Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/278

 During this period he published 'The Art of Botanical Drawing' (1872); 'Cool Orchids and how to grow them, with a Descriptive List of all the Best Species' (1874); 'Domestic Floriculture, Window Gardening and Floral Decorations' (1874), one of the best books of the kind; 'The Narcissus: its History and Culture' (1875), with coloured plates drawn by himself and a scientific review of the genus by Mr. John Gilbert Baker; the volume on 'Horticulture' (1877) in G. P. Bevan's 'British Industries' series; and 'Cultivated Plants, their Propagation and Improvement' (1877), an excellent text-book for young gardeners, which won public appreciation from Gladstone.

In 1877 Burbidge was sent by Messrs. Veitch as a collector to Borneo. He was absent two years, during which he also visited Johore, Brunei, and the Sulu Islands. He brought back many remarkable plants, especially pitcher-plants, such as 'Nepenthes Rajah' and 'N. bicalcarata'; orchids, such as 'Cypripedium Laurenceanum,' 'Dendrobium Burbidgei' and 'Aerides Burbidgei'; and ferns, such as 'Alsophila Burbidgei ' and 'Polypodium Burbidgei.' The chronicle of his journey was published in 1880 as 'The Gardens of the Sun, or a Naturalist's Journal on the Mountains and in the Forests and Swamps of Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago.' The first set of the dried specimens brought back by him numbered nearly a thousand species, and was presented by Messrs. Veitch to the Kew herbarium. Sir Joseph Hooker in describing the Scitamineous 'Burbidgea nitida ' (Botanical Magazine 1879 t. 6403) names it 'in recognition of Burbidge's eminent services to horticulture, whether as a collector in Borneo, or as author of "Cultivated Plants, their Propagation and Improvement," a work which should be in every gardener's library.' In 1880 Burbidge was appointed curator of the botanical gardens of Trinity College, Dublin, at Glasnevin. There he did much to encourage gardening in Ireland (Gardeners' Chronicle, 1901, ii. 460). In 1889 Dublin University conferred on him the honorary degree of M.A., and in 1894 he became keeper of the college park as well as curator of the botanical gardens. While at Dublin he published The Chrysanthemum : its History, Culture, Classification and Nomenclature' (1883) and 'The Book of the Scented Garden' (1905). On the establishment of the Victoria medal of honour by the Royal Horticultural Society, in 1897, Burbidge was one of the first recipients, and he was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Burbidge died from heart-disease on Christmas Eve 1905, and was buried in Dublin. He married in 1876 Mary Wade, who died, without issue, six months before him. Although no scientific botanist, nor very skilful as a cultivator, Burbidge did admirable service as a horticultural writer.



BURBURY, SAMUEL HAWKSLEY (1831–1911), mathematician, born on 18 May 1831 at Kenilworth, was only son of Samuel Burbury of Clarendon Square, Leamington, by Helen his wife. He was educated at Shrewsbury (1848–1850), where he was head boy, and at St. John's College, Cambridge. At the university he won exceptional distinction in both classics and mathematics. He was twice Person prizeman (1852 and 1853), Craven university scholar (1853), and chancellor's classical medallist (1854). He graduated B.A. as fifteenth wrangler and second classic in 1854, becoming fellow of his college in the same year; he proceeded M.A. in 1857. On 6 Oct. 1855 he entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar on 7 June 1858. From 1860 he practised at the parliamentary bar; but increasing deafness compelled him to take chamber practice only, from which he retired in 1 908. While engaged in legal work Burbury pursued with much success advanced mathematical study, chiefly in collaboration with his Cambridge friend, [q. v. Suppl. II]. Together they wrote the treatises, 'The Application of Generalised Co-ordinates to the Kinetics of a Material System ' (Oxford, 1879) and 'The Mathematical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism' (2 vols. Oxford, 1885-9), in which the endeavour was made to carry on the researches of Clerk Maxwell and to place electrostatics and electromagnetism on a more formal mathematical basis. Among many papers which Burbury contributed independently to the ' Philosophical Magazine' were those ' On the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in Connection with the Kinetic Theory of Gases' (1876) and 'On a Theorem in the Dissipation of Energy' (1882). He was elected F.R.S. in 1890. He died on 18 Aug. 1911 at his residence, 15 Melbury Road, London, W., and was buried at Kensal Green. 