9 6 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



famous Lattice Leaf plant [Ouvirandrd) and 

 Angraecums, which he had discovered during 

 his travels in Madagascar. Dr. Gardner also 

 sent Mackay and Bain plants of the original 

 Cattleya Labiata and Zygopetalum Mackayi, 

 which he had found wild in Brazil. Dr. Har- 

 vey delighted Bain by saying that the large- 

 flowered Disa as grown in the College Gardens 

 was as fine as any he had seen growing on 

 Table Mountain. With these and many other 

 plants, such as exotic Droseras, Sarracenias, 

 Cepha/otus, Vanda ccerulea, and the Dove Or- 

 chid, or Peristeria of Panama, Bain was com- 

 pletely successful, at a time when they were 

 rare and their cultivation little understood. 



Visitors to the University gardens in those 

 days as now were frequently of high scienti- 

 fic or literary standing : eminent physicians 

 and surgeons like Stokes, Crampton, Corri- 

 gan, Hudson, Butcher, and even Archbishop 

 Whately and other divines, enjoyed Bain's 

 conversation 7 among his plants, and Whately 



JOHN BAIN. 



especially was one of his constant visitors. 

 Although Bain wrote little himself, he was 

 never weary of aiding others with advice or 

 genial criticism. The late William Archer, 

 librarian of the Royal Dublin Society, and 

 afterwards of the New National Library ; the 

 late A. G. More and Mr. Thomas Bewley, 

 one of the most generous of Dublin merchants 

 and an enthusiastic amateur grower of choice 

 exotics, were among Bain's more intimate 

 friends. 



During his younger days at the College 

 Gardens Bain was a zealous and active collector, 

 and he rendered Dr. Mackay great assistance 

 in his early morning lectures, as also on the 

 occasions of the field botany or collecting ex- 

 peditions through the neighbouring country. 

 Even late in life, both at Dublin and at Holy- 

 head, Bain would walk miles in order to show 

 his friends the habitats of rare and beautiful 

 plants, and to him many of us owed our first 

 glimpse of not a few uncommon native plants. 

 A little collecting tour with John Bain, 

 even in his older days, was an experience 

 no naturalist would ever be likely to 

 forget. 



An excellent woodcut portrait of 

 John Bain was published in The Gar- 

 den for June 26, 1889, which half- 

 yearly volume was dedicated to him as 

 having been honourably connected with 

 the College Botanic Gardens, Dublin, 

 for a period of about fifty years. Bain 

 before his death was one of the oldest of 

 living associates of the Linnasan Society 

 of London. Although of a sensitive 

 and retiring disposition, he could hold 

 his own with the best, and was ever 

 genial and generous to all those who 

 really knew and respected him, and to 

 many of these now living his memory 

 will long remain green. He died at 

 ^ Holyhead on Tuesday, April 28, and 

 was laid to rest near the avenue of old 

 gnarled hawthorns in Mount Jerome 

 Cemetery at Dublin, on the 1st day of 

 May, beside his brothers Robert and 

 William Bain, James Fraser, Dr. Mac- 

 kay, and others of the old friends of his 

 youth. 



F. W. B. 



