BULLETIN OF THE TORREY BoTanicat Cuus. 
Vol. VI., Nos. 55 & 56.) [New York, July & Aug. 1879. 
§ 334. Death of Mr. Ruger.—It is with profound sorrow that we 
record the loss by the Club of one of its earliest and most beloved 
members, Mr. M. Ruger, who died of dropsy of the heart, at his home 
in this city, on the 22nd of July, in the 44th year of his age. Only 
two days previously he had been out collecting -—plants; in returning 
he was obliged to leave the car by a sudden attack of illness, and 
fell before he could reach a drug store where he soughtrelief. After 
partial recovery he was helped home, but sank rapidly, suffering from 
short and difficult breathing, with increasing exhaustion, until his 
death. During the past two years he had had similar, but less vio- 
lent, attacks, from which he seemed to have measurably recovered ; 
but any considerable bodily effort was attended with a recurrence of 
the same symptoms. He was thus prevented from joining during 
the last two seasons in the long, field-day excursions of the Club, in 
which he had previously been the accustomed leader, and was con- 
fined to short and easy rambles near the city. Though thus fore- 
warned, none apprehended so sudden an end, and to the members 
of the Club, to whom his botanical acquirements and personal traits 
had so warmly endeared him, the announcement of his death came 
like a shock. ete 
The funeral services were held at the Eleventh Street Methodist 
Episcopal Church, of whieh from its organization he had been an 
active and valued. member, and were attended by those of the Club 
to whom notices could be sent. Some wreaths and sprays of leaves 
and wild flowers from the woods he so much loved, which one of the 
members had placed upon the casket, seemed to us to be more 
appreciative and appropriate emblems of the simplicity, the unaffected- 
ness and the truth to nature which specially characterized our de- 
parted brother, than the beautiful but more pretentious and canven- 
tional floral tributes of harp and crown which also surrounded his 
bier. 
Four addresses by clergymen and others attested to the high 
appreciation in which he was held in his relations to the church and 
Sunday school, where, besides other duties, he was musical director, 
instructor and composer. From the church his remains were taken 
for burial to the Cypress Hill Cemetery. 
Mr. Ruger was of Dutch descent, and one of the numerous heirs 
of Annecke Jans, famed in the Trinity Church litigation. He was 
of so delicate a constitution, that, though his parents were in humble 
circumstances, he was never put to any employment, and he never 
attended school. His only instruction was received at home. But 
he was endowed by nature with a thirst for knowledge, an active in- 
tellect, quick and exact observation, a sound judgment and a reten- 
tive memory. Aided by these gifts, in the almost utter absence of 
the ordinary means of acquiring knowledge, he extracted, as by 
alchemy, from the slenderest materials and in the most adverse cir- 
cumstances, the elements of a liberal education. He was a fair Latin 
scholar, had some acquaintance with several of the modern languages, 
was a good draughtsman, a composer of church hymns and tunes, 
and an instructor in musical harmony; and there was hardly any 
branch of natural science in which he was not sufficiently well read 
