XXIV 
George Bent ham, F.R.S. 
his critics, that he had for half-a-century observed, collected, 
and preserved most of the species of the British Flora over 
a great part of Continental Europe, as well as in the British 
Isles, that his views were founded on wide experience, and 
that the results of them in terms of genera and species were 
drawn up from examination, in almost every case, of living 
examples. The Handbook was a great favourite of Mr. Dar- 
win, whose admiration of the masterly way in which the 
author dealt with the main features of the British' Flora, 
drew from him the exclamation, * Good Heavens ! to think 
of British botanists turning up their noses and saying that 
he knows nothing of British plants V 
Bentham’s labours at Kew on the above three works were 
interrupted by several serious demands on his time and 
energies, his response to which places in a striking light 
his disinterested devotion to the progress of science. Of 
these the most important was his acceptance of the Presidency 
of the Linnean Society. This he accepted in 1863, and 
threw himself into the duties of the office, which he dis- 
charged for eleven years, with energy, wisdom, and single- 
ness of purpose ; and, it should be recorded, with no small 
expenditure of his means. It made no difference in respect 
of the time devoted to his work at Kew ; for the one day 
of the week which he had reserved for his own affairs was 
thereafter devoted wholly, or in part, together with much 
of his evening hours, to the Society’s affairs. During the 
years in which he held office he took the chair at the evening 
and council meetings, with all but unbroken punctuality. 
On the transference of the Society’s library, collections, and 
portraits, to the apartments in Burlington House provided 
by the Government, he personally superintended the arrange- 
ments, classifying the books, and literally with his own hands 
placing them on the book-shelves ; and he himself indexed 
1 Life and Letters, Vol. ii, p. 363. It must not be supposed that Bentham 
disparaged the labours of those who aimed at what he considered the multiplication 
of species. No naturalist was more appreciative of accurate work in this depart- 
ment of botany, and of its value. 
