Isaac Bay ley Balfour . 337 
at that time Director of Kew, regarded the new venture with misgiving, and 
indeed he warned Balfour of the risk he was running of finding all his 
energies absorbed in thankless administration. But he altered his attitude 
as time went on, and it was finally to his (Hooker’s) suggestion that this 
periodical owes the name it has always borne. Balfour, at Oxford, was in 
a favourable position to arrange matters with the Clarendon Press, with the 
result that in 1887 the ‘Annals’ made its first appearance, and it has never 
looked back. Balfour was naturally associated with the editing from the 
first, and he also assumed the responsibility for its financial direction. 
From this short sketch—necessarily very imperfect—it will be seen that 
he took a very leading share in promoting a movement which, more perhaps 
than any other, has served to stimulate scientific research amongst the 
younger generation of the British-speaking botanists. 
It was a happy circumstance that the hearty sympathy and active 
co-operation of American colleagues was enlisted from the start. The lead¬ 
ing botanists of that country gave their support, and the mutual interest 
thus aroused and continued has undoubtedly helped to cement further the 
ties that naturally link together colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic. In 
yet another direction Balfour did good service to the cause of botany 
amongst those who claim English as their mother-tongue by extending the 
series of translations of the most important German works on the subject. 
Thiselton-Dyer, Vines, Bower and Scott had already made a beginning with 
Sachs’s Text-book and de Bary’s ‘ Comparative Anatomy’. Balfour was 
fortunate in securing able collaborators, especially the Rev. H. E. Garnsey. 
He edited the translations himself, and his wide knowledge added greatly 
to the value of the series. None of us who are able to look back to those 
earlier days can fail to realize how rapid was the growth of the ‘ new 
botany ’ during that period, or that much of it was owing to the splendid 
energy and influence of Balfour himself. 
But it was not only in the study and in the laboratory that Balfour 
made his strong personality felt, during the brief period that he occupied the 
Oxford Chair. The Botanic Garden was reorganized under his direction, 
and in this task his Edinburgh and Glasgow experience served him in good 
stead. But whilst he immensely improved its value from a scientific point 
of view, his natural artistic feeling enabled him to preserve its best features 
and its old-world charm. The place was transformed, but the work was 
directed by a master hand. The present writer well recalls how carefully 
every detail was thought out, and how every alteration fell naturally into its 
proper place as part of a well-conceived plan. 
In 1888, on the death of Alexander Dickson, Balfour resigned the 
Oxford Chair to assume the duties of Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic 
Garden, Edinburgh, together with the Professorship of Botany in the 
University and the office of Queen’s Botanist in Scotland. Here he settled 
