very work he was himself sanc- 

 tioning inaccurate terminology without the apology that might be made for Smith. 

 For our part, loving the memory of Smith, jet admiring and appreciating Lindley, 

 and desiring to do justice to both, we regret what was wrong in feeling on either 

 side, and would hand both names down to posterity as worthy to be honoured for 

 eminent services to science. These few words are forced from us by the article ou 

 Lindley's death in the Athenceum, which is unfair and ungenerous towards Sir Jas. 

 E, Smith. The scientific writings of Lindley make up a long catalogue. The 

 Botanical Register enabled him to figure and describe many remarkable newly 

 introduced plants. The "Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants," and the 

 " Folia Orchidacea," evince his profound acquaintance with one of the most curi- 

 ous and attractive of the natural families of plants. His " Fossil Flora of Great 

 Britain " is a beautiful application of botanical knowledge in aid of a sister science. 

 The " Theory of Horticulture " is justly stated " to have done more to put garden- 

 ing on its proper footing than any other work." His series of elementary works 

 has very high merit, especially the " Introduction to Botany," " Elements of 

 Botany," an admirable compendium of principles, " Descriptive Botany," and 

 " Medical and Economical Botany." But amongst his greatest works was " The 

 Vegetable Kingdom," a condensed account of the structure, geographical distribu- 

 tion and uses of plants. In this work he has given his account of the alliances or 

 greater orders of plants, which are capable of affording the most valuable aid to 

 students, and in determining and characterizing which he has upon the whole 

 been eminently successful. That his peculiar arrangement has not been followed 

 in works of detail is much more owing to DeCandoUe's series having become 

 familiar through the Prodromus than to any persuasion of its superior excellence. 

 Lindley's is a truly great work. It may be improved upon, but it is noi likely to 

 be forgotten. As a philosophical botanist, a useful practical labourer, and a pro- 

 moter and improver of the natural system in the study of plants, Dr. Lindley's 

 fame is great and likely to be durable. 



Amongst recent losses by death we have also to name Mr. Lovell Reeve, head 

 of a publishing house in London, chiefly engaged in works on Natural Science, 

 and himself a very eminent Oonchologist, author of several important works on 

 this science, especially the Conchologia Iconica, a series of Monographs on the 

 genera of Molluscous animals furnished with shells, which takes the highest rank 

 among works of its class, for its extent, beauty, and accuracy. 



