306 The late Lieut. -Colonel John G. Champion. 



country, Major Champion most liberally presented to me a 

 complete set of his Hong Kong collections, communicating to 

 me at the same time his notes and sketches made from the liv- 

 ing plants. From these materials I have been drawing up a 

 Florula Hong-Kongensis, the greater part of which (the whole 

 of the Dicotyledones) is already published in Sir W. Hooker's 

 Kew Journal of Botany, and I hope very soon to complete the 

 remainder. The original specimens are deposited in my Her- 

 barium, now the property of the Royal Gardens at Kew. Ma- 

 jor Champion, before his departure to the East, presented the 

 set of specimens he had reserved for himself to Sir W. Hooker, 

 who had already purchased from Dr Gardner's executors those 

 which Major Champion had sent to Ceylon, so that the whole 

 of his collections are now deposited in the Herbaria at Kew, 

 open for inspection and study to all botanists. From Major 

 Champion's seeds some of the handsomest of his Hong Kong 

 novelties, such as Rhodoleia Championi, Rhododendron Cham- 

 pionse, &c, have been raised and secured to our gardens by 

 nurserymen and others to whom he had presented them." 



Colonel Champion's disposition was essentially unselfish and 

 liberal, and he parted with everything he acquired only too 

 readily. His first object always was to place the unique and 

 more valuable part of his collections in the possession of the 

 public institutions of his country, where they would be most 

 accessible ; after that, whoever took an interest in the subject 

 was supplied with specimens, so long as they lasted. In con- 

 sequence, the private collections he has left are meagre, com- 

 pared with what he has bestowed on the British Museum, Kew 

 Gardens, &c. &c. 



His readiness to communicate his information was equally 

 great, and his original ideas and remarks were often the means 

 of setting other minds on a scent which led to valuable results. 

 His style of writing was easy and fluent, and well calculated 

 to render every subject he treated of interesting to his readers. 

 In this sketch of Colonel Champion's scientific character, 

 his private and domestic relations are necessarily omitted ; 

 but it may not be altogether irrelevant to mention that he was 

 aided and encouraged in his scientific pursuits by his amiable 

 and accomplished wife, a lady of a congenial spirit, who sym- 



