Note 12 — Chapter X · AT THE FOREST SANATORIUM
Reading edition
MR BARON
[12] Mr Baron was for thirty-five years a missionary of the L.M.S. A good writer, an eloquent speaker, and an earnest missionary, he was also a very able botanist and an accomplished geologist, and at the time of his lamented death, in 1907, he probably knew more about both these sciences, as regards Madagascar, than any other European. On account of his researches, and the large collections he made, he was elected a Fellow of both the Linnæan and the Geological Societies, honours never conferred except for substantial scientific work. He also received a specially fitted microscope from the Royal Society for petrological study, in which he became very proficient. During his residence in Madagascar he sent home many hundreds of plants, a great proportion of which were new to science, and also a large number of rock sections for microscopical and polariscope study. Twice he was offered valuable positions under the French Government in this island, but he was too true a missionary to give up Christian work.