The figure was undoubtedly
symbolical, and I began to amuse myself by trying to guess its
meaning. Then a curious thing happened. A person who had
been moving slowly along near me, apparently looking with no
great interest at the memorials, came past me and glanced
first at the tablet I was looking at, then at me. As our eyes
met I remarked that I was admiring the best memorial I had
found in the abbey, and then added, "I've been trying to make
out its meaning. You see the man is a traveller and is
stepping ashore with a flowering spray in his hand. It
strikes me that it may have been erected to the memory of a
person who introduced some valuable plant into England."
"Yes, perhaps," he said. "But who was he?"
"I don't know yet," I returned. "I can only see that his name
was Sibthorpe."
"Sibthorpe!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Why, this is the very
memorial I've been looking for all over the abbey and had
pretty well given up all hopes of finding it." With that he
went to it and began studying the inscription, which was in
Latin. John Sibthorpe, I found, was a distinguished botanist,
author of the Flora Graeca, who died over a century ago.
I asked him why he was interested in Sibthorpe's memorial.
"Well, you see, I'm a great botanist myself," he explained,
"and have been familiar with his name and work all my life.
Of course," he added, "I don't mean I'm great in the sense
that Sibthorpe was.
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