The late Professor Edward Forbes. 141 



draughtsman) were kindly permitted to remain, for the sake of 

 further antiquarian and natural history investigations. Mr 

 Daniel was unfortunately cut off by fever in his prime ; but 

 notwithstanding this calamity, the results of a few months' ex- 

 ploration were most satisfactory. No fewer than eighteen 

 ancient cities, the sites of which were unknown to geographers, 

 were examined and determined ;* and many valuable facts in 

 geology and zoology ascertained and recorded. 



Having successfully accomplished a task, not unattended by 

 difficulty and danger, Mr Forbes was on the point of proceed- 

 ing to conduct corresponding investigations in the Red Sea, 

 when letters from England announced his (unsought and un- 

 thought of) election to the chair of Botany, in King's College, 

 London ; an honour not more gratifying than unexpected, as 

 he was not even aware of the lamented death of his predecessor, 

 Professor Don. He was chosen over the heads of several 

 very competent, — indeed, eminent candidates, — without having 

 been a candidate himself. He returned immediately to Lon- 

 don, and finding that his professorial duties were confined to 

 the summer season, he sought and obtained the curatorship of 

 the Museum of the Geological Society. 



In this superficial sketch we enter not into details. Of Pro- 

 fessor Edward Forbes' great excellence as an accurate and 

 philosophical botanist we feel quite assured. One who knew 

 him well, and is highly competent to judge (Dr Joseph Hooker, 

 a kindred spirit), has expressed his wonder that the author of 

 so many and varied geological treatises should have found 

 time to aim at original researches in any other department of 

 science, and should have been so successful in that aim. " This 

 was mainly due to the early age at which he acquired its rudi- 

 ments ; to the efficient practical training in systematic botany 

 and collecting that he received in Edinburgh ; to his quick 

 perception of affinities ; to his philosophical views of morpho- 

 logy, distribution, structure, functions, and the mutual rela- 

 tions of all these ; to his mind being richly stored with the 

 literature of the science ; to the wide experience obtained dur- 

 ing his travels ; and, finally, to that heaven-given power of 



* See Travels in Lycia, Milyas, and the Cibyratis, 2 vols., 1847. 



