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OBITUARY NOTICE. 



MORDECAI CUBITT COOKE, M.A., LL.D., A.L.S. 



(Born July 12th, 1825; died November 12th, 1914.) 



It is with feelings of great regret we have to record the death, in 

 his ninetieth year, of Dr. M. C. Cooke, the " Father of the Club," 

 which took place on November 12th at his residence in Southsea. 



Dr. Cooke was born in 1825 at the village of Horning in 

 Norfolk, where his parents kept a general shop. From an early- 

 age he was dependent upon his own resources, und was in turn 

 employed as draper's assistant, teacher in a National school and 

 lawyer's clerk. As an assistant in the Indian Museum he at 

 last found congenial occupation, and when that institution was 

 abolished spent some time at the South Kensington Museum, in 

 the Mycological Department. He afterwards joined the Her- 

 barium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and was for twelve 

 years (1880-92) in charge of the Cryptogamic Department ; in 

 the latter year he retired on a pension. 



During this time he incorporated his own herbarium, con- 

 taining 46,000 specimens, with the existing collection at Kew, 

 as well as the collection of fungi presented to Kew by the 

 Rev. M. J. Berkeley. His figures of fungi, mostly coloured and 

 numbering 25,000 plates, are also at Kew. 



His first important work was the Handbook of British Fungi, 

 in two volumes, published in 1871, followed by Mycogra'phia, or, 

 coloured figures of fungi from all parts of the world, 113 plates ; 

 Handbook of Australian Fungi ; and Illustrations of British 

 Fungi, 1,200 coloured plates. In addition to the above, over 

 300 articles on mycological subjects are credited to Dr. Cooke by 

 Lindau and Sydow ; for a period of fifteen years he also edited 

 Grevillea, a journal devoted to cryptogamic botany. 



After his retirement in 1892 Dr. Cooke retained his interest in 

 fungi, and until 1904 attended the annual fungus foray of the 

 Essex Field Club. Recently his eyesight failed, though his mind 

 remained keen and active. He was honorary M.A. of Yale, and 



