SOME ESSEX NATURALISTS 323
He was reputed to be of temperate and methodical habits,
shy, taciturn and exclusive. He rose early in the morning
to work among his collection of plants or in his garden. He
breakfasted at 7 a.m., after which he proceeded to the bank
until half-past four, then home to a seven-o'clock dinner
except on the night of the fortnightly meeting of the Lin-
naean Society, which he regularly attended after dining at
his club.
He had a somewhat wider interest in purely botanical
matters than Benjamin, and he recorded many plants
throughout Essex and, indeed, throughout the British Isles.
The Narrow-leaved Woodrush was named in honour of him
Luzula Forsteri, and many of the plants that he discovered
in Essex still flourish in the spots where he found them,
particularly the Leopard's Bane, which has continued to
grow in the spot described by him in 1800.
Like his brothers, Edward Forster had an interleaved
copy of the ''Plantae Woodfordiensis". It is noticeable
that he was not so methodical as his brother Benjamin, and
the use of differing shades of ink rather suggests that the
notes were made at widely-spaced intervals of time. Also,
his writing is not so neat and legible.
Apparently, at one time Edward Forster contemplated
writing a Flora of Essex, for in 1843 he wrote to Gibson as
follows:—
"Having, as I conceive, ample materials for a Flora of
Essex, I have long thought of publishing one, and have
actually begun to arrange it. My first plan was to have
printed only a second edition of Warner's "Plantae
Woodfordiensis", but having enough for a county Flora.
I have thought it best to extend it to all the known plants
of Essex."
In the preface to the Flora of Essex, Gibson, the author,
says :—
"Finding the task in such good hands, I gladly made
over to him all the information which had come within
my reach and during the few latter years of his life we
had frequent conversation and correspondence on the sub-
ject of his intended flora. After his death in 1819, no
manuscript of this description was found among his
papers, and therefore I was induced to resume the under-
taking . . ."