Chapter I: 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 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.