BOTANICAL OBITUAKY. 309 



Herbarium^ as to be in some degree one of ourselves. This event took 

 place at the residence of a relative^ where he was on a visit (with an 

 unmarried sister), Samuel Watson, Esq., of Cottingham, near Hull (his 

 native town), at the early age of thirty-four. He received his medical 

 education at University College, London, and profited more than most 

 students by Dr. Lindley's Botanical Lectures. He entered the East 

 India Company's Service on the Bombay Establishment, and was soon 

 appointed Vaccinator in Scinde, and afterwards Inspector of Forests 

 there. His travels in Scinde and Beloochistan were frequent and ex- 

 tensive, and he took advantage of tliera to improve his knowledge of 

 the Botany of all this remarkable region, which he showed to have a 

 close affinity in its vegetable products with Arabia and Egypt. His 

 collections of specimens were very extensive, and well prepared ; and the 

 drawings, done by native artists, under his immediate inspection, are 

 no less so. On Dr. Gibson's visit to England, about three years ago, 

 Dr. Stocks was appointed during his absence to the important duties of 

 Conservator of Forests and Superintendent of Botanic Gardens in Bom- 

 bay, which gave further opportunity of pursuing his botanical researches, 

 both personally and by means of collectors. His ambition now, was 

 to turn these large collections to account, and to come to England, 

 where alone he could determine the correct nomenclature of the Genera 

 and Species, and where he hoped to publish the new plants, and to 

 distribute his specimens in the manner that would be most beneficial 



to the cause of Botany. 



Dr. Stocks accordingly came to England on furlough, bringing his 

 collections with him, and made Kew his residence; and here he had 

 been busily engaged since the early spring, in comparing them with 

 authentic specimens in the Kew Herbarium, and preparing them for 

 publication. Unfortunately his constitution had been undermined by 

 his great labours in, the unhealthy climate of Scinde ; he was subject to 

 intense neuralgic pains in the head and neck, and a change of air and 

 scene was deemed desirable. He accordingly spent a few weeks with 

 relations in the Isle of Man; and on his way thence to Cottingham he 

 caught a cold, which was succeeded by fits of apoplexy, which in a very 

 few days terminated fatally, on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 30th of 



August. 



Dr. Stocks had brought to England materials, in a very forward taste, 

 for a general work on the Natural History, Manners, Customs, Arts, 



