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BAKER.

Plants figured in Vols. I., III., and IV. of Saunders' "Refugium Botanicum," 1869–71; "Popular Monographs of Narcissus, Crocus, Lilium, Iris, Crinum, Aquilegia, Sempervivum, Epimedium, and Agave," 1870–7; "Monograph of the Papilionaceæ of India," 1876; "Systema Iridacearum," 1877; "Flora of Mauritius and the Seychelles," 1877; "A Monograph of Hypoxidaceæ," 1879. The following are the titles of Mr. Baker's works on geographical botany, &c.:—"An Attempt to Classify the Plants of Britain according to their Geological Relations," 1855; "North Yorkshire: Studies of its Botany, Geology, Climate, and Physical Geography," 1863; "A new Flora of Northumberland and Durham, with Essays on the Climate and Physical Geography of the Counties" (aided by Dr. G. R. Tate), 1868; "On the Geographical Distribution of Ferns through the World, with a Table showing the Range of each Species," 1868; "Elementary Lessons in Botanical Geography," 1875; "On the Botany of Madagascar," 1881.


BAKER, Sir Samuel White, F.R.S., M.A., eldest son of the late Samuel Baker, Esq., of Lypiatt Park, Gloucestershire, was born in London, June 8, 1821, and was educated at a private school and in Germany. He married, in 1843, Henrietta, daughter of the Rev. Charles Martin. In 1847 he established an agricultural settlement and sanatorium at Newera Ellia, in the mountains of Ceylon, at an altitude of 6200 feet above the sea level. At great personal cost he, together with his brother, conveyed emigrants from England, and the best breeds of cattle and sheep, to found the mountain colony. The impulse given by this adventure secured the assistance of the Colonial Office, and with the increasing prosperity of Ceylon, Newera Ellia has become a resort of considerable importance, the most recent development being the cultivation of the valuable Cinchona plant. In 1854 Baker retired from Ceylon after eight years' residence, and at the death of his wife in 1855 he proceeded to the Crimea, and he was subsequently engaged in Turkey in the organization of the first railway. In 1861 he commenced an enterprise entirely at his own cost for the discovery of the Nile sources in the hope of meeting the Government expedition under the command of Captain Speke, who had started from Zanzibar for the same object. Having married, in 1860, Florence, daughter of M. Finnian von Sass, he was accompanied throughout this arduous journey by his wife. Leaving Cairo April 15, 1861, he reached, on June 13, the junction of the Atbara with the Nile. For nearly a year he explored the regions of Abyssinia from whence comes the Blue Nile, and in June, 1862, descended to Khartoum, at the junction of the Blue and the White Nile. Here he organised a party of ninety-six persons to explore the course of the latter river. They set out in Dec. 1862, and reached Gondokoro in Feb. 1863. Here Baker had the good fortune to meet Captains Speke and Grant, who had succeeded in reaching the Lake Victoria N'yanza, which they believed to be the ultimate source of the Nile. Baker, having resolved to supplement their explorations, supplied them with the necessary vessels for the voyage to Khartoum, and started from Gondokoro by land, March 26, 1863, without either interpreter or guide, in defiance of the opposition of the slave-hunters who attempted to bar his progress. The route was first eastward, then nearly south, and afterwards turned towards the east. On March 14, 1864, he came in sight of a great fresh-water lake, the "Mwootan N'zige," until then unknown, which he named the Albert N'yanza. After navigating the lake from N. lat. 1° 14′ to the exit of the Nile at 2° 15′, he set out on his homeward