xxvi 



In 1814 he made a botanizing expedition into France, Switzerland, and 

 the north of Italy, which extended over a period of nine months, and in 

 the course of which he became acquainted, at Paris and elsewhere, with the 

 principal botanists of Europe ; thus lajdng the foundation of a scientific 

 intercourse and correspondence which lasted until his death. 



In 1815 he married the eldest daughter of Mr. Dawson Turner, a banker 

 in Yarmouth, and settled at Halesworth, in Suffolk, where his house at 

 once became the rendezvous of British and foreign botanists, and where 

 he commenced the formation of that great Herbarium which is now the 

 finest in the world. 



His first botanical work was that on the British Jungermannise, which 

 was completed in 1816. This, which is a model of skilful microscopic 

 dissection and accurate description, is illustrated b)^ engravings after draw- 

 ings by his own exquisite pencil. The * Muscologia Britannica ' was pub- 

 lished in conjunction with Dr, Taylor, in 1817, and was followed by the 

 ' Musci Exotici.' These and other works, added to an increasing home 

 and foreign correspondence, fully occupied his time for the next five 

 years of his life. Meanwhile his property had been rapidly deteriorating, 

 and with an increasing family he found it necessary to look out for scm.e 

 remunerative scientific employment. He therefore accepted the Regius 

 Professorship of Botany in the University of Glasgow, at that time vacant, 

 and removed to that city in 1820. 



His life at Glasgow was entirely devoted to botany ; he rose early, and 

 went late to bed ; he visited but little, and devoted the whole powers of 

 his mind and his pencil to his favourite science. He was a most popular 

 lecturer, his class being sometimes attended by as many volunteers as 

 collegians ; he encouraged his students in the pursuit, by taking them on 

 excursions, by giving them rare plants from his duplicates, and by furnish- 

 ing them with letters of introduction to all parts of the world when they 

 went abroad. He kept up a close connexion with the authorities of the 

 Admiralty, Treasury, Foreign, and Colonial Offices ; and it was mainly 

 through his exertions that botanists were so frequently appointed to the 

 various Government expeditions of that period. 



During the twenty years he resided at Glasgow he published his ^ Flora 

 Scotica,* in which the plants of a great part of the British Isles were for 

 the first time arranged according to the natural method ; the * Flora Exo- 

 tica,' and (in conjunction with Dr. Greville) the ' Icones Filicum ; ' also 

 the * Botanical Miscellany,' the ' Journal of Botany,' the * Icones Planta- 

 rum,' the * British Flora,' the * Botany of Ross's, Parry's, Frankhn's, 

 Back's, and other Arctic Expeditions ; ' the * Flora Boreali- Americana,' 

 and (in conjunction with Dr. Walker x\rnott) the * Botany of Beechey's 

 Voyage,' and various other works of standard authority. In 1826 he 

 commenced the authorship of the ' Botanical Magazine,' which he carried 

 on for nearly forty years. His Herbarium in the meantime was constantly 

 receiving accessions, mainly owing to the indefatigable correspondence he 



