272 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
seemed imminent. Dr. Lindley then not only 
resigned his salary, but made a considerable 
advance for the assistance of the Society 
through its difficulties. Its subsequent his¬ 
tory under the Presidentship of the late Prince 
Consort, and that of his esteemed successor in 
that office is too recent to need recapitulation. 
As a botanist and vegetable physiologist 
Dr. Lindley has rendered [eminent services, 
though none of his systems of classification, 
and they were many, ever met with extensive 
adoption: his descriptions of plants were short, 
and the salient points were seized upon ; and 
as a lecturer, though not very fluent, and 
never eloquent, he was lucid, full of facts, and 
illustrated these [ so that his meaning could 
never be mistaken. His lectures were ar¬ 
ranged beforehand with great care as to the 
sequence of the points to be fixed on the mind, 
and these, wherever possible, were accom¬ 
panied with some apt illustration, and thus 
the memory was greatly assisted, as well as 
the after-study of the subject. In his writings, 
also, even when dealing with the most complex 
subjects, he was likewise singularly clear. 
His botanical works, besides those already 
named, were numerous, and consisted of a 
“ Synopsis of the British Flora” ( 1829), 
in which British flowering plants were ar¬ 
ranged on De Candolle’s system; “Outlines 
of Botany” in 1830 ; and in the same year 
an “ Introduction to the Natural System of 
Botany,” in which the system propounded 
was a modification of that of De Candolle, but 
throwing apetalous and polypetalous plants 
together, and consequently altering the se¬ 
quence of the natural orders. An “ Introduc¬ 
tion to Botany,” giving an account of the 
organs and functions of plants, appeared in 
1832, and this, much enlarged, reached a 
fourth edition in 1848. “Nixus Plantarum” 
followed in 1833, and in this the author threw 
the natural orders into cohorts, and these 
again into groups called nixus (tendencies), 
depending on the albumen as a primary cha¬ 
racter. “Ladies’ Botany,” in the form of 
letters, appeared in 1834 ; a “ Key to Struc¬ 
tural and Systematic Botany,” being a com¬ 
bination and revision of the “Outlines” and 
“Nixus,” in 1835 ; and in 1836his “Natural 
System of Botany,” being a second edition 
of the “Introduction” published in 1830. 
In this the arrangement was nearly the same 
as that adopted in the “Nixus.” In the years 
1837 and 1838 appeared “ Flora Medica,” 
being an account of medical plants found in 
different parts of the world, subsequently en¬ 
larged, and published under the title of 
“ Medical Botany;” the treatise on “ Botany,” 
published by the Society for the Diffusion of 
Useful Knowledge; and a “ Monograph of 
Victoria regia,” of which only twenty-five 
copies were published. In 1839 “School 
Botany,” which has passed through several 
editions, was first brought out; and in 1840 
the “ Theory of Horticulture,” a title changed, 
on a second and much enlarged edition ap¬ 
pearing in 1855, to the “ Theory and Practice 
of Horticulture.” This work, which was 
dedicated to the memory of Thomas Andrew 
Knight, Esq., of Downton Castle, was trans¬ 
lated into German, Dutch, and Russian, and 
was sufficient of itself to have won for its 
author a great name. It is decidedly the best 
and most generally useful of Lindley’s works, 
and so he considered it, with perhaps the excep¬ 
tion of the “Vegetable Kingdom.” In 1841 
came “Elements of Botany,” and in the same 
year he, in conjunction with Sir Joseph 
Paxton and others, established the “ Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle,” as editor of which he 
acted till within a few days of his death. The 
task of editing that journal, his labours in 
connection with the Horticultural Society, and 
his botanical lectureships, now left him little 
time for writing books, and accordingly, with 
the exception of the “Vegetable Kingdom,” 
a voluminous work of 908 pages, with up¬ 
wards of 500 illustrations, and the new 
editions of that work, the “Introduction to 
Botany,” and the “Theory and Practice of 
Horticulture,” his writings were confined to 
the periodicals with which he was connected. 
There are, however, some works to add to 
those above enumerated, viz:—“ Sertum Or- 
chidaceum,” a folio, with magnificent coloured 
plates, and “ Genera and Species of Orchid¬ 
aceous Plants,” both of which came out in 
parts, the former completed in 1838, the latter 
in 1840; and “Folia Orchidacea,” com¬ 
menced in 1852, but never completed. "When 
a much younger man he was engaged on 
Loudon’s “ Encyclopedia of Plants,” which 
appeared in 1S29, and most of the descriptions 
are his; he also revised “Paxton’s Botanical 
Dictionary,” a work of a similar nature though 
not descriptive. To Sibthorp’s “Flora G-raeca,” 
a magnificent work, of which only a limited 
number of copies were issued, he likewise con¬ 
tributed, and thewhole of the ninth volume was 
written by him; also to Hutton’s “ Fossil Flora 
of Great Britain,” to the “Penny Cyclopaedia,” 
and other works of a similar nature. Of the 
“ Botanical Register ” he was editor for many 
years until it was given up ; and afterwards 
of “ Paxton’s Flower Garden,” a beautifully 
illustrated but unsuccessful work, of which 
only three volumes appeared. He likewis 
edited the “ Transactions of the Horticultural 
Society,” and, subsequent to their discontinu¬ 
ance, the Society’s octavo “Journal,” and to 
both he contributed reports and descriptions 
of new plants; and in the “Transactions” 
there are also papers of his on tropical 
fruits, the rate of growth in plants, and a 
variety of other subjects. From 1829, when 
London University was established, till 1861 
he was Professor of Botany at that In¬ 
stitution ; there was then no Underground 
Railway to Gower Street, and many a morn¬ 
ing, so early as four o’clock, he might have 
been seen on the road to London, performing 
