LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XXXV 



Professor Donaldson, in an interesting memoir of him, read, in 

 January last, to the Eoyal Institute of British Arcliitects) " he did 

 with great judgment, by rendering more complete the series of 

 the sculptures of the Parthenon, selecting many choice fragments 

 of Attic art, and the curious ox-head details from Delos, &c., all 

 rendered with the care and delicacy of the original work. With 

 like scrupulousness, he availed himself of Stuart's own MSS. and 

 chance notes, adding little of his own, except in direct explana- 

 tion, and, with a modesty and self-negation characteristic of the 

 man, ascribing all merit to Stuart alone, and abstaining from 

 bringing forward the personal researches and labour which must 

 have been required by so difficult a task." It was about the time 

 Avhen he was engaged in the ^publication of this volume that he 

 must have been employed to prepare designs, and carry out the 

 works, for the Commercial Sale Eooms, in Mincing Lane. " The 

 elevation," says Mr. Donaldson, "is one of the most striking in 

 the City of London • and although situate in one of the narrowest 

 thoroughfares of one of the most out-of-the-way parts of London 

 traffic, no passer-by can resist the impression v/hich its simple 

 character and noble proportions produce on the mind of the 

 observer. The entrance-floor is simply channelled ; but the prin- 

 cipal story consists of Ionic columns, boldly projecting and as 

 boldly profiled. It was a fine result of his study of Grecian 

 monuments, and shows that, if he had ultimately followed his art 

 with the like impressions and the like sobriety of treatment, I 

 might have had to quote many other monuments honourable to 

 his reputation as a man of taste." 



"While thus actively eu gaged in the duties of his profession, 

 Mr. Woods still found time to prepare that elaborate Monograph 

 of the difficult genus Bosd, in which attention was first called to 

 the importance of the set(S on the stem in characterizing species, 

 and which, read before this Society in 1816, and published in the 

 12th volume of our Transactions, at once established his reputa- 

 tion as a systematic botanist. Sir J. E. Smith makes continual 

 reference to it in his revision of the genus in the ' English Elora,' 

 and bears testimony to the value of the characters mainly relied 

 upon by Mr. Woods, though disposed to think, by a too absolute 

 dependence on some of them, he may have been induced in some 

 few instances to elevate mere varieties to the rank of species. 



The Continent having, by the fall of Napoleon, become once 

 more accessible to English tourists, Mr. Woods, in 1816, deter- 

 mined to avail himself of the opportunity to study some of the 



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