XIV 



Obituary Notices of Felloivs deceased. 



were associated with a type of foliage quite new to the Leguminosae. He 

 showed the specimens to Mr. N. E. Brown and the writer, and the critical- 

 eyed Brown at once exclaimed " Why, the flowers are inserted in a branch of 

 something different." It flashed across Oliver's brain that John Chinaman 

 had deceived him and he hastened to fetch the specimens of his Actinotinus, 

 when the fraud was evident ; but it was so cleverly manipulated that it had 

 escaped detection by at least four persons who had handled the specimens. 

 I never before or since saw Prof. Oliver so excited, and I am sure it disturbed 

 his truth-loving soul for days, if not weeks. I am not sure whether he ever 

 knew that I was similarly victimised some years later, when I described the 

 leaves of a Daphniphyllum and the flowers of a Ehododendron as a new 

 species of the latter genus. But I do know that the same Chinaman tried 

 the same trick with Mr. E. H. Wilson ; was detected and mulcted of three 

 weeks' wages. 



Allusion has already been made to Oliver's artistic temperament, but 

 nothing has been said of his activity in Art and its development, and how 

 he became acquainted with Euskin. In 1870 he delivered a course of 

 10 lectures on Botany at South Kensington Museum, in which the doctrine 

 of " axis and appendages " was expounded. Meeting a lady at tea one day, 

 Ruskin asked her what she had been doing, and she explained that she had 

 attended these lectures, and informed him that the lecturer had stated that 

 there were " seven sorts of leaves, and that there were no flowers." Euskin 

 used this as his text for a diatribe in ' Eors Clavigera.' Apparently, Oliver 

 expostulated, for later in the same volume there is an apology. However, 

 the sequel was a friendly visit to Kew and a lifelong friendship as the result. 



Oliver's holidays were largely spent in sketching, and his ' Plant and 

 Animal Forms as used by Workmen of the Middle Ages in Decoration, 

 chiefly of French Churches,' was the outcome of a sample of his work of the 

 period 1882-86. The selection consists of 50 large quarto sketches, privately 

 reproduced in lithography, and distributed among his friends. This work 

 was highly praised by Euskin, though he unfavourably criticised the 

 drawings in the fifth " Decade." The writer possesses a set of this work, 

 given him by the artist, which comprises examples of the stonemason's art 

 at Senlis, Noyon, Amiens, Laon, Coucy, Soissons, Beauvais, Provins, Troyes, 

 and Chartres. It has a special interest now, as several of these places are 

 within the area of destruction. After his retirement from the Service in 

 1890, Oliver successfully devoted his leisure to gardening and painting 

 in oil. 



Our botanist had hobbies, and he began collecting examples of the 

 illustrated works of the " old masters " in botanical literature at a period 

 when editiones imnciiJes were to be had at moderate prices, and his collection 

 comprised choice copies of the most celebrated authors. In this matter he 

 may have been influenced by William Arnold Bromfield's legacy to Kew, 

 which included a small but critical selection of herbals. 



Oliver's activity was by no means confined to that which bears his name. 



