Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/101

81 MR. GEORGE NICHOLSON. By the courtesy of the Editor of the Gardeti we are enabled to reproduce the very excellent portrait of the Curator of Kew Gardens, to whom the last volume is fittingly dedicated. British botanists have reason to regret that the cares of office have so absorbed Mr. Nicholson's time that he has been unable of late years to continue the investigation of our Flora which he was at one time prosecuting with so much enthusiasm ; our own pages have borne abundant evidence of his capability in that direction. '; : 1 As "the distinguished practical head" of Kew Gardens — to quote the Garden notice — Mr. Nicholson has done much to improve the disposition of the collections under his care. He has been associated with Kew since 1873, when he became clerk to the Curator of the Gardens, and in 1886 he was promoted to the post rendered vacant by the death of Mr. John Smith. *' The ideal curator of such an establishment as Kew," says Mr. Robinson, must be a man of varied acquirements, both practical and scientific ; he must also possess considerable administrative ability. Mr. Nicholson is probably the nearest approach to this ideal that Kew has possessed since Aiton's time." His special JouRi^Ai, OF Botany, — Vol. 84. [Feb. 1896.] q