Theodore von Heldreich, Luis Sodiro, Edouard Morren, Nicolao Terracciano.

Members Deceased, .

13

The following are the Obituary notices for the year, prepared by Mr F. M. Webb.

JOHN JOSEPH BENNETT, an Honorary British Fellow of the Society from December 1868, was born at Tottenham, a few miles from London, on 8th January 1801, and along with an elder brother, Edward, commenced his education at Enfield, having as school companions the poet Keats and Bishop Thirlwall the historian. After leaving school, and receiving some years of private tuition at home, the two brothers entered upon special studies for the medical profession, and became students at the Middlesex Hospital. In due time they passed their examinations, and established themselves as surgeons in London. Thoroughly

united in their affections, they were equally united in their pursuits. Their love for natural history early showed itself, and received both impulse and direction from their friendship and intercourse with John Edward Gray, who, like themselves, had studied medicine, but had turned aside from its practice to lecture on botany, and to assist his father in the preparation of the systematic portion of his "Natural Arrangement of British Plants." In this work the two brothers were cordial and active assistants. Edward Bennett subsequently devoted himself to zoology, and during the progress of his edition of White's "Selborne" through the press he died, leaving to his brother the revision of the later sheets, and the writing of a most affectionate preface. This

was in 1836, but nine years earlier the subject of the present notice had become associated with Robert Brown, having been appointed in November 1827 assistant-keeper of the Banksian collection, at that time just handed over to the British Museum, in conformity with the provisions of the will of Sir Joseph Banks. During the winter 18271828, this collection was deposited and arranged at Montague House, where it remained until 1843, when the whole was transferred to the new British Museum Buildings, and there it still continues pending completion of the proposed repository at South Kensington. As soon as the collection at Montague House was placed in consultable order, Mr Bennett must have begun to work at the plants collected in Java by Dr Horsfield, resulting in his careful and valuable "Plantæ Javanica," the first part of which was published in 1838, and the final part in 1852. This work, and some short scattered papers on West African plants, constitute the whole of his descriptive botanical writings.

Shortly after the death of Mr Brown in 1858, Mr Bennett was appointed his successor as Keeper of the Botanical Department, and his kindly supervision in this office, disturbed only by a somewhat serious illness in 1860, he continued up to the year 1870, when failing health and a desire for quiet retirement, caused him to resign an official connection with the Museum of more than fortythree years. In 1871 he accordingly took up his residence at the secluded village of Maresfield, in Sussex, where he died from disease of the heart on 29th February last.

Mr Bennett joined the Linnean Society in 1828, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841, and during the twenty years 1840 to 1860 was secretary to the former, managing efficiently the business of the Society, editing all its publications, and, with two or three exceptions, attending all its meetings throughout this long period. For the Ray Society he edited the "Miscellaneous Works of his great master and friend, Robert Brown, who on his death had bequeathed to him his library and herbarium. By Mr Bennett's will this herbarium is now being distributed. The British Museum, as is natural, gets the first or original working set; the Kew Herbarium, as is desirable, obtained

a second set, and the University here, as might be expected, from being the collector's alma mater, receives the remainder for its own Herbarium in the first instance, and for further distribution when practicable. A first instalment has lately been received.

Bennettia, a genus of Bixineæ, established by Miquel, commemorates Mr Bennett. Two earlier applications of the name by Gray and Brown had to be set aside, and though the present stands in Bentham and Hooker's "Genera Plantarum," it has been reduced by Baillon to Flacourtia.

Mr Bennett was succeeded at the British Museum by Mr Carruthers, to whom acknowledgment must be made for many of the above particulars.

By the death of ADOLPHE THEODORE BRONGNIART in February last we have, with one exception, lost the whole of the twenty-four British and Foreign Honorary Members elected by the Society at their first meeting for that purpose on 9th February 1837, the venerable Professor Fries is the only survivor. Of that list of remarkable men, all true leaders and permanent landmarks in science, few have obtained a more wide-spread fame than Brongniart, and not many have passed away such a thorough worker up to the very last. Of the seventy-five years of his life, for five and fifty he was before the scientific public, and all his work has been of recognized high merit. Born 14th January 1801, and carefully educated, he readily left the medical future, for which he was studying, for the opening science afforded, and from his twentieth year occupied himself with nearly equal assiduity and success in botanical and geological investigations. In 1822 he published a memoir upon the classification and distribution of vegetable fossils; and three years later a natural classification of the Champignons. In 1826 appeared his "Recherches " upon the Vegetable Embryo, which gained for him the Monthyon prize of the Academy of France. The year following his "Mémoire sur les Rhamnées" appeared, and passing over numerous minor publications, in 1828 his "Prodrome" and the first volume of his "Histoire" of Vegetable Fossils were issued. In 1830 his "Recherches" upon the Structure and Functions of Leaves were published, and year by

year (with very few exceptions) from that date to 1875 numerous highly valuable "Mémoires," "Observations," "Notes," "Rapports," "Recherches," &c., annually proceeded from his pen, and were given to the world. In 1833 Brongniart was nominated Professor of Vegetable Physiology in the Museum, and the year following was elected a Member of the Academy of Sciences in place of Desfontaines. Of his work at the Jardin des Plantes no praise can be too high, and of the estimation in which he was held by and amongst his fellow-workers, I must simply refer to the eloquent tributes paid by Duchartre, Decaisne, Bureau, Jourdain, Chatin, and others, as reported in the "Bulletin" of the Botanical Society of France under date 25th Feb. 1876. In this publication will be found also a complete list of Brongniart's writings; the enumeraration occupies ten large octavo pages. From 1846 to 1850 some of his short geological papers were printed in the "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal."

His valuable library was sold by auction in Paris, the sale occupying fifteen days, and the catalogue forming an 8vo volume of 240 pages.

We have recently lost one of our oldest members, Mr THOMAS BARCLAY, at the advanced age of eighty-one. As Town-Clerk of Kinghorn from 1816 to 1847, and Sheriff-Clerk of Fifeshire from that date to his death, he was widely known in official and political life, and to a less extent in a literary capacity. From the labours incidental to his position, botany was his attractive recreation, and he understood it perhaps better than any other lawyer in Britain. He delighted to accompany Professor Balfour's class, and did so through many excursions, including that to the Continent in 1858. Even when past threescore and ten he was as eager in the pursuit of new plants as the young students around him. He was too, on many occasions, most kind in making arrangements for the accommodation and refreshment of Professor Balfour's large parties of visitors to his neighbourhood, a kindness so appreciated by the Class, that some years ago they insisted on recognising it by presenting to him an address in a silver botanical box, together with

some books.

These mementos of much pleasant intercourse he was pleased to accept.

Mr Barclay through his long life was always at work, acquiring knowledge, exhorting and directing others how to acquire it; suggesting and carrying out reforms; never exhibiting weariness in well-doing, and never looking out for reward.

THOMAS MARSHALL BENNETT was born at York in 1843. He studied first at the University of Cambridge, where he passed with honours the preliminary examination. In 1864 he proceeded to the University of Edinburgh to study for the medical profession, for which he had a strong inclination. In 1869 he took the degrees of M.B. and C.M., and in the same year became L.R.C.S., and a Fellow of the Botanical Society. On 1st August 1872 he received the degree of M.D., and wrote a thesis on "Hypodermic Injection as regards the Treatment of certain Visceral Diseases, Functional and Organic." In 1871 he married, and took a partnership with the view to succession at Barton-on-Humber, in Lincolnshire. Here he remained three years, and his unvarying attention and kindness-particularly to his poorer patients-made them much attached to him. His father's and mother's health having become very precarious, he considered it his duty to be near them, and the distance of their residence from York made it impossible for him to continue in regular practice. His mother had a long and painful illness, and his father, after lingering through the winter, died on 1st February 1876, at the advanced age of eighty-five. Dr Bennett's health then began to give way, and the exceptionally hot summer tried his strength very much. He fell into an anæmic state, and though the doctors he consulted gave hope of his recovery, he felt himself that he would never rally. He grew much weaker, but was able to drive out until within three days of his death. On 18th October 1876 a sudden attack of syncope came on, and in twenty minutes he breathed his last, at the age of thirty-three. Though from circumstances he had so early to relinquish general practice, yet it gave him the more leisure to pursue his favourite study of the microscope, as relating to botany