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Herbarium and Botanical Garden, vacated by Link. After much deliberation he did so, going to Berlin in May 1851. He began lecturing four days after his arrival, and from that time continued his duties for twenty-six years. In 1851 he published the well-known work that appeared in English form two years later from Henfrey's pen under the title of "The Phenomenon of Rejuvenescence in Nature." This contained many new facts in morphology, particularly with reference to Algæ. In the proper organisation of the Botanical Garden at Berlin, Braun at first encountered much difficulty, which was increased by the low state of the national exchequer, and consequent poverty of grants for such purposes. Similar obstacles stood in the way of the organisation of the Herbarium. The correct naming and cultivation of the plants in the garden received his special attention, in particular the Selaginella, Isoetes, and Marsileacea, on which he published several papers. The Characea of various parts

of the globe continued to occupy his attention to the end of his life, and his last work was a monograph of the Silesian species for the "Cryptogamic Flora" of that country lately issued (in parts) under the editorship of Dr Fred. Cohn. The numerous and important works written by Braun from 1851 onwards it is not necessary to mention here, but they have had a most beneficial influence on the progress of botany. In the various scientific societies to which he belonged he took a leading part, and rarely allowed a session to pass without presenting some paper in which solid work was embodied. In later times he adopted in some respects the Darwinian theory of evolution. In his university lectures he treated of the whole range of botany, the subject being profusely illustrated with specimens and diagrams. In the excursions with the students he took a very active part. Walking at a rapid pace with his eyes always on the ground, little escaped his notice, and in order to collect Charas and such like plants, he would even strip himself and enter the water. There is left behind him a great mass of unpublished writings, and his herbarium is very comprehensive and well arranged. Braun was twice married, first in 1835, and a second time in 1844. His surviving family

are the widow, four daughters, and a son. In his private and public life alike he preserved a most amiable disposition, attracting and retaining the friendship and respect of his colleagues and students, by whom, in his later years, he was honoured by several festivals in commemoration of birthdays and other anniversaries. Schimper's genus

Braunia is named after him.

HUGH D'ALGERNON WEDDELL died suddenly at Poictiers, on 22d July, from heart disease, from which he had suffered for several years. Though English by birth, he was completely French by adoption. His valuable monographs of the Urticacea and Podostemacea, in De Candolle's "Prodromus," and the "Histoire naturelle des Quinquinas," gave him high rank as a systematic botanist, but he is perhaps best known in connection with the flora of South America. His travels with the expedition of M. de Castelnau commenced in 1845 (see "Voyage dans le nord de Bolivie)." The two volumes of the magnificent "Chloris Andina" appeared in 1855-57. M. Weddell was at one time aide-naturalist at the Paris Museum. In early life he paid much attention to the plants of the environs of that city, and gave active. assistance in the preparation of Cosson and Germain's work, first published in 1842. He was also a good lichenologist. He visited Scotland along with his daughter in 1868, and joined a botanical excursion to the Breadalbane mountains in July that year (Trans. x. 24). His loss is greatly and widely felt, especially in England, where he had many intimate friends.

Professor WILHELM F. B. HOFMEISTER, a Foreign Honorary Fellow, one of the leading German botanists, died on 12th January 1877, at the age of fifty-two. Although a self-taught botanist, he attracted attention at an early age. by his publications on embryology and the physiology of plants. In 1863 he was appointed Professor of Botany at Heidelberg, and ten years later accepted a call to Tûbingen, where he was actively engaged until the time of his death. A short time since he received from Holland the great medal of Boerhaave, value £75, in recognition of his botanical investigations.

Mr JOHN SCOTT BOWERBANK, a Fellow of the Society, died on 9th March at Hastings, in the eightieth year of his age. He was born in July 1797 in London, where his father was a rectifying distiller, a share in which business he inherited and continued engaged in until 1847. He became a naturalist by studying the animal life in the river Lea and the plants growing upon its margins—his father having rented a portion of that river in the Edmonton Marshes. In 1818 Mr Bowerbank became a member of the Mathematical Society of Spitalfields, afterwards incorporated with the Astronomical Society. In the years 1822 to 1824 he delivered several courses of lectures on botany. He published, in and after 1833, numerous papers in the "Entomological Magazine." The result of his researches into the structure of plants--a subject in which he became deeply interested-were embodied in a paper "On the Spongeous Origin of the Flints and Cherts of the Chalk and Greensand Formations," published in the "Transactions of the Geological Society," and a memoir on the "Anatomy and the Physiology of the Spongida," which appeared in three parts of the "Philosophical Transactions." His industrious researches brought him honours in the shape of the LL.D degree, and he became Fellow of the Royal, the Linnean, and the Geological Societies. He was one of the most active founders of the Microscopical Society; one of the earliest members of the Entomological Society; in conjunction with Dr Johnston the originator of the Ray Society; and in 1847 the founder of the Palæontological Society, of which he was the honorary secretary for many years. His museum was of great extent and considerable value, e.g., it is said of the fossil fruits and seeds of the London clay of the Island of Sheppey he possessed at one time not less than 100,000 specimens.

By the death of FILLIPPO PARLATORE not only has the Society lost a respected Honorary Foreign Fellow, but European botany has sustained another severe blow. He was a native of Palermo, where he was born on 8th August 1816, and was therefore only sixty-one at the time of his decease at Florence on 9th September last. For many years past, however, he had suffered from ill-health, and

at the time of the Congress at Florence in May 1874 was thereby unfortunately prevented from taking an active part in its proceedings. His name will always be inseparably connected with the Royal Herbarium at Florence, which he may be said to have created. It was at his urgent representations that, in 1842, Leopold II., the then Grand Duke of Tuscany, founded a national herbarium, and at the same time revived the chair of botany at Florence, which had been suppressed since 1814, and nominated Parlatore the professor, giving him also the directorship of the garden, then a very small affair. Under energetic management and devoted attention, in a few years the herbarium took rank among those of note, and the gift of Webb's fine collection in 1850 rendered it one of the first rank. As an author Parlatore will be best known by his elaborate "Flora Italiana," commenced in 1848, and unfortunately left far from completion, and his monographs of the Conifera and Gnetacea, in the 16th volume of De Candolle's "Prodromus;" but he was the author of many memoirs and systematic papers. His early writings were chiefly on Sicilian plants, and in 1844 he commenced a "Flora Palermitana," which was never completed. In this year he also published a monograph of the genus Fumaria, and a memoir on the anatomy of Aldrovanda. His account of the Sicilian Papyrus appeared first in 1852, and the fine volume on the species of Cotton was published in 1866. Personally Professor Parlatore was possessed of a singularly amiable and simple character, and will be universally regretted. (Journal of Botany, vi. 320).

Dr JOHN DUNCANSON, who died on 17th December 1876 at Alloa, had been for a considerable time a Fellow of the Society, but does not appear to have contributed to its publications. In the spring of 1849, shortly after having graduated at St Andrews as Doctor of Medicine, he sailed to Savannah, and from thence travelled across the Western States of America. Some time after his return home he made a considerable tour, embracing France, South Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In 1851 he commenced practice in his native town as a physician, following his profession until his decease, as above noted, at the com

paratively early age of fifty-one. He published, in 1861, a work entitled "The Providence of God manifested in Natural Law."

Mr JOHN MILLER of Burgo Park, and a Fellow of the Society, who died during this year at a ripe age, was a native of Thurso, where he was actively engaged in business until his retirement some years ago, when he settled at the Bridge of Allan. This gave him the opportunity of cultivating the scientific tastes he possessed-especially in the direction of geology, in which he delighted, and in pursuit of which he obtained a good collection.

HENRY N. L. JAMES, M.D., a Non-resident Fellow, died suddenly on 19th December 1876, at Bolarum, near Secunderabad, India, from apoplexy, caused by sunstroke. Both at the Horse Guards and at Netley he stood very high, being in the first seven; and at the time of his death had seen eight years of Indian service. He contributed a large collection of Indian plants, especially orchids, to the Royal Botanic Garden.

XIV. Growth in Britain of the New Zealand Kowhai.* By W. LAUDER LINDSAY, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.L.S.

(Read 11th April 1878.)

In connection with the acclimatisation of foreign trees and shrubs in this country, and of British ones in our colonies, there are not a few problems that remain to be solved.

It is not enough to imitate mere conditions of latitude. and climate, as these are represented by average temperature or other atmospheric details. Nor is it enough to imitate what are apparently other essential conditions of growth, such as altitude, distance from the sea, nature of the soil, and so forth. Notwithstanding all the care that has been, bestowed, both at home and in our colonies, on the details of acclimatisation as applied to plants, we

* The Edwardsia grandiflora, Salisb., of horticulturists; the Sophora tetraptera, Aiton, of Hooker's "Handbook of the New Zealand Flora" (1864); best known under the first-mentioned name.

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