Calcutta: June, 1843.
“Poor Mr. Bauer, we never shall see his like again, I have seen but few notices of his life, which assuredly is worthy of study. There is not a place I shall visit with better feelings than Kew, it has so many pleasant associations even from my school-days.”
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Calcutta: December 31st, 1843.
“Mr. Bauer is not half appreciated yet; he is considered a very great artist, but what is that to what he was? But he did not fight for his own hand, though he worked hard enough in all conscience. Mr. Bauer in fact preceded all in the train of discovery: he saw in 1797, what others did not see till 30 years after. For instance, the elongation of the pollens’ inner membrane into a tube, the first step towards the complete knowledge we now have of vegetable embryogeny. Unfortunately, Mr. Bauer drew, but did not write, and when I recall to mind a remark of Mr. Brown, that it was a disadvantage to be able to draw, I always fancy he had Bauer in his mind’s eye; for had he been a writer and not a drawer, before 1800, in great probability we should have known nearly as much of embryogeny as we do now. But he shut his portfolio, and folks went on believing the old fovivillose doctrine and bursting of the pollen, which, his observations of the pollens’ inner membrane, would have destroyed at once. Then with regard to Orchideæ and Asclepiadeæ, he was equally in advance: it would be a rich treat if some one would come forward and publish a selection from his drawings, without a word of letterpress.”
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Calcutta: February 11th, 1844.
“Mr. Bauer’s light is not yet set on the hill. Really when I look back at his works I am lost in admiration, and always regret that he worked more for others than for himself, and that he did not use his pen as freely as he did his brush. When, in the name of all that is generous, will great men think that true greatness consist in endeavouring to make others more prominent than themselves?”
For some years before his death, Mr. Griffith would appear to have had a presentiment that he would not be spared to complete the description of all his collections. On one occasion, when enumerating those who might contribute most efficiently to this object, in the event of its not being permitted to himself, he writes:—
“I cannot however refrain from paying my tribute of respect to Mr. George Bentham, the most industrious, perspicuous, and philosophical Botanist who has systematically contributed to lessen the difficulties under which Indian Botanists have generally suffered.