Charles Baron Clarke. lv 



he wrote, at the request of Sir J. D. Hooker, the account of the Cyperacece 

 for the ' Flora of British India,' published in 1893 — 94, and at the request 

 of Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer the accounts of the same family for the ' Flora 

 Capensis,' published in 1897 — 98 ; for the ' Flora of Tropical Africa,' 

 published in 1901 — 02 ; and for the ' Index Flora Sinensis,' issued in 1903 — 04. 

 His exhaustive acquaintance with the family was turned to further account 

 in defining, in a paper which appeared in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' in 

 1893, the relationship that natural biologic regions, so far at least as 

 botany is concerned, bear to the tabulation areas which are most useful in 

 dealing with the distribution in space of living organisms. He utilised his 

 familiarity with Cyperacece a second time in 1898 in denning the limits of the 

 sub-subareas that comprise the tabulation area of British India. But his 

 monograph of the family as a whole, though completed at the time of his 

 death, remains still unpublished. 



Clarke did not, however, confine himself exclusively to his favourite family 

 during the period from 1887 onwards. Besides publishing the results of his 

 Manipur journey, in the Linnean ' Journal,' he prepared for Sir W. T. Thiselton- 

 Dyer accounts of three natural families for the ' Flora Capensis,' and 

 of five for the ' Flora of Tropical Africa ' ; of two for Sir G. King's ' Flora 

 of the Malayan Peninsula ' ; and of seven or eight for Schmidt's ' Flora of 

 Koh Chang.' One of the last pieces of work he did was to finish Lowe's 

 • Flora of Madeira.' This is still unpublished ; the text has been completed, 

 but a memoir of Lowe on which Clarke was engaged when overtaken by his 

 last illness remains unfinished. 



Clarke possessed a considerable general knowledge of Natural History, but 

 was not minutely acquainted with any special branch, and he rarely discussed 

 zoological subjects. His acquaintance with Geology was more extensive, and 

 though he seldom spoke at geological meetings, he frequently attended the 

 excursions of the Geologists' Association, not only the shorter day or half- 

 day meetings, but the longer excursions made by the members at Easter and 

 Whitsuntide, and in August, and was always ready to enter into the discussion 

 of such geological questions as arose during the excursions. He was hardly 

 an active fossil collector, and his interest inclined rather to those wide 

 problems in Geology where the science approaches the domain of Physio- 

 graphy. He was frequently able to intervene in discussions on the 

 origin of river-systems, the formation of valleys, and similar topics, and to 

 describe, from his Indian experience, cases very much in point. The extent 

 and accuracy of his knowledge of Geography are incidentally shown in 

 those papers which deal with the distribution of plants and are more 

 directly seen in the various geographical text-books written by him for 

 Macmillan between 1878 and 1894. Equally extensive was his knowledge of 

 History generally and of English History in particular, though, if a 

 conclusion might be drawn from his conversation, his interest was greatest 

 and his knowledge most detailed with regard to the periods of the Tudors 

 and the Stuarts. Unfortunately, none of the results of his historical studies 



