Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The Neighbouring Countries | Page 4

materials, both in drawings
and manuscripts, will be given to the world in a manner worthy of the
author and of the rank in science which he filled."--Proceedings of the
Linnaean Society, No. xxv, 1845.
To the foregoing brief sketch which was read before the Linnaean

Society at the Anniversary Meeting 24th May 1845, it is scarcely
necessary to make any addition. It is worthy of remark however, as
showing how talents sometimes run in families, that Mr. Griffith was
great grandson of Jeremiah Meyer, Historical Painter to George the
Second, and one of the founders of the Royal Academy. It is also but
fair to state on the present occasion, that he was not himself the only
member of the family who would appear to have inherited something
of his grandfather's peculiar art, as we owe the transfer of the
landscapes to stone, which add so much to the appearance of the
following volume, to the talent and kindness of his sister.
It may perhaps be acceptable in this place to afford a few extracts from
the private letters of Mr. Griffith, especially those in which he adverts
with a liberality of feeling to his contemporaries, no less honourable to
himself than to the persons mentioned.
The following notes addressed to his uncle, at various periods, exhibit
the sentiments with which he regarded the late Mr. Bauer not merely as
an artist, but original observer.
* * * * *
_From letters of Mr. GRIFFITH, to Mr. MEYER_.
_Mergui_: _January 17th_, 1835.
"My last accounts of Mr. Bauer state him to have been in excellent
health: he had just completed some more of his unrivalled drawings."
* * * * *
_Suddya_: _December 30th_, 1836.
"Pray give the compliments of the season to Mr. Bauer, to whom I look
up with the greatest admiration: what a pity it is for science that such a
life as his is not renewable ad libitum. Tell him that I have a beautiful
new genus allied to Rafflesia, the flowers of which are about a span
across, it is dioecious and icosandrous, and has an abominable smell.
How I look back occasionally on my frequent and delightful visits to
Kew."
* * * * *
To MRS. H---.
Serampore, _Calcutta_: _July 22nd_, 1841.
"I was aware of the departure of Mr. Bauer through the Athenaeum, in
which an excellent notice of him appeared. He certainly was a man to

whom I looked up with constant admiration: he was incomparable in
several respects, and I am happy to find, that his death was so
characteristic of his most inoffensive and meritorious life. It is also
very pleasing to me to find that he continued to think well of me. How I
should have been able to delight him had he lived a few years longer."
* * * * *
_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."
* * * * *
_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 Orchideae and
Asclepiadeae, 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."

* * * * *
_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,