4 
An Appreciation: 
Government however fully appreciated the value of Marshall 
Ward’s work. After his return from Ceylon in 1882 he worked for 
a time with De Bary at Strasburg. 
During his residence in Ceylon he found time thoroughly to 
investigate two epiphyllous organisms which were incidental to his 
main research. That on Meliola I communicated to the Royal 
Society and it was published in the. Philosophical Transactions. That 
on an Epiphyllous Lichen I communicated to the Linnean Society. 
For some reason Marshall Ward was unable to be present and I 
had the pleasurable task of unfolding the beautiful story which 
he had invested with all the charm of a fairy tale. In 
this memoir I think he struck the key-note which ran through 
his work to the end. This was the quality of imagination which 
led him to transcend the immediate facts and guided him to a 
solution of a problem sometimes almost poetical in its scope and 
satisfying completeness. There were never any loose ends about 
his work, and when free-handed he generally succeeded in bringing 
it to a triumphant finish. 
British Mycology, which had made such a splendid start with 
Berkeley, himself like Darwin a member of Marshall Ward’s 
College, was practically dead. On the last serious outbreak of 
the potato disease in this country, the Royal Agricultural Society 
had invoked the aid of De Bary, though Berkeley had first described 
its life history. It was clear, however, that we had secured in Marshall 
Ward a mycologist of the first rank. The problem was how to 
keep him going. A chance meeting with Sir Henry Roscoe at a 
Dinner of the Royal Society saved the situation and secured 
Marshall Ward’s election to a Berkeley Fellowship at Owen’s 
College in 1882. Here he worked for three years as Assistant 
to Professor Williamson. In 1883 he was elected a Fellow of his 
old College at Cambridge, In 1885 the Regius Professorship of 
Botany at Glasgow became vacant by the removal of Professor 
Balfour to Oxford. It was hoped that the Crown would recognise 
Marshall Ward’s colonial services by appointing him. Other 
influences were, however, at work, and the Government passed him 
over for the late Dr. MacNab. A good deal of feeling was excited, 
and as Professor Balfour had not actually resigned, the University 
refused to allow him to do so, and a dead-lock ensued, which was 
only solved by the Government declining to take either candidate. 
This was a great disappointment to Marshall Ward, which was 
however in some degree mitigated by Kew obtaining for him the 
