396 A SKETCH OP THE PROGRESS OF 



a modest epitaph, but the four lines of rhyme at its conclusion are now 

 (February 1868) quite illegible. 



We have not met with the date of Curtis's marriage. He left a widow 

 with one daughter* who in 1801 married a relative, Samuel Curtis, then a 

 florist at Walworth. By his will Curtis left the Flora Londinensis and 

 Botanical Magazine to his wife and daughter, and the control and manage- 

 ment of his works to Dr. John Sims, one of his executors. The Flora Lond., 

 as we have mentioned, was sold to Mr. Graves, but Dr. Sims carried on the 

 Bot. Mag. till 1826, when Samuel Curtis became the sole proprietor, and Dr. 

 W. J. Hooker the editor. Samuel Curtis died so recently as 1860, at La 

 Chaise, Jersey, at the age of eighty-one (see Bot. Mag. vol. Ixxxvi.). 



There is a portrait of Curtis prefixed to his Lectures on Botany, and also 

 to his Memoirs. 



Besides the important works mentioned, Curtis was the author of the 

 following : — 



Instructions for collecting andpreserving Insects 



1771 



Fundamenta Entomologice of Linnceus (translation) . . . 1772 



Linnceus's System of Botany (so far as relates to his classes and orders) . 1777 



Proposals for opening the London Botanic Garden by Subscription . 1778 



A Short History of the Brown-tail Moth . . . . . 1782 



Assistant Plates to the Materia Medicct . . . • • 1786 



An Enumeration of the British Grasses . . . • • 1787 



Companion to the Botanical Magazine ..... 1788 



Obseifations on Curculio Lapathi and Silpha grisen (Linn. Trans. 1. 86) 1788 

 Practical Observations on British Grasses (a second edition of the 



Enumeration) ........ 1790 



A Third Edition 1798 



Proposals for a course of Hej-borising Excursions. (1 sheet) . . 1792? 



Directions for cultivating Crambe maritima or Sea Kale . . . 1799 



After his death, his Lectures on Botany as delivered in the Botanic Garden 

 at Lamhcth, in three volumes, were published in 1805 by his son-in-law, 

 Samuel Curtis ; and Sir Joseph Banks edited two more editions of the 

 British Grasses, in 1805 and 1812. In the Linn. Trans, (vol. vi. 15) is a 

 paper, Observations on Aphides by the late Mr. W. Curtis, ' digested ' by 

 Sir J. E. Smith. 



He contemplated a general Natural History of Great Britain, and made 

 excursions for the purpose of collecting material ; in these he was always 

 attended by Mr. Sydenham Edwards, who sketched birds, plants, &c., on 

 the spot, to which Curtis afterwards appended minute descriptions. Many 

 hundred original drawings of Mr. Edwards were bequeathed to Samuel 

 Curtis. 



The favourite haunts of Curtis near London were Charlton, in Kent, and 

 Battersea Fields, in Surrey, then very different to their present condition, 

 and very productive of rare plants. In Middlesex, the western suburbs of 

 town, and Hounslow and Hampstead Heaths, were explored by him, as well 

 as the Isle of Dogs, and other parts. His observations in these localities 



* She died July 2, 1827, leaving six sons and seven daughters with her husband. 



