Daniel Oliver. 



XT 



He was consulted by Bentham and the Hookers on all knotty points which 

 arose in connection with the compilation of the great 'Genera Plantarum ' 

 and other Kew publications. Xo botanist possessed a more profound 

 knowledge of the classification and geographical distribution of the 

 phanerogamic elements in the vegetation of all regions of the earth : none 

 was better versed than he in the structure of the " formse abnormes " and 

 '■' genera anomala," yet he was too conservative and too modest, or perhaps 

 too faithful to the Kew traditions, to give the world his own ideas of an 

 amended classification. Perhaps this was due to the fact that his soul was 

 more enchanted by the beautiful forms of" nature than by their arbitrary 

 groupments for purposes of study. His love of the beautiful was exemplified 

 by his matutinal button-hole of flowers, regularly transferred to a little 

 vase on his work table. As a worker he was very rapid ; all his actions 

 were nervously performed, yet controlled by an equally spontaneous 

 thinking power. StiU, it must be admitted that his scattered descriptions 

 of interesting novelties are sometimes neither so full nor so instructive as 

 he could have made them. 



By nature, Oliver was hostile to personal honours in the form of medals 

 and other emblems for distinguished services which he regarded as duties to 

 God and man. Yet he had perforce to receive a Fellowship of the Eoyal 

 Society in 1863, a "Eoyal" Medal (1884), and the Linnean Gold Medal 

 (1893). When he retired from the public service in 1890, H.M. First 

 Commissioner of Works placed on record the high appreciation of the 

 Government of the valuable services rendered by Oliver to the Eoyal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the distinguished ability which he had brought 

 to bear on the work of his department. In 1891 the University of 

 Aberdeen conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. A portrait of 

 Oliver by J. Wilson Forster was presented to the Kew Herbarium by his 

 friends and admirers in 1893. 



In July, 1916, there were four successive keepers of the Kew Herbarium 

 and Library li\'ing, and they were photographed in a group iu Mr. J. G. 

 Baker's garden at Kew. They were : Daniel Oliver, in his 87th year ; 

 John Gilbert Baker, 84th year ; William Botting Hemsley, 73rd year ; and 

 Otto Stapf, 59th year. The association in a picture of four successive living 

 holders of the same office is such an imusual event that it seems of sufficient 

 interest to be put on record here. 



The foregoing lines inadequately commemorate the life of an esteemed 

 friend, a generous colleague, a faithful public servant, and an accomplished 

 man ; but they are the words of a grateful pupil and admirer. 



The portrait by MauU and Fox was taken in 1903. 



W. B. H. 



