78 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
Gibson, written in 1843, to have intended to print a second
edition of the "Plantae Woodfordienses," and the MS. note
of certain plants marked "w.h." being "in my Walthamstow
herbarium," and the proved fact that these specimens are
included in the herbarium at the British Museum formerly in
the possession of Edward, seem to point to him as the author
of the annotations. But, on the other hand, Edward Forster
was married in 1796, and lived in London until after his father's
decease in 1812, and so his opportunities for making continuous
local records during this period would seem to be doubtful:
and it is surely significant that after the death of his brother
Benjamin not one single annotation was added during the whole
twenty years in which Edward survived alone. So, too, the
distinction made in the notes themselves (on Clinopodium vulgare,
already quoted) between "E.F. Jnr." and the "I" of the writer
implies two personalities.
Lastly, we come to Benjamin Meggot, who, as we have
seen, was a life-long resident of Walthamstow. Notwithstanding
the MS. note "in our southern field Hoe Street Aug. 1808,"
a date when he only of the three brothers was living with his
parents in the Walthamstow home, Benjamin's claim to the
authorship of the annotations would, in the absence of any known
example of his handwriting, have been incapable of proof, for
although Benjamin supplied specimens for "Sowerby's English
Botany," which are now included in the British Museum her-
barium, these unfortunately do not bear his handwriting, but
that of Sowerby.
In considering the rival claims of the two brothers, I had
recurring suspicions that Benjamin, and not Edward, was the
writer of the MS. notes: but proof was lacking. Fortunately,
I discovered in the Club's Library autograph signatures of both
Edward Forster and Benjamin Forster, on the fly-leaves of books
formerly in their possession and since presented to the
Club (in 1895) by the late Dr. M. C. Cooke4; and additional
evidence was forthcoming later. I found, on looking through the
Smith Correspondence in the possession of the Linnean Society,
one solitary signed letter from B. M. Forster to J. E. Smith,
4 In Lyons' "Fasciculus plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium," 1763, there is the auto-
graph signature "Edward Forster junior, 1803," in Hopkirk's "Flora Glottiana," 1813, is the
autograph" Edward Forster," and in John Ray's "Synopsis methodica stirpium britannica-
rum," 1724, the autograph signature "B. M. Forster 12th September 1814." Reproductions
of these are appended. (Fig. I.)