Makers of British botany

by Francis Wall Oliver (ed.)

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

John Hutton Balfour (1878)

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

	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
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 ye 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	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.