Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/526

 490 IN MEMORY OF HENRY TRIMEN. nent part in the work of the Botanical Exchange Club, and this brought him into frequent communication with Mr. J. G. Baker, which developed into personal friendship when the latter came to town in 1866. Somewhat later than this he formed the acquaint- ance of the Hon. J. Leicester Warren (afterwards Lord de Tabley), who, with Mr. Newbould and Mr. Dyer, were his chief botanical friends. With the last of these he projected in 1866 — in which year he added Wolffia arrhiza to our British list — the Flora of Middlesex, which, on its publication in 1869, was at once recognized as an epoch-making book in the history of British botany, and has formed a model for subsequent compilers of local floras. It is unnecessary to speak at length of a book so well known and so deservedly admired. It has always been supposed that Dr. Trimen was responsible for the larger portion of the undertaking ; and the interleaved copy of the Flora, which, on going to Ceylon, he left in the Department of Botany, is full of MS. notes which will interest future investigators of the plants of the county. Although he had completed his medical course with distinction, it was manifest that Trimen's vocation lay in the direction of botany. He was well acquainted with Mr. Bennett and with Mr. Carruthers, the latter of whom had shown every encouragement to him and to Mr. Dyer at the beginning of their botanical career, and had thus contracted a warm personal friendship with them, which in Trimen's case was never broken. Mr. Dyer had also a desire for botanical work, and, as I have said elsewhere,"^ it was only after much deliberation that Trimen was chosen to fill the post of assistant in the Department of Botany in the British Museum. It is curious to speculate on the turn that events might have taken had the choice been otherwise. In 1877 Trimen became botanical lecturer to St. Mary's Hospital — a post which he retained for many years. Although it was not till 1870 that Trimen's name appeared on the title-page of this Journal in the capacity of assistant-editor, he had for some time had much to do in its management. During Seemann's frequent absences from England, Mr. Carruthers had acted as editor, although his name never appeared in that capacity ; but from 1870 onwards Trimen was responsible in every way for the conduct of the Journal, although his name did not appear as editor, until after Seemann's death in 1871. He at once reduced the price of the Journal and introduced many new features, the result being an increased circulation and a much improved table of contents. The pecuniary loss entailed, however, was considerable, although towards the end of his editorship the Journal paid its way. The Journal has from the first been unofficially associated with the British Museum. Dr. Seemann found the Botanical Department a convenient place of reference, and subsequent editors have been members of the Museum staff, so that, although the Museum is in no way responsible for what may appear in its pages, it has furnished a convenient medium — more needed, perhaps^ formerly than at present — for keeping the botanical world au courant with
 * Journ.Bot. 1896, 383.