distribute the plants and pull down the glasshouses. On 11 February 1840, Lindley told the Prime Minister that the matter was to be raised in Parliament. This caused an outcry. The public was indignant, the Government backed down and the Gardens were saved. William Hooker was appointed to be the new Director. In 1845, Lindley was part of a scientific commission set up by the Government to investigate potato blight and the Irish famine. The cause of the fungal disease was not known at the time and the weather was thought to be to blame. Although the commission was powerless to solve the problem, their report brought about the repeal of the 1815 Corn Laws which had forbidden the import of cheap wheat from America. This helped to alleviate the effects of the disease on populations that had become reliant on the monoculture of potatoes. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1859. Lindley was very industrious and hardworking and published a number of works including ‘’The Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants’’, the writing of which occupied him for ten years. He was acknowledged to be the top authority on the classification of orchids of his time. Bentham and Hooker, writing in 1883, accepted 114 genera he had named and described, and Pfitzer, in 1889, accepted 127. Over many years, Lindley had described a large number of orchid species, and many other plants, naming them and giving each a concise description of the plant’s characteristics. He was held in high regard by other botanists and was honoured by naming more than 200 species with the epithets "lindleyi", "lindleyana", "lindleyanum", "lindleyanus", "lindleya" and "lindleyoides". Later years In 1861, Lindley took charge of organising the exhibits from the British colonies for the International Exhibition at South Kensington. This was exhausting work and seems to have taken a toll on his health. His memory also began deteriorating. He resigned his university professorship that year and his position as Secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society two years later. In 1863 he travelled to Vichy, a spa in the center of France, but his health continued to decline. He died at his home at Acton Green, near London, aged 66. He was survived by his wife, two daughters including Sarah Lindley Crease and a son. The daughters were accomplished artists themselves and the son, Nathaniel,