ONLY those who have come into close contact with the man or have carefully studied his works, can realize the greatness of the intellect of the veteran botanist who died at Penzance in July last. Had not his health and eyesight failed, there is little doubt that John Ralfs would have ranked as one of the greatest botanists of the century. His clearness of perception, his conciseness and exactitude of expression, added to his indomitable energy, his enthusiasm, and his wonderful memory, made him the very ideal of a naturalist.

He was born on Sept. 13th, 1807, at Millbrook, near Southampton. He came of an old Hampshire family, being the second son of Samuel Ralfs, of Mudeford, near Christchurch. His father died in 1808, and the young family was brought up by the mother, who disposed of the property at Mudeford, and removed to Southampton. Young Ralfs's first school appears to have been that of Dr. Buller in this town, he afterwards went to Mr. Jennings's at Bishop's Waltham, and subsequently to the Rev. J. Jenvey's at Romsey. To the last-named gentleman he became much attached, and to him he dedicated his first botanical book. As a lad Ralfs was studious and painstaking, and showed an early inclination to scientific pursuits, which first developed in the direction of chemistry. At about the age of eighteen he was articled to his uncle, a surgeon at Brentford, with whom he remained two years and a half, after which he studied at Winchester Hospital for two years. In 1832 he passed the examination qualifying him as a surgeon, and in this examination we find he distinguished himself by his knowledge of botany. He went into partnership with a surgeon in Shoreditch, and Mr. Marquand tells us that he practised at Towcester. During the few years that he was able to follow his profession he was very successful. While on a visit to Torquay he became acquainted with Miss Laura Cecilia Newman, daughter of Mr. Henry Newman, of London, and in 1835 was married to that lady. They had one son, John Henry, who was born in 1836. The marriage did not prove a happy one, for within two years Mrs. Ralfs (with her infant son) went to live with her parents, who were then residing in France; she afterwards travelled in Italy, but returned to France, where she died in 1848.

In 1837 Mr. Ralfs's health became so bad-his lungs being found to be seriously affected—that he was obliged to relinquish his practice and to reside in one of the health-resorts of the southwestern coast. After visiting Torquay, he settled down, in Nov. 1837, at Penzance, which continued to be his home during the rest of his life, In 1838 he contributed the botanical portion of a guide to Ilfracombe by Banfield. In 1839 he published his first book, The British Phænogamous Plants and Ferns; arranged on the Linnæan System, and analysed after the method of Lamarck'; this consisted of a dichotomous key to the genera and species, with an analysis of the natural orders. It did not pretend to compete with JOURNAL OF BOTANY.--VOL. 28. [OCTOBER, 1890.] U

the larger "Floras," but was intended as a guide to the quick determination of species; and the simple straightforward language employed, the judicious selection of practical characters, and the small compass of the book admirably adapted it to the purposes of a pocket manual. At the commencement of 1841 Mr. Ralfs opened a correspondence with the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, whom he had met some years previously; this resulted in a close friendship, and Ralfs and Berkeley appear to have constantly consulted one another on questions connected with the Algae and Fungi. Berkeley's correspondence (preserved in the Botanical Department of the British Museum) contains some hundreds of letters from Ralfs, many of them consisting of four closely-written quarto pages, and containing pen-and-ink drawings. Ralfs seemed then to have settled down to the study of the Desmids and Diatoms, but continued to give a general attention to Fungi and other plants.

The summers of 1841 and several subsequent years were spent in visits to Ilfracombe and various parts of Wales, his longest stay usually being at Dolgelly. In 1842 he was accompanied on his Welsh trip by Borrer. In this year Ralfs sent a description of Desmidium compressum (a new species) to Dr. Balfour for the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. In 1843-4-5 he contributed to the same Society a series of papers on the Desmids and Diatoms, and in one of them he mentions that the total number of Desmids previously recorded in the British Floras was four-two Desmidia and two Euastra. These papers were published in the Annals of Natural History' and in the Transactions' of the Society. They contain figures and descriptions of a number of species of Diatoms, and over sixty Desmids, of which sixteen were new. In 1845 also appeared his paper, "On the genera Spirulina and Coleochate," A. N. H. xvi. p. 308.

During this period Hassall was working at the Conferve, and corresponded with Ralfs, who in his first letter suggested that they should render each other assistance in their respective fields of work; and the correspondence was carried on under the impression, on Ralfs's part, that this was a definite understanding. In 1844 he was much surprised, on receiving the prospectus of Hassall's forthcoming book, to find that it was intended to include the Desmids and Diatoms. A suggestion appears to have been made by a friend of both that the book should be written jointly; but it seems that Hassall would not hear of this, and considered himself very badly used because Ralfs was not inclined to hand over all his information on the Diatoms and Desmids for publication under Hassall's name; and in one of his letters to Berkeley he remarked that Ralfs was the most unreasonable man that he ever had to do with. In the work which appeared in 1845, are evident copies, and vilely bad ones, of Ralfs's figures in the Annals,' with "Hassall del." at the foot of the plates. In the Introduction, while acknowledging indebtedness to Berkeley and others, not a word was said of what was owed to Ralfs's work. Hassall was the only man of whom we recollect Mr. Ralfs speaking with any degree of bitterness.

In 1845 Ralfs was apparently suffering from the results of a severe accident, for, from a letter written from Brislington, we find

that he was on a visit to Dr. Fox, with a view to consulting the Bristol surgeon, and was then better and able to get about with one crutch. For many years afterwards his health was so bad that he was often unable to do any botanical work for months together.

In 1848, after several delays occasioned by illness, his great work was published, The British Desmidieæ,' probably the finest monograph which has appeared of any group of British plants. The descriptions are complete and lucid, the synonymy is very carefully worked out, and the analyses are in Ralfs's characteristically terse style. Particular attention is given to the reproductive states of the plants, which had been previously observed in very few species. An appendix contains descriptions of the species not known to occur in Britain, and the small number of these is an evidence of the leading position Ralfs had taken up as an authority upon the group. In a few years he had raised the number of known British Desmids from four to a hundred and eighty. Mr. E. Jenner's beautiful drawings contributed much to the value of the work, for he was not only an excellent draughtsman, but a good botanist, and well acquainted with the Desmids. During the preparation of the work Ralfs had extensive correspondence with Brébisson, Kützing, Montagne, and other leading foreign algologists. Berkeley seems to have been of great assistance in many ways.

In the autumn of 1849, writing to Mr. Berkeley from Ilfra combe, Ralfs says:-"I have done very little this summer, as I have enjoyed but very few days of sufficient health to go out." During the year, however, he sent two short papers to the Edinburgh Bot. Soc., "On the mode of growth of Oscillatoria, Calothrix," &c. In 1850 he contributed to the same Society a paper on the Nostochine, with figures and descriptions of twenty-two species. In this year he went to France on a visit to the Count and Countess de Morambert, friends of his late wife, who had recently died at their Chateau in the Dordogne. During his stay in France he visited. Brébisson and Lenormand, and when at Paris he made the personal acquaintance of Decaisne, Thuret, and Montagne. In 1851 he contributed another paper to the Edinburgh Bot. Soc., "On

Chantransia."

In 1856 he undertook the arrangement of the Diatoms and Desmids for the fourth edition of Pritchard's Infusoria,' but, through repeated illnesses, was only able to complete the Diatomacea, and this contributed to the delay in the publication of the book, which did not appear until 1861. His work, however, was very thorough, and gave an account of the whole of the known Diatomaceæ, both recent and fossil.

The sudden failure of his eyesight about this time rendered future microscopical research impossible, thus putting a stop to the great work of his life, and he does not seem to have recovered from the shock for many years. He turned his attention more and more to working out the Flora of West Cornwall. In 1880, when the Penzance Nat. Hist. Soc. was resuscitated, he took a leading part in its proceedings, and contributed a number of papers on the Flora of the Vice-county. To the Fungi he gave special attention, and