August 1893] OB FT UA BIES 1 4 1 



was able to gratify his desire to examine the facts. In this year he 

 visited the islands himself, leaving in May and returning in October, 

 not only making observations but also amassing a most valuable 

 collection of specimens illustrating the fauna and flora of the group. 

 He published his results in a series of important papers, still incom- 

 plete at the time of his death. He specially emphasised his discovery 

 that each island had peculiar species of animals and plants, those of 

 neighbouring islands nevei quite identical though closely related; and 

 he maintained that this harmonic distribution, as he termed it, could 

 only be explained on the hypothesis, that the Galapagos were the 

 summits of mountains of a submerged continental area, which had 

 once been connected with the mainland of America. This heterodox 

 view was at first much opposed, but it has now met with nearly 

 universal acceptance among naturalists. It was approvingly discussed 

 recently by Dr (Junther in his presidential address to the Linnean 

 Society; it has also been admitted as plausible by Mr W. Botting 

 Hemsley, the specialist on insular floras. Dr Baur's work was thus 

 far-reaching in the realm of biological and geological philosophy, and 

 an investigator of his originality and broad ideas can ill lie spared. 



AXTOX KERXER RITTER VOX MARILAUX 



Born June 13, 1831. Died June 21, 1898 



Dr Keener von Mabilatjn, whose death at the age of 67 is 



announced, was Professor of Systematic Botany, and Director of 

 the Botanic Gardens and Museum of Vienna University. He is 

 best known to English students from his " Ptianzenleben," perhaps 

 the most charming work on plant-life ever written ; it was recently 

 translated into English under the direction of Prof. F. W. Oliver. 

 Another delightful but smaller work is his "Plants and their Un- 

 bidden Guests," translated by Dr Ogle, with a preface by Charles 

 1 >arwin. These are the work of a keen observer and lover of nature, 

 who was gifted with a vivid imagination, which occasionally led him 

 beyond the limit of strict scientific accuracy. Kerner also wrote 

 several books and papers dealing systematically with the flora of 

 Southern Austria, the Tyrol, and neighbouring countries. 



Ferdinand Cohn, who, on June 25th, died suddenly at Breslau, was 

 born in that town in 1828, educated there, and had held the chair of 

 botany at its University since LS~>9. Author of several books and 

 papers dealing with plant-life in general, he was best known to the 

 public by his semi-popular work "Die Pflanze," of which the first 

 edition appeared in 1870, the second in 1896. His more strictly 

 scientific work was on t lie lower groups of plants, such as Algae, 

 Fungi, and Bacteria, ami most of it was published in " Beitrage zur 

 Biologie der Pflanzen," an irregular periodical founded by Cohn in 

 1870 and edited by him till its cessation in 1896. He also edited the 

 ■• Kryptogamen-flora von Schlesien," which began in 1876 and is still 

 incomplete. 



The deaths are also announced of:— Dr I'm i Bkocchi, professor of zoology and 

 director of the National Agronomic Institute a1 Paris, and president of the Society of 

 Agriculture ; and on March 7th, at Columbia, .Mo., of E. II. Lonsdale, of the t'.S. 

 • ■■■•(logical Survey, ami formerly connected with the Geological Surveys of Missouri 

 aid Iowa. 



