92 
JOHN GIBBS ! AN ESSEX BOTANIST. 
“ assistant curator ” of the old Essex and Chelmsford Museum. 
The duties were, in reality, little more than those of a care¬ 
taker. They were, moreover, very light ; for the Museum was 
open, as a rule, on Fridays only. The remuneration was, I 
believe, proportionate, being merely the admission fees paid by 
visitors and a commission on subscriptions collected from 
members. Gibbs at once spent three months in re-arranging 
the exhibits. His engagement continued, with variations, for 
many years. 
Up to this period, Gibbs had lived, first in the Baddow Road, 
and later in the street now known as the Friars, in the town of 
Chelmsford; but, soon after, he removed to a very modest 
cottage a little to the west of the railway bridge on the Writtle 
Road, just outside the town. Here, the attraction was, 
undoubtedly, the very small garden attached to the dwelling. 
In this, he was able to grow and observe his plants, as 
well as to make experiments upon them in the way of 
hybridization and the like. Later, in 1881, he wrote me that 
he had then over two hundred species under cultivation. 
Before the International Exhibition in 1871, Gibbs prepared 
and had published A First Catechism of Botany (Chelmsford, 
John Dutton, 39pp., fcp. 8vo., price one shilling), which (he says) 
was “ admitted ” by the Committee of Selection. In 1878, all 
copies having been sold, he brought out a “ new and enlarged 
edition ” (Chelmsford : Edmund Durrant & Co., 60 pp., fcp. 
8vo., price one shilling, bound in paper boards). Of this, also, 
the sale was, I believe, fairly satisfactory. On the whole, the 
Catechism is not badly done, though of a kind now quite out of 
date. It consists of 322 elementary questions and answers, 
arranged in 24 chapters. These relate, in the main, to the 
structure and classification of plants. The species referred to 
are the commonest plants of our gardens and way-sides. The 
botanical description of a daisy, in verse, with which the book 
closes, is a miracle of poetic skill, considering the difficulties of 
introducing ponderous botanical terms into light verse ! Some of 
its verses run as follows : 
Of this little plant of the Composite Order, 
Beilis pevennis is surely the name ; 
A perennial herb in the garden’s gay border, 
To ornament which from the meadows it came. 
