Miles Joseph Berkeley

“ There is, perhaps, no country in which so much good work in Natural Science is done in a quiet and unpretending way as in our own. Many persons, scattered up and down the country, are making valuable observations, which are recorded by themselves or others, from time to time, without taking any prominent position in the scientific world. ”

“ Purton, of Alcester, the author of "The Midland Flora," his uncle by marriage, so that there was talent and taste on all sides, and it would have been strange if, with these advantages, he had not inherited some good qualities. There were, moreover, circumstances which were highly in his favour. It has been the practice to ignore all the good that was done at Rugby before the time of Dr. Arnold, but with great injustice. Dr. Wooll, though not a profound scholar, had great taste for literature, and encouraged it wherever he saw an opportunity of doing so. ”

“ His communications on Conchology, Ornithology, Phænogamic and Cryptogamic plants, to leading periodicals were numerous; but, with the exception of his "Fasciculi of British Brambles," which have been appreciated highly by those who regard the greater part as mere forms of one, or perhaps, two species, as well as by those Botanists who look upon every form as distinct, his most useful work was amongst the Fungi, in which his neighbourhood was peculiarly rich. Many of the most interesting species have been recorded in the notices of British Fungi by Messrs. ”