x Miles "Joseph Berkeley . 
though the long series of papers which he devoted to it 
remain buried in the periodicals in which they appeared, they 
did their work in establishing once for all its treatment on 
a scientific basis. His memoir on the Potato-Murrain, 
published in 1 846, would even half a century later be thought 
a model for similar researches, and has not been added to in 
any material particular. 
Another decade, and in 1857 he published his Introduction 
to Cryptogamic Botany, a memorable book which may still 
be consulted with advantage and always with pleasure. At 
the time and for long after it played somewhat the part filled 
in later years by Sachs’ Lehrbuch. It was the first com- 
prehensive treatise of the kind in any language. While 
summing up the striking results of foreign research, it was 
no mere compilation but everywhere drew materials from 
personal observation. The facts it contains still reveal them- 
selves from time to time with unexpected freshness. One of 
the most striking instances is the account of the curious 
organism Emericella , in which Berkeley came very near to an 
anticipation of Schwendener’s hypothesis of the nature of 
Lichens. The great merit of all his work is the true biological 
spirit with which it was pervaded. Perhaps Mycology in this 
respect has the advantage over other branches of taxonomy 
in that, for the most part, it requires its material to be dealt 
with in the living state. 
The facts of personal history required to complete this 
brief appreciation are few. A man of good family, he was 
educated at Rugby and at Christ’s College, Cambridge. As 
was the case with Darwin, he derived his scientific impulse in 
great measure from Henslow. The first objects of his study 
were Mollusca. and he always preserved the spirit of the 
naturalist. He became a clerk in holy orders in 1827, but 
