xxviii George Bent ham, F.R.S. 
which the first part appeared in July 1862, the concluding 
in April 1883. The closing years of his life are feelingly 
described by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer in his Eulogium, in the 
following words : — ‘ In the latter years of his life Bentham 
was not less imbued with affection for his task, though the 
sense of the precariousness of life chiefly affected him with 
anxiety as to its completion. The flame of his intellectual 
powers never burnt more brightly, too brightly perhaps 
for a frame which slowly but perceptibly enfeebled. During 
the last years of what was a supreme effort, it was impossible 
not to feel a degree of awe for the intense devotion with 
which he pursued, without intermission, his self-imposed 
labour. Towards the last it appeared to one that by mere 
effort of will he actually sustained his bodily vitality. When 
the last revise of the last sheet 1 was returned to the printer, 
the stimulus was withdrawn. Nature, so long indulgent, 
would no longer be withstood. He came once or twice 
again to Kew, but found no task that he could settle to. 
At home he commenced a brief autobiography. The pen 2 
with which he had written his two greatest works broke in 
his hand in the middle of a page. He accepted the omen, 
laid aside the unfinished manuscript, and patiently awaited 
the not distant end.’ 
I cannot better conclude this attempt to convey an 
adequate idea of the value and amount of Bentham’s 
labours, than by citing a passage from his intimate friend’s, 
Dr. Asa Gray’s, Memorial, premising that the latter botanist 
most nearly approached him of all his scientific contem- 
poraries in the qualities he alludes to and the range of his 
work. He writes : — 6 It will have been seen that Mr. Bentham 
confined himself to the Phanerogams, to morphological, 
1 This was the general index, which, as those of each successive part, he made 
himself, so scrupulous was he in his e fforts to avoid error, even in so mechanical 
an operation. 
2 This was one of Mordan’s gold pens, which have I think iridium nibs. It 
‘ wrote ’ not only the seven volumes of the ‘ Flora Australiensis,’ and the three of 
the ‘ Genera Plantarum,’ but a vast number of botanical papers and letters. The 
pen -holder is preserved at the Herbarium, Kew. 
