Obituary: Anthony Huxley

OF ALL his books, Anthony Huxley took greatest pleasure in Plant and Planet (1974), writes Mark Griffiths (further to the obituary by David Wheeler, 4 January). 'Darwin's Bulldog', TH Huxley himself, would have devoured this superb natural history. It led a generation of would-be botanists through the plant kingdom's tangled groves, myself among them.

I finally met its author when I became editor of the last publication in which he was involved, the New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. As editor-in-chief, Anthony stood back from the making of the book, preferring to nurture its development with counsel and a wealth of ideas and contacts. Still more precious than the hoard of his knowledge was the gift of his friendship - especially at time when the task of completing this mammoth work seemed scarcely possible.

Anthony's life embraced horticulture, garden history and botany; it mirrors the dictionary in scope. He found in the garden a symbiosis between his love of the arts and his profound respect for nature.