606 Memoir of the late Thomas Purton, Esq. 



sugar refineries will become general throughout the agricul- 

 tural districts of Britain, for purifying sugar for domestic pur- 

 poses. 



In France, a coarse brown paper is manufactured from the 

 refuse of the beet-root, after the saccharine juice has been 

 extracted ; and it is intended also to establish a paper manu- 

 factory at the refinery now erecting at Thames- Bank, Chelsea. 

 A sugar refinery has lately been erected at Belfast, in the vi- 

 cinity of which place upwards of 200 acres of land have been 

 planted with beet-root. — W. H. W. Oct. 17. 1836. 



Art. IX. Memoir of the late Thomas Purton, Esq. By A. B. 

 As a memoir of the late Thomas Purton, Esq., author of 

 the Midland Flora, may not be unacceptable to some of your 

 readers, you will perhaps be kind enough to insert in your 

 Magazine the following information respecting him. 



He was born at Endon Burnell, in the parish of Chetton, 

 near Bridgenorth, in the county of Salop, May 10. 1768 ; be- 

 ing the youngest of eight children, the offspring of John and 

 Mary Purton, none of whom are now living,* his last sur- 

 viving brother, Christopher, dying in the summer of this 

 year. Mr. Purton was educated, first, at a preparatory school 

 at Alveley, near Bridgenorth, under the Rev. Mr. Nechell, 

 and afterwards at a school at Downton, near Shrewsbury ; 

 from which place he went to reside as a pupil with the late 

 Mr. Bloxam, surgeon, of Alcester, whose daughter Anne he 

 afterwards married. Having remained with him the usual time, 

 he removed to London, where he practised in his profession 

 for four years; at the expiration of which (a.d. 1795) he 

 returned to Alcester, and entered into partnership with Mr. 

 Bloxam, which continued until the latter, at an advanced pe- 

 riod of his life, retired from business. Mr. Purton remained 

 in Alcester till the year 1827; when he removed to the house 

 which had been occupied by his late father-in-law, a short 

 distance from the town, where he lived until the year 1831; 

 when he left his house for the residence of one of his sons, at 

 Hord's Park, near Bridgenorth. It was at this place that I 

 visited him for a short period ; but found him very infirm, 

 and labouring under lameness, which prevented him taking 

 his usual botanical walks : but his spirits were still actively 

 alive to the pleasures of the science ; and, if I mistake not, he 

 was preparing, at that period, a complete revision of the -Fungi, 

 for Dr. Hooker's British Flora. He did not remain long at 

 Hord's Park; but, in 1832, removed to his house near Al- 

 cester, where in the following year, after a short illness, he 



