7 « 
THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
Gibson, written in 1843, to have intended to print a second 
edition of the “ Plantse Woodfordienses,” and the MS. note 
of certain plants marked “ w.h.” being “ in my Walthamstow 
herbarium,” and the proved fact that these specimens are 
included in the herbarium at the British Museum formerly in 
the possession of Edward, seem to point to him as the author 
of the annotations. But, on the other hand, Edward Forster 
was married in 1796, and lived in London until after his father’s 
decease in 1812, and so his opportunities for making continuous 
local records during this period would seem to be doubtful: 
and it is surely significant that after the death of his brother 
Benjamin not one single annotation was added during the whole 
twenty years in which Edward survived alone. So, too, the 
distinction made in the notes themselves (on Clinopodium vulgare, 
already quoted) between “ E.F. Jnr.” and the “ I ” of the writer 
implies two personalities. 
Lastly, we come to Benjamin Meggot, who, as we have 
seen, was a life-long resident of Walthamstow. Notwithstanding 
the MS. note “ in our southern field Hoe Street Aug. 1808,” 
•a date when he only of the three brothers was living with his 
parents in the Walthamstow home, Benjamin’s claim to the 
authorship of the annotations would, in the absence of any known 
example of his handwriting, have been incapable of proof, for 
although Benjamin supplied specimens for “ Sowerby’s English 
Botany,” which are now included in the British Museum her¬ 
barium, these unfortunately do not bear his handwriting, but 
that of Sowerby. 
In considering the rival claims of the two brothers, I had 
recurring suspicions that Benjamin, and not Edward, was the 
writer of the MS. notes : but proof was lacking. Fortunately, 
I discovered in the Club’s Library autograph signatures of both 
P 2 dward Forster and Benjamin Forster, on the fly-leaves of books 
formerly in their possession and since presented to the 
Club (in 1895) by the late Dr. M. C. Cooke 4 ; and additional 
evidence was forthcoming later. I found, on looking through the 
Smith Correspondence in the possession of the Linnean Society, 
one solitary signed letter from B. M. Forster to J. E. Smith, 
4 In Lyons' “ Fasciculus plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium,” 1763, there is the auto¬ 
graph signature “ Edward Forster junior, 1803,” in Hopkirk’s “Flora Glottiana," 1813, is the 
autograph “ Edward Forster,” and in John Ray’s “ Synopsis methodica stirpium britannica- 
rum,” 1724, the autograph signature “ B. M. Forster 12th September 1814.” Reproductions 
of k these are appended. (Fig. x.) 
