Excerpt from The Journal of Botany, Vol. 50: British and Foreign In a vast series Of Official or semi-official volumes he described an enormous number of new genera and species in many different classes Of plants, and he hada large Share in what was probably, with the exception of De Candolle's Prodromus, the most im portant critical work in descriptive botany during the nineteenth century. The familiar abbreviations, Hook. Fil. And Benth. At Hook. Fil., will remain affixed to a host Of plant-names as long as botanists retain this useful method Of verifying their nomenclature. Such work, though invaluable to botanists, is not, perhaps, the highest department Of the science; and other botanists Of the past or present may have been capable Of performing it as well, or possibly better than he did. His diagnoses, if clear, are not remarkably concise. It may, however, be readily maintained that even this, great as it is in bulk, was not his most important contribution to botanical science. He was not called upon to teach or to write much educational matter, his Primer is not remarkable among books of its class, nor was the mere popularizing of his science his nietier. The Hima layan Journals is in fact his only work appealing to the general reader. The novelty and interest Of their subject-matter and the Simplicity of the narrative gave them considerable temporary success, but not the lasting appeal Of Darwin's Voyage in the Beagle, their professed model. So, too, his various admirable addresses, mostly delivered at the meetings Of the British As sociation, such as those on Insular Floras, the Arctic Floras, and Insectivorous Plants, though hailed with acclamation by his brother botanists, attracted but scanty outside attention. Re taining throughout life a Scottish intonation acquired in his youth, and without the graces of the orator, although an excellent chairman - as he was, for example, for many years to the Scientific Committee Of the Royal Horticultural Society - he could better reach a truly appreciative audience with his pen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.