WILLIAM HENRY HARVEY
1811—1866
Early influences—Natural History—his "pretensions" to science—choice of a profession—visit to London—early publication—South Africa—investigation of its flora—appointed Keeper of University Herbarium, Dublin—Algology with Mrs Griffiths—Phycologia Britannica—appointed to Professorship—visit to America—lectures and travels—Nereis Boreali-Americana—travels in the East—Australia—New Zealand—Fiji—return home—election to chair at Trinity College, Dublin—Phycologia Australica—marriage and death—Harvey's limitations—his reception of Darwinism—personal characteristics.
Among the many illustrious names that figure on the syllabus of the present course of lectures, that of Harvey is probably one of the less generally known. This is due for the most part to the fact that the subject to which the greater portion of his energies was devoted—the systematic study of seaweeds—occupies a somewhat remote niche in the edifice of botany. Also many years of his life were spent in collecting in distant regions; and his retiring disposition, and comparatively early death, contributed to the same result. In the scientific world of his day he avoided publicity, but laboured with indomitable zeal at his chosen subject, leaving behind him a series of splendidly illustrated descriptive works. For a glimpse of the man himself—his life, his aims, his thoughts—we have to rely almost entirely on a volume[1] consisting mainly of letters written to relations and to family friends, which was
