Excerpt from The Edinburgh Journal of Science, Vol. 1: New Series; April-October To enlarge upon the private character and history of the late president is not our present object; I may remark, how ever, of one whom I am proud to have called my friend, that kindness and benevolence were his distinguishing characte ristics. He seemed to imbibe a pure and amiable spirit from the lovely objects to which he had devoted his study. In cases of misfortune or affliction amongst his friends and relatives, he acted a part of the most unwearied kindness and benevolent sympathy. The same feelings extended to all capable of being their object. I have a very interesting letter from him on the subject of cruelty to animals, and the influence a clergyman might possess with his parishioners in alleviating animal suffer ings. Those who shared his acquaintance will join me in bear ing testimony to his kindness of heart, his benevolence of dis position, and urbanity of manners. To scientific men he ever evinced the greatest liberality in acknowledging their merit, in communicating knowledge, and in affording the use of his valuable library and herbarium. Sir James was born in 1759, December 2; he studied in Edin burgh, where, in 1780, he gained the gold medal given to the best proficient in botany in 1784 he became an author by tran slating the preface to the, Museum Regis Adolphi Frede rici of Linnaeus in 1786 he travelled on the Continent, and graduated at Leyden on his return he published his tour. In 1788 the Linnaean Society was founded by Sir J. Banks, the late Bishop of Carlisle, and other botanists, partly I believe to remove some jealousy of members of the Royal Society, who thought too much attention was given to natural history. In 1810, when the society was incorporated by charter, the presi dent, Dr Smith, received the honour of knighthood. From 1789 to 1793 he undertook some works with plates, but which were discontinued for want of encouragement. One great work, however, of this kind was completed, the English Botany, which gives coloured representations of all the plants of the country then known. It extended from 1790 to 1814, and contained above 2000 figures; the plates by the elder Sowerby. 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.