John Gilbert Baker. 



XXIX 



to draw up a complementary review of the geographical distribution of ferns 

 which was published by the Linnean Society in 1867. Numerous other 

 papers dealing with questions of distribution were published by him in later 

 years and at the close of his first course of lectures at Kew in 1874 he was 

 invited to contribute to the ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' a series of " Elementary 

 Lessons in Botanical Geography " in order " that gardeners and other learners 

 in biology should be encouraged as much as possible to acquire comprehensive 

 and correct ideas of the laws and leading facts of plant distribution." These 

 articles were so greatly appreciated that he was persuaded to permit their 

 publication in 1875 in book form. In 1888 he was jointly responsible with 

 W. W. Newboult for a revised edition of the ' Topographical Botany ' by 

 H. C. Watson, to whom the orioinal edition of his own ' North Yorkshire ' 

 was dedicated. This natural history interest and instinct, manifest even in 

 those writings which duty compelled him to cast in a taxonomic mould, 

 remained powerful to the end, for the last of his published papers, which 

 appeared in 1917, deals with the botany and the physical geography of 

 Palestine. 



Baker's work as a naturalist and systematist received general recognition. 

 In September, 1864, as soon as his review of the British roses appeared,. 

 Baker was elected an Associate Member of the Soci^te Eoyale de Botanique 

 at Brussels. In April, 1866, he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society 

 in whose welfare he took a keen interest. He served as a member of Council 

 during 1876-78, 1889-91 and 1893-96, acting as a Vice-president during 

 1889-91 and again in 1893-94. His work for the 'Flora Brasiliensis ' led to 

 his election to the Leopoldinisch-Carolinische Akademie der Naturforscher of 

 Halle. From 1868 to 1886 he served on the scientific committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society and in the last mentioned year was appointed a Vice- 

 chairman of the Narcissus Committee, although not then a Fellow of the Society. 

 In June, 1878, he was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society and served on 

 the Council in 1883-84. He became a member of the Yorkshire Naturalists^ 

 Union in 1883 and was elected President for 1884-85. In February, 

 1886, he was elected an Honorary Member of the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society of Manchester. After having been deprived of his help for two years,, 

 owing to modification of their bye-laws, the Council of the Eoyal Horti- 

 cultural Society in December, 1888, did him the signal honour of appointing 

 him an Honorary Life-fellow, thus enabling them to appoint him to preside 

 over the botanical section of the Eose Conference of 1889 and to benefit again 

 from that year onwards by his services as a member of the scientific 

 committee. In 1890 the Natural History Society of Dumfries and that of 

 Northumberland and Durham made him one of their Honorary Members. 

 In November, 1896, he was elected a British Honorary Fellow of the 

 Botanical Society of Edinburgh. He became a Corresponding Member of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in July, 1898, and of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences in February, 1899. In 1902 he was elected art 

 Honorary Member of the Eoyal Irish Academy. 



