LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XXVU 



bellow of the Liuueau Society iu 1841, and died at Torquay, to 

 which place he had some time since retired, on account of his 

 declining health, on the 26th of January in the present year, and 

 in the 4i5th year of his age. 



Francis King JEagle, Esq., was the second son of Robert Eagle, 

 Esq., of Lakenheath, in the county of Suffolk. He was educated 

 at Trinity College, Cambridge, where, in 1809, he graduated as 

 LL.B., and in the same year he was called to the bar. For 

 many years he attended the Norwich circuit, and obtained a high 

 reputation as a tithe-lawyer, which branch of the profession he 

 had made the subject of a profound research, having published in 

 1826 (in conjunction with Mr. Yonge) a highly valuable " Col- 

 lection of the Reports of Cases, the Statutes, and Ecclesiastical 

 Laws relating to Tithes," in 4 vols. 8vo. He subsequently be- 

 came a bencher of the Middle Temple, a Justice of the Peace for 

 the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Judge of the County- 

 Courts of Sufiblk. Rather late in life he married the eldest 

 daughter of the late Sir James Blake, Bart., of Langham Hall, 

 who survives him, and by whom he has left one son. Mr. Eagle 

 became a Eellow of the Linnean Society in 1807, and was much 

 attached to the study of British Botany, being well-acquainted 

 with the Cryptogamous plants, and especially with the Mosses. 

 He died at Bury St. Edmunds, on the 8th of June, 1856, at the 

 age of 68. 



William Gourlie, Esq., the son of a highly-respected Glasgow 

 merchant, was born in that city in March 1815, and received an 

 excellent education at the public schools, and afterwards at the 

 university of his native city. On his father's removal to the 

 neighbourhood of the town, he acquired a taste for gardening, 

 which soon expanded into a love of botany, and led to his attend- 

 ance, first on the lectures of Sir William Hooker, and afterwards 

 on those of Professor Balfour. From his earliest years he was 

 remarkably regular and orderly in his habits, and was thus enabled 

 to give much time to mental improvement, even while engaged 

 for many hours a day in mercantile pursuits. His botanical col- 

 lections were at first limited to British plants, among which he 

 paid particular attention to the Mosses ; but latterly he acquired 

 large foreign collections, which he is stated to have left in excellent 

 condition. His collection of shells was also extensive and well- 

 arranged, and his cabinet contained many interesting specimens 

 of fossil plants. From the time of his entering into business in 

 conjunction with his father, his connexion with the colonies enabled 



