He published several important works and numerous memoirs 

 in the transactions of many Swedish and foreign societies, in 

 fifty-six of which he held an honorary membership. Fifteen 

 years before his death, he received the title of Commander of the 

 Order of Wasa, and one likes to think of him as Sir Carl Peter 

 Thunberg, distinguished botanist, traveler, gentleman, a man 



Philip Franz von Siebold was the last of the great European 

 botanists to visit Japan in the days before the awakening. He 

 was a member of an illustrious German family celebrated for its 

 learning and scientific knowledge. His grandfather was an 

 eminent physician ; his younger brother Carl Theodor Ernst has 

 been called the " Nestor of German'Zoology." With a view to 

 improving the trading relations of the Dutch, he was sent out by 

 the East India Company. He went out not only to act as their 



their island prison, but also as a man of science with a determina- 





;n every possible way. 



Well equipped with scier 



itific apparatus he arrived in Desim 



in 1822 and for six years 



i made the island his headquarter; 



Already conditions for scier 



itific work had improved to a consic 



erable degree and he had c 



omparatively free access to the cour 



try, while his reputation as 



a physician and scholar, brought hii 



many visitors from all parts 



of Japan . Some of these became h: 



ardent students. His valu 



able stores of information were cor 



stantly increased by trained 1 



latives whom he sent to collect for hii 



in the interior. In 1826 he 



: accompanied the Dutch Ambassadc 



to Yedo and was allowed tc 



) remain behind, the only foreigner i 



the city. Unfortunately, h 



owever, his zeal in scientific pursuil 



of the country, he was imprisoned and finally compelled to leave 

 Japan. 



On his return to Germany, he published not only those works 

 on the fauna and flora and natural history of Japan that for a 

 half-century made him the first authority on those subjects, but 

 he wrote also upon the history, language and literature of the 

 country. His most important work from the latter standpoint is 



