144 Obituary. 



extremity about half an inch. It was broken off by accident in taking up ; 

 otherwise there can be no doubt it would have been at least 10 ft. in length, 

 before it began to ramify in consequence of reaching the drainage. — Cond. 



Art. III. Obituary. 



Died, Jan. 24., in the sixty-seventh year of his age, Joseph Sabine, Esq., 

 F.R.S., L.S., H.S., &c., for many years honorary secretary to the London 

 Horticultural Society, and a well-known amateur of botany and gardening. 

 Mr. Sabine was brought up to the bar; but, shortly after he had begun to 

 practise, he was appointed by government one of the inspectors-general of the 

 assessed taxes, at a salary of 600/. a year, with travelling expenses and other 

 emoluments. This office he retained till 1835, when he was put upon the 

 retired allowance, said to be about 350/. per annum. In 1810, Mr. Sabine 

 joined the Horticultural Society, of which he was made honorary secretary 

 on May 1. of the same year, Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq., having re- 

 signed. The accounts of the Society were, previously to that time, in a state 

 of great confusion ; and Mr. Sabine having restored them to order, the gold 

 medal of the Society was awarded to him in June, 1816. Mr. Sabine, about 

 this time, took a decided lead in the management of the Society's affairs; 

 and, by his exertions, greatly increased the number of fellows, as well as led 

 to the establishment of the Society's Garden, first at Hammersmith, and 

 afterwards at Chiswick. In short, the flourishing state of the Horticultural 

 Society, from 1816 to 1828, and all the immense good that it effected during 

 that interval of time, are mainly to be attributed to the activity and ardour of 

 Mr. Sabine. To him we owe the admirable collection of fruits in the Horti- 

 cultural Society's Garden, unequalled in the world; and the best kinds of 

 which are gradually becoming substituted, all over Britain, for the inferior 

 sorts previously in cultivation; and to Mr. Sabine it may also be said that we 

 owe all the fine plants sent home by Douglas, and other collectors sent out by 

 the Society, as these collectors were all sent during the time he had the di- 

 rectorship of it. This statement we consider to be due to the memory of 

 Mr. Sabine. The defective part of his management of the affairs of the 

 Society was, his being too secret and despotic ; in consequence of which, he 

 could not avail himself of either the advice or the corrections of his colleagues 

 in the Council, or of other members of the Society. In short, as it has truly 

 been said, he was, during the time specified, not only the secretary, but the 

 president, council, and even the head gardener, of the Society. His ardour 

 led to enormous expenses, which the funds were inadequate to defray ; and, 

 in consequence, the Society became deeply in debt. The amount of this debt, 

 which the Society had been gradually incurring, was concealed by Mr. Sabine 

 (see Vol. VI. p. 236.), till it burst upon the fellows like a thunderbolt in 1830, 

 and had nearly occasioned the dissolution of the Society. It may be neces- 

 sary here to state, for the sake of those persons who did not know Mr. Sa- 

 bine's personal character, that no one ever entertained the most distant idea 

 of any part of the debt having been incurred by himself individually ; on the 

 contrary, he not only gave up every spare moment of his time to the Society 

 without receiving any remuneration, but, we believe, even incurred expenses 

 on its account. Mr. Sabine was ever a warm friend to practical gardeners, 

 many of whom, now filling eminent situations, were indebted for them to his 

 recommendation. After Mr. Sabine ceased to be honorary secretary of the 

 Horticultural Society, he became an active member of the Zoological So- 

 ciety, and was the means of greatly increasing its collection of ornamental 

 plants in the garden of that Society, in the Regent's Park. 



" Mr. Sabine's remains were interred, Feb. 1 ., in the Cemetery in the 

 Harrow Road, attended by his nephew, Capt. Brown; Capt. Bowles, R.N. ; 

 Dr. Beattie; and Edward Barnard, Robert Brown, E. S. Hardisty, and 

 Thomas Goode, Esqrs." (^Lit. Gaz.) 



