NOTICE 



OF 



WILLIAM GRIFFITH, 

 jFvom tfie tyvotctbiw* of t%t Utimapatt £owtu, 



WITH 



A FEW EXTRACTS FROM HIS PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



"William Griffith, Esq., the youngest son of the late Thomas 

 Griffith, was born on the 4th of March 1810, at his father's residence 

 at Ham Common, near Kingston- upon-Thames, in the county of 

 Surrey. 



" He was educated for the Medical profession, and completed his 

 studies at the London University, where he became a pupil of Prof. 

 Lindley, under whose able instructions, assisted by the zealous 

 friendship of Mr. R. H. Solly, and in conjunction with two fellow 

 pupils of great scientific promise, Mr. Slack and Mr. Valentine, he 

 made rapid progress in the acquisition of botanical knowledge. The 

 first public proofs that he gave of his abilities are contained in a mi- 

 croscopic delineation of the structure of the wood and an analysis of 

 the flower of Phytocrene gigantea, in the third volume of Dr. Wallich's 

 ' Plantse Asiatics Rariores' ; and in a note on the development and 

 structure of Targionia hypophylla, appended to M. de Mirbel's Disser- 

 tation on Marchantia polymorpha, both published in 1832. So highly 

 were his talents as an observer appreciated at this early period, that 

 Dr. Wallich speaks of him as one " whose extraordinary talents and 

 knowledge as a botanist, entitle him to the respect of all lovers of the 

 science;" and M. de Mirbel characterizes him as "jeune Anglois, 

 tres instruit, tres zele et fort bon observateur/' 



b 



