Makers of British Botany

Part 1

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by underscores. Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. Superscripts are denoted by ^ and have not been expanded. Subscripts in chemical formulae are denoted by eg CO2.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

More detail can be found at the end of the book.

MAKERS OF BRITISH BOTANY

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

London: FETTER LANE, E.C.

C. F. CLAY, MANAGER

Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET

London: WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, 28, ESSEX STREET, STRAND

Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.

Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS

New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.

All rights reserved

MAKERS OF BRITISH BOTANY

A COLLECTION OF BIOGRAPHIES BY LIVING BOTANISTS

Edited by

F. W. OLIVER

Cambridge: at the University Press 1913

Cambridge:

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PREFACE

The origin and scope of the present book will be found fully indicated in the Introduction, so that it is not needful to refer to them here. One change in the original scheme of the work has been made during its passage through the press, viz. the inclusion of an additional chapter from the pen of Prof. F. O. Bower dealing with the life of the late Sir Joseph Hooker. Our veteran botanist passed away on Dec. 10, 1911, in his 95th year, and in him botany loses its outstanding personality as well as its principal link with the past. The history of botany in this country during the Victorian period, when it comes to be written, must of necessity be woven around the life of this great man.

For the excellent index to the book the reader is indebted to Dr E. de Fraine, whose care and good judgment in this matter will be fully appreciated.

F. W. O.

October, 1912

CONTENTS

Part 2

PAGE

Introduction 1

Robert Morison 1620-1683 and John Ray 1627-1705. By Sydney Howard Vines 8

Nehemiah Grew 1641-1712. By Agnes Arber 44

Stephen Hales 1677-1761. By Francis Darwin 65

John Hill 1716-1775. By T. G. Hill 84

Robert Brown 1773-1858. By J. B. Farmer 108

Sir William Hooker 1785-1865. By F. O. Bower 126

John Stevens Henslow 1796-1861. By George Henslow 151

John Lindley 1799-1865. By Frederick Keeble 164

William Griffith 1810-1845. By W. H. Lang 178

Arthur Henfrey 1819-1859. By F. W. Oliver 192

William Henry Harvey 1811-1866. By R. Lloyd Praeger 204

Miles Joseph Berkeley 1803-1889. By George Massee 225

Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert 1817-1901. By W. B. Bottomley 233

William Crawford Williamson 1816-1895. By Dukinfield H. Scott 243

Harry Marshall Ward 1854-1906. By Sir William Thiselton-Dyer 261

A sketch of the Professors of Botany in Edinburgh from 1670 until 1887. By Isaac Bayley Balfour 280

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker 1817-1911. By F. O. Bower 302

INDEX 324

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE To face p.

Frontispiece. John Hutton Balfour (1878).

I. Robert Morison 8

II. Great Gate of the Physic Garden, Oxford 18

III. John Ray 28

IV. Nehemiah Grew (1701) 44

V. Plate from Anatomy of Vegetables Begun, 1672 48

Part 3

VI. Facsimile of a page from The Comparative Anatomy of Trunks, Nehemiah Grew, 1675 52

VII. From Grew's Anatomy. Sheweth the Parts of a Goosberry. Part of a Vine Branch cut transversly, and splitt half way downe y^e midle 56

VIII. Stephen Hales (1759) 65

IX. Plate 18 from Hales's Vegetable Staticks 82

X. John Hill 84

XI. Robert Brown (circa 1856) 108

XII. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1834) 126

XIII. John Stevens Henslow (1851) 151

XIV. John Lindley (1848) 164

XV. William Griffith (1843) 178

XVI. From Griffith's Notulae. Median section of the ovule of Cycas. Nucellar apex of Cycas with pollen chamber and pollen grains 188

XVII. William Henry Harvey 204

XVIII. Miles Joseph Berkeley 225

XIX. Joseph Henry Gilbert 233

XX. Henry Witham of Lartington. 243

XXI. William Crawford Williamson (1876) 246

XXII. Vascular system of stem of Lepidodendron selaginoides in transverse section 250

XXIII. Root of Calamites (Astromyelon Williamsonis) in transverse section 254

XXIV. Cone of Calamostachys Binneyana; sporangia and sporangiophores 256

XXV. Harry Marshall Ward (1895) 261

XXVI. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1868) 302

Text-fig. p. 77. Figure from Vegetable Staticks showing a vine with mercury gauges in place to demonstrate root pressure.

INTRODUCTION

The present volume represents in somewhat expanded form a course of lectures arranged by the Board of Studies in Botany of the University of London and delivered during the early part of 1911 in the Botanical Department of University College, London.

These lectures, which were ten in number, were widely attended by advanced and post-graduate students of the University and others interested in the subject.

The ten lectures comprised in the course were delivered by various botanists, the lecturer in each case being either a worker in the same field as, or in some other way having a special qualification to deal with, his allotted subject.

In view of the interest aroused by their delivery the hope found wide expression that the lectures might be issued in book form. At the time when the arrangements were being made for publication the University of London Press had not yet reached the publishing stage, so hospitality had to be sought elsewhere. That the book is issued from the Cambridge University Press is largely due to the good offices of Prof. A. C. Seward.

In consenting to publish The Makers of British Botany the Cambridge University Press suggested that some additional chapters should be prepared so that the work might be more fully representative. This has been done so far as was possible in the time available.

Part 4

The sixteen chapters forming the book include (1) the ten lectures, which are printed essentially as they were delivered, (2) six additional chapters specially written under the circumstances just mentioned. As a rule each chapter will be found to deal with a single Botanist; with the exception of the first and last chapters. In the former Prof. Vines has linked together Morison and Ray, the founders of Systematic Botany in this country, whilst in the last Prof. Bayley Balfour has expanded what was originally intended as a sketch of his father, the late Prof. J. Hutton Balfour, into a very interesting account of his predecessors in the Edinburgh chair from the year 1670 almost down to the present time.

The subjects treated, the authors and the order of arrangement are as follows:--

----------------------------+-----+------+---------------------------- Subject |Born | Died | Author ----------------------------+-----+------+---------------------------- *Robert Morison |1620 | 1683}| } Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S. *John Ray |1627 | 1705}| } *Nehemiah Grew |1641 | 1712 | Mrs Arber *Stephen Hales |1677 | 1761 | Francis Darwin, F.R.S. John Hill |1716 | 1775 | T. G. Hill *Robert Brown |1773 | 1858 | Prof. J. B. Farmer, F.R.S. *Sir William Hooker |1785 | 1865 | Prof. F. O. Bower, F.R.S. *The Rev. J. S. Henslow |1796 | 1861 | The Rev. Prof. Geo. Henslow John Lindley |1799 | 1865 | Prof. Frederick Keeble *William Griffith |1810 | 1845 | Prof. W. H. Lang, F.R.S. *Arthur Henfrey |1819 | 1859 | Prof. F. W. Oliver, F.R.S. *William Henry Harvey |1811 | 1866 | W. Lloyd Praeger The Rev. Miles Berkeley |1803 | 1889 | George Massee Sir Joseph Gilbert |1817 | 1901 | Prof. W. B. Bottomley *William Crawford Williamson|1816 | 1895 | Dr D. H. Scott, F.R.S. Harry Marshall Ward |1854 | 1905 | Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. | | | The Edinburgh Professors |1670 | 1887 | Prof. I. Bayley Balfour, | | | F.R.S. ----------------------------+-----+------+---------------------------- * Was the subject of a lecture in the University Course.

The first three chapters deal with the founders of British Botany, MORISON and RAY in the systematic field, GREW, the plant anatomist, and HALES the physiologist. These are pioneers and the names of Ray, Grew, and Hales must always remain illustrious in the annals of Botanical Science.

JOHN HILL, with all his versatility, belongs to another plane, but his inclusion here is justified on historical grounds, by the prominent part he played in making known the method of the great Swedish systematist Linnaeus, a method which took deep root and gave an immense stimulus to systematic studies in this country.

In ROBERT BROWN we have the greatest botanist of his day, for thirty years keeper of the Botanical Department of the British Museum. It is doubtful if any greater intellect than Brown's has ever been devoted to the service of Botanical Science.

SIR WILLIAM HOOKER was the first Director of Kew, and under his genial administration the foundations of that great institution were most truly laid. Born under the star of Linnaeus, his own researches lay in the systematic field--more especially among the Ferns and Bryophytes.

J. S. HENSLOW was for many years Professor of Botany at Cambridge, but it is his life as Rector of Hitcham in Suffolk that finds special prominence in the interesting Memoir which formed the subject-matter of his son's lecture. The account given of his educational methods will be read with interest in these days when "Nature Study" has been sprung on the world as a new thing.

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