George Bentham , F.R.S. xxi 
interest was communicated in thirty-one anonymous letters to 
the Gardener’s Chronicle (Vols. 1846-7). Like those men- 
tioned above from Germany, they are of great value as con- 
tributions to the history of botany and horticulture during the 
period in which they were written. 
With the view of providing better accommodation for his 
library and herbarium, and devoting himself exclusively to 
science, Bentham removed in 1842 to Pontrilas, an Eliza- 
bethan manor house belonging to his brother-in-law, Colonel 
Scudamore. Here his chief occupation was providing material 
for the continuation of Auguste De Candolle’s ‘ Prodromus 
systematis naturalis Regni Vegetabilis,’ which had been 
undertaken by his (Bentham’s) intimate friend, Alphonse 
De Candolle. In this work he contributed the Ericeae, 
Polemoniaceae, Scrophularineae, Eriogoneae, and a greatly 
enlarged revision of the Labiatae, amounting in all to over 
4,730 species. During the same interval he published the 
Botany of the Voyage of the Sulphur in the Malayan seas 
and Pacific ocean, a quarto work with 60 plates. 
Whilst resident at Pontrilas he also did his duty as Justice 
of the Peace for the county of Hereford with punctuality and 
efficiency. 
In 1854, finding that the cost of keeping up his library and 
herbarium threatened to exceed his income, he determined 
to offer these to the Government, with the stipulation that 
they should form part of the establishment of Kew 1 , he himself 
abandoning botany, and removing from Pontrilas to London. 
This munificent offer was of course gladly accepted by the 
Government, and the materials were placed in what is now 
called the Herbarium building of Kew, to be subsequently 
amalgamated with the richer collections of books and plants 
1 Where there were at that time no other library or herbarium than the private 
ones of Sir W. Hooker, which he had been permitted to deposit in a house 
previously in the occupation of one of the Royal Family. The said house had, at 
the advice of Sir Joseph Banks, been purchased by George III for the very purpose 
which it now serves, and one room was actually shelved for the books. On the 
death of the king and his scientific counsellor, in the same year, the house was 
otherwise appropriated. 
