Henry Horatio Dixon, 1869-1953

Abstract

The first issue of Notes from Botanical School of Trinity College, Dublin, opens with an article on ‘The Herbarium of Trinity College: a retrospect’, which ends as follows with page 14, ‘As has already been explained the Cape Flora is for the present kept apart from the rest. ‘In 1893, the Board granted the use of another room to the Herbarium, the one in which the British Collection is now placed. This enabled this collection to be consulted during the hours of daylight, without the routine work of the General Herbarium being interfered with, and has in many ways improved the comfort of the place. They further have fitted up the rooms, at one time devoted to the Geological Collection, as a Botanical Laboratory, and appointed Mr Henry Dixon as assistant to the Professor of Botany. In this Laboratory each student is provided with a microscope and all the necessary apparatus and reagents for the investigation of plant structure. During the seven weeks of each term, in addition to the lectures, demonstrations are here given, and the student is encouraged to work out details for himself at any hour of leisure from his other College work. Fresh material is received each day from the Curator of the College Botanical Gardens, F. W. Burbidge, M.A. In their senior year the students are invited to work out some original problem in plant structure or physiology, or to investigate some named family of plants, and prizes are awarded for the best essays on such. Prizes are also given for collections made within a specified time, attention being paid to the care with which the specimens are dried and named, no merit being given for rare species.