SIR WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER. 



927 



library being accessible to botanists he should be provided with such a 

 scientific herbarium curator as he had himself hitherto salaried. 



" Four years afterwards the Royal Gardens came into possession, by 

 gift, of the very extensive library and herbarium of G. Bentham, Esq., F.R.S., 

 which was second to my father's alone in England in extent, methodical 

 arrangement, and nomenclature, and which was placed in the same building. 

 Its formation was begun in 1816, in France, where and in the Pyrenees 

 Mr. Bentham collected diligently ; but its great expansion by the in- 

 clusion of exotic plants dated from his introduction to my father in Glasgow 

 in 1823, when the friendship between the two commenced which remained 

 undisturbed for forty-two years. From that date the two botanists may be 

 said to have hunted in couples for the aggrandisement of their libraries 

 and collections, sharing their duplicates, Mr. Bentham giving my father 

 the preference in all cases of purchase, &c. The one great difference 

 between their aims was, that the former confined his herbarium to 

 flowering plants, whilst my father's rapidly grew to be the richest in the 

 world in both flowering and flowerless plants. The offer of this gift was 

 prearranged with my father, who with his wonted disinterestedness put 

 aside the obvious fact that its acceptance would greatly diminish the 

 value of his own herbarium and library, should the Government ever 

 contemplate its purchase. 



" Turning now to my father's concluding botanical labours, the last of 

 his efforts, the results of which have been far-reaching, was to address in 

 1863 a powerful appeal to H.M. Secretary of State for the Colonies, the 

 Duke of Newcastle, K.G., in favour of H.M. Government undertaking to 

 assist in the preparation and publication of a series of Floras of our 

 colonial and Indian possessions. At the same time, for the information 

 of the Secretary of State, he, in conference with Mr. Bentham, drew up 

 and submitted the following estimate of the scope and cost of such a series 

 of Floras, which is interesting as giving the views of the two best-informed 

 botanists in Europe as to the number of species of flowering plants and 

 ferns natives of the several colonies, specimens of which were assumed to 

 be available in herbaria for description at that time." 



The estimated number of species to be described is then given for the 

 different colonies, and further on we read that " the number of volumes 

 required was estimated to be forty-three; the author's remuneration to be 

 £150 per volume, payable at date of publication. . . . 



" Of the botanical works published by my father during the twenty-four 

 years of his Directorship of Kew, the more important were the continuation 

 of the ' Botanical Magazine,' volumes lxvii. to xc, with 1,440 plates ; the 

 ' Icones Plantarum,' volumes iv. to x., 700 plates ; the 1 Journal of 

 Botany,' volumes hi. and iv., with 28 plates ; the ' London Journal of 

 Botany,' 7 volumes, with 166 plates ; the ' Journal of Botany and Kew 

 Gardens Miscellany,' 9 volumes, with 109 plates. On Ferns alone there 

 were the ' Species Filicum,' 5 volumes, with 304 plates illustrative of 526 

 species; ' Filices Exotica?,' 100 plates ; 'A Second Century of Ferns,' 

 100 plates; the 'British Ferns and their Allies,' 66 plates; ' Garden 

 Ferns,' 64 plates ; and lastly a commencement of a 1 Synopsis Filicum.' 

 To these must be added his 1 Guide-books ' to the Royal Gardens and to 



