92 JOHN GIBBS : AN ESSEX BOTANIST.
"assistant curator" of the old Essex and Chelmsford Museum.
The duties were, in reality, little more than those of a care-
taker. They were, moreover, very light; for the Museum was
open, as a rule, on Fridays only. The remuneration was, I
believe, proportionate, being merely the admission fees paid by
visitors and a commission on subscriptions collected from
members. Gibbs at once spent three months in re-arranging
the exhibits. His engagement continued, with variations, for
many years.
Up to this period, Gibbs had lived, first in the Baddow Road,
and later in the street now known as the Friars, in the town of
Chelmsford ; but, soon after, he removed to a very modest
cottage a little to the west of the railway bridge on the Writtle
Road, just outside the town. Here, the attraction was,
undoubtedly, the very small garden attached to the dwelling.
In this, he was able to grow and observe his plants, as
well as to make experiments upon them in the way of
hybridization and the like. Later, in 1881, he wrote me that
he had then over two hundred species under cultivation.
Before the International Exhibition in 1871, Gibbs prepared
and had published A First Catechism of Botany (Chelmsford,
John Button, 39pp., fcp. 8vo., price one shilling), which (he says)
was "admitted" by the Committee of Selection. In 1878, all
copies having been sold, he brought out a "new and enlarged
edition" (Chelmsford: Edmund Durrant & Co., 60 pp., fcp.
8vo., price one shilling, bound in paper boards). Of this, also,
the sale was, I believe, fairly satisfactory. On the whole, the
Catechism is not badly done, though of a kind now quite out of
date. It consists of 322 elementary questions and answers,
arranged in 24 chapters. These relate, in the main, to the
structure and classification of plants. The species referred to
are the commonest plants of our gardens and way-sides. The
botanical description of a daisy, in verse, with which the book
closes, is a miracle of poetic skill, considering the difficulties of
introducing ponderous botanical terms into light verse ! Some of
its verses run as follows:
Of this little plant of the Composite Order,
Bellis perennis is surely the name ;
A perennial herb in the garden's gay border,
To ornament which from the meadows it came.