i8S7-] MISCELLANEOUS BOTANICAL LETTERS. 525 



view is rather to construct a list of genera and species (with 

 references) founded on Bentham and Hooker's ' Genera 

 Plantarum.' The colossal nature of the work in progress at 

 Kew may be estimated by the fact that the manuscript of the 

 'Index' is at the present time (1887) believed to weigh more 

 than a ton. Under Sir Joseph Hooker's supervision the 

 work goes steadily forward, being carried out with admirable 

 zeal by Mr. Jackson, who devotes himself unsparingly to the 

 enterprise, in which, too, he has the advantage of the active 

 interest in the work felt by Professor Oliver and Mr. Thisel- 

 ton Dyer. 



The Kew 'Index,' which will, in all probability, be ready 

 to go to press in four or five years, will be a fitting memorial 

 of my father: and his share in its completion illustrates a 

 part of his character — his ready sympathy with work outside 

 his own lines of investigation — and his respect for minute 

 and patient labour in all branches of science.] 



