IN MEMORIAM — PROFESSOR THOMAS KING. 3 



Having accordingly obtained an appointment in the school of 

 Messrs. Goldfinch and Bluhm at Valparaiso, Chile (in which 

 country his brother John had already taken up his abode), he 

 sailed from Liverpool on 21st July, 1864, in the "Adam Sedgwick." 

 Here, under the warm rays of a South American sun, his health 

 rapidly improved ; while he found pleasant occupation for periods 

 of leisure in studying the fauna and flora of Chile, and in forming 

 collections "of birds, insects, shells, and plants — an occupation 

 which must have afforded him a source of never-failing pleasure. 

 But this bright and happy period was destined to be darkened 

 with sorrow through the death of his elder brother, James, which 

 took place at Carrizal on 5th February, 1870. 



While engaged in his favourite pursuits, Mr. King made the 

 acquaintance of several eminent South American botanists, in- 

 cluding Dr. R. A. Philippi, Professor of Natural History in the 

 University of Chile, Santiago, of whom he has given the following 

 reminiscences : — " He was well-known in Europe before coming 

 to Chile, having, I understand, made his mark by his writings on 

 the shells of the Mediterranean. I was introduced to him in the 

 Santiago Museum, and found him a little, cheery, active German, 

 about sixty years of age. I was struck by the facility with which 

 he could name the native plants. I had been slowly puzzling 

 them out, but he could name them as fast as we could name ash 

 or beech or elm. 



" Shortly after the bombardment,* my brother went north to 

 the Desert of Atacama, to take charge of a mineral railway; and 

 in my visits to him I was so fortunate as to find several plants 

 new to science, as well as other species seldom seen in the south. 

 These I sent to Santiago, and Philippi was so good as to name 

 some of the new species after me. One of my finds I was greatly 

 pleased about. In riding over the sands with my brother, on a 

 bright morning before breakfast, I noticed a plant unfamiliar to 

 me. Dismounting, I gathered a prostrate, wiry, fragrant 

 leguminous under-shrub. Now, we had just got a new President 

 — Seiior Errazuriz — and the Doctor named it in his honour 

 Errazurizia glandulifera, Ph." 



* The bombardment of Valparaiso, by Spain, under Admiral Pareja, 

 which took place in April, 1866. 



