Page:A Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists.djvu/9



words of explanation as to the object and scope of this Index may fitly appear as an introduction to the work.

It is intended mainly as a guide to further information, and not as a bibliography or biography. We have been liberal in including all who have in any way contributed to the literature of Botany, who have made scientific collections of plants, or have otherwise assisted directly in the progress of Botany, exclusive of pure Horticulture. We have not, as a rule, included those who were merely patrons of workers, or those known only as contributing small details to a local Flora.

Where known, the name is followed by the years of birth and death, which, when uncertain, are marked with a ? or o. (circa); Of merely approximate dates of "flourishing" are given. Then follows the place and day of birth and death, and the place of burial; a brief indication of social position or occupation, especially in the cases of artisan botanists and of professional collectors; chief university degrees, or other titles or offices held, and dates of election to the Linnean and Royal Societies. A reference is then generally made to some botanical work or works justifying the inclusion of the name in the list, and terse encomia by eminent botanists are occasionally quoted. The present whereabouts of correspondence or MSS., and the existence of any babarium or of plants collected, are next noted. Reference is then given to the chief sources of further information. Here, Pulteney's 'Sketches of the Progress of Botany' (1790), Rees' Cyclopædia (1819-20), in which many of the biographies were written by Sir J. E. Smith, Pritzel's 'Thesaurus Literaturæ Botanicæ' (1872), Jackson's 'Guide to Literature of Botany' (1891), and the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers (vols, i.-ix.), are first quoted; then the fullest known record is given; and, lastly, a reference to the 'Dictionary of National Biography' (vols, i.-xxxiii.), so far as issued to the end of 1892. Mention is then made of any portrait, original or engraved, of any genus dedicated to the botanist in question, or, failing any such Rh