XXVI PBOGEEDIWGS OF THE 



following, wtiGh occurs in tlie dedication to Jolin Amory Lowell, 

 Esq., trustee of -the Lowell Institute of Boston : — " I say nothing 

 of the difficulties of my undertaking, undoubtedly increased by 

 my inadequacy to treat them successfully." 



Of tbe many kind offices lie undertook on behalf of the needy, 

 the sick, and the diffident this is no time to speak, for he suffered 

 no allusion to them during his life ; one action alone is so far 

 public, and so truly characteristic, that we may be permitted to 

 mention it, viz. his having placed in All Saints Church, Cam- 

 bridge, a tablet in memory of Henry Kirke "White, a poet in 

 whose- character and early fate he was deeply interested. The 

 epitaph for this was written by his friend Professor Smythe, of 

 Cambridge and the medallion portrait was executed by Chantrey ; 

 and it is a circumstance worth mentioning, that the first piece 

 of sculpture received by the National Portrait Gallery was his 

 gift to it of Chantrey's original of this medallion. 



It was, however, in connexion with the Linnean Society that 

 Dr. Boott was best known in London ; he joined the Society in 

 1819, and acted for some years as its Secretary (viz. from 1832 to 

 1839) and as its treasurer (from November 1856 to May 1861). 

 The latter office he still held when those changes were introduced 

 into its working, to which the Society is so largely indebted for 

 its present unexampled prosperity ; and it is not too much to say 

 that, but for his admirable moderation and judgment, those 

 reforms could not have then been carried out. As it was, with 

 consummate tact and irresistible kindliness of manner, he stepped 

 in to harmonize opinions apparently the most opposite, as to 

 what was for the best interest of that venerable body, and carried 

 without a dissentient voice whatever organic changes were re- 

 quired. His tall and fragile frame, silvery voice, and quiet energy 

 were then familiar, both in the Council and general meetings of 

 the Society, at which he practically acted as the Nestor, and that 

 amongst some of the oldest and most eminent scientific men in 

 London. 



In this and in all other phases of life Dr. Boott was remark- 

 able for great force of character, boundless sympathy for what- 

 ever is good and beautiful, and an enthusiastic admiration for all 

 honest cultivators of literature and science. His house was 

 filled with pictures, chiefly by modern artists selected without 

 regard to names, but with a keenly discriminative eye to harmony 

 of colour and truth of expression ; his library was as select as 

 were his pictures ; and all his tastes, actions, and manners were 



