THE 
HEW PflYTOIiOGIST. 
Vol. VI., No. i. January 31ST, 1907. 
HARRY MARSHALL WARD. 
I WILLINGLY comply with the Editor’s request that I would 
write some account of the remarkable personality of which 
botanical science in this country has been so untimely bereft. The 
story has not only an almost romantic interest of its own, but it is 
a not unimportant chapter in the history of our botanical school. If 
in telling it I am a little autobiographical, the circumstances of the 
case make this unavoidable. 
In 1873 Professor Huxley’s health compelled him to go abroad. 
At a very short notice I was asked to take his place at what was 
then the Normal School of Science at South Kensington, and give 
a Course of Instruction in Botany to Science Teachers, on the lines 
which Huxley had himself worked out for Biology generally. A 
lecture was given in the morning, and during the remainder of the 
day the students were assisted in demonstrating for themselves in 
the laboratory what had been taught dogmatically in the lecture- 
room. I secured the help of the late Professor Lawson, and it 
must be confessed that the task we attempted was no easy one. 
At that time botanical teaching in this country was practically 
confined to the medical curriculum. It did not attempt to go 
beyond the organography of Flowering Plants and was, I take it, 
mainly regarded as an introduction to materia medica. While I 
was teaching in Dublin I had attempted to cover the whole mor¬ 
phology of the Vegetable Kingdom, without, however, any facilities 
for laboratory instruction. The South Kensington course was an 
opportunity for launching out more boldly. Lawson and I accord¬ 
ingly determined, with an audacity at which I now almost shiver, 
to demonstrate to our students things which for the most part we 
had only seen ourselves in books, and which were regarded with awe 
as only within the competence of the greatest masters. Our 
attempt was at any rate rewarded with considerable success. 
