LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOIf. XXXVll 



for the navy, was expanded into an important work, entitled 

 " The Fibrous Plants of India, fitted for Clothing, Cordage, and 

 Paper: with an account of the Cultivation and Preparation of 

 Flax, Hemp, and their Substitutes," Lond. 8vo, 1855. The im- 

 mense collections of Indian products, raw and manufactured, many 

 of the latter of great interest either as fabrics or as exquisite 

 models of design, which had been brought together with a view to 

 these several exhibitions, afforded Dr. Eoyle an opportunity of 

 pressing upon the authorities of the India House the importance 

 of forming a museum in Leadenhall Street, where they might be 

 collectively exposed for the benefit and instruction of the public. 

 The plan was adopted ; and to carry it out became the great object 

 of the last year of his laborious and valuable life. He survived 

 to see the rooms filled, and most of the specimens laid out. The 

 day before his death, after an interval of confinement for some 

 weeks, he was again at his post, to urge on the final arrangements 

 of the museum ; but mortal disease was then upon him, and on 

 the following morning he was carried off by a sudden sti'oke. He 

 died at his residence, Heathfield Lodge, Acton, on the 2nd of 

 January in the present year, and in the fifty -ninth year of his age, 

 leaving a widow, two sons, and a daughter to bemoan his loss, and 

 a deep-seated sentiment of respect and regret among a wide circle 

 of friends. 



It would be unjust not to mention, that in the preparation of 

 this notice I have been largely indebted to the kindness of my 

 friend Dr. Falconer, who succeeded Dr. Boyle in the charge of the 

 Botanic Garden at Saharunpore, and was through life one of his 

 warmest and most intimate friends. 



Joseph Smith, JEsq., F.JR.S., well known to many of us as 

 having filled for a considerable period the office of Treasurer of 

 theEoyal Society Club, was called to the Bar as a Member of Gray's 

 Inn, within the precincts of which he continued to live during the 

 remainder of his life, and where he died on the 26th of May 1857, 

 at the age of eighty-three. He became a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society in 1811, and of the Royal Society in 1819, and was a 

 constant attendant at the meetings of the latter, until the infir- 

 mities of age precluded his appearance abroad. He was well 

 acquainted with British plants, and wrote a memoir on the Guern- 

 sey Lily, which however has not been published. 



The Bev. William Smith, Professor of Natural History in 

 Queen'' s College, Gorh, was the fifth son of the late Samuel Smith, 

 Esq., of Balnamere, near Ballymoney, in the county of Antrim, 



