1908-1909.] 



i 9 7 



South American continent and the adjacent seas. "I have always," 

 he afterwards wrote, " felt that I owe to the voyage the first real 

 training or education of my mind." Geology was the science in 

 which he was most proficient, but on the voyage he was an inde- 

 fatigable collector. For instance, when exploring the Galapagos 

 group of islands he tells that he collected specimens of every plant 

 he saw in flower, and very fortunately kept his collections made on 

 the different islands quite separate. It was the peculiarity of the 

 facts regarding the geographical distribution of plants and animals 

 which he noted on these islands that influenced him greatly after- 

 wards in propounding his epoch-making theory. After his return 

 to England in 1836, his marriage in 1839, and his final settlement 

 at the small Kentish village of Down in 1842 —where he continued 

 to reside till his death, forty years later — his life-story is that of 

 the books which he wrote, expounding his great theory and 

 explaining the results of his multifarious investigations. The 

 lecturer then proceeded to explain and deal with Darwin's work in 

 botany, prefacing his remarks on this aspect of his subject by 

 remarking that Darwin himself was accustomed to disclaim all 

 title to the rank of a professed botanist. It must never be lost 

 sight of that Darwin was essentially a naturalist of the old type, 

 such as Linnaeus and Humboldt. Apart from the botanical issues 

 raised in his famous book "On the Origin of Species," his distinct- 

 ively botanical books are in themselves an immemorial reminder 

 of his many-sided fertility, and his genius for minute original 

 investigations, as well as for the framing of suggestive scientific 

 hypotheses for their explanation. His "Fertilization of Orchids" 

 was the earliest work, and it was followed by many others of like 

 originality. The striking results of his labours are now the 

 accepted commonplaces of every modern text-book on botany. 

 But the indirect influence which Darwin's work and views exer- 

 cised in the furthering of botanical research has been perhaps of 

 greater magnitude than the direct results of his own investigations. 

 Yet of these direct results Sir W. T. Thiselton Dyer, himself a 



