138 Miscellaneous. 



some occur forming a sort of varnish on the upper surface of the 

 leaves of different trees, and cannot be attributed to Aphides. 

 Others, observed on the fir, proceeded from the axes of the branches, 

 which were attributable, according to all appearance, to the irritation 

 of an insect, which was constantly seen at these places, and to which 

 M. Kollar has given the name of Lecanium abietis. — Flora, No. 41. 



OBITUARY MR. THOMAS EDMONDSTON. 



Science has lately had to deplore the loss of a promising and en- 

 thusiastic votary in Mr. Thomas Edmondston, the young and talented 

 naturalist who accompanied Captain Kellett to the west coast of 

 America in H.M. Surveying Ship Herald. During the month of 

 April, shortly after reaching the Galapagos Islands, Mr. Edmond- 

 ston was killed by the accidental discharge of a loaded musket. He 

 was the son of Dr. Edmondston of Unst in Shetland, himself a na- 

 turalist of reputation, and the author of some excellent papers in 

 the ' Memoirs of the Wernerian Society.' Mr. T. Edmondston dis- 

 played his talents at a very early age, and had acquired a remark- 

 able knowledge of all branches of natural history when a mere boy. 

 His age was only twenty-three when he died. He had published 

 many interesting papers on zoological and botanical subjects before 

 leaving England, and was the author of an excellent little • Flora of 

 Shetland.' He had just been appointed Lecturer on Natural History 

 in the Andersonian Institution in Glasgow, when he was selected for 

 the honourable post of Naturalist to the ' Herald.' During the short 

 time he had been engaged in his duties before his death, he led his 

 friends to form great expectations of the results of his researches — 

 doomed, alas ! to be sadly disappointed before he had fairly entered 

 upon the unexplored field to which he had looked forward with ar- 

 dent anticipations. The following letters written to a friend in En- 

 gland during the early part of his voyage, may serve as melancholy 

 records of the zeal and observing powers of our lamented friend : — 



H.M. Ship Herald, off Cape Horn, 20th Oct. 1845. 

 I sit down to give you a brief account of my motions since I wrote 

 you from Rio de Janeiro, and by way of husbanding my time in port, 

 I shall commence this now. We reached the Falkland Islands on 

 the 19th September, after a rather stormy but not otherwise remark- 

 able voyage from Rio ; we left again on the 29th. We were very 

 unfortunate in being at these islands while the gales accompanying 

 [their] vernal equinox were raging in all their fury : such villanous 

 weather I never saw — constant gales of wind accompanied by snow 

 and very cold. Doing anything in marine zoology was out of the 

 question, for though both Captain Kellett and myself were ex- 

 tremely anxious to spend as much time in dredging as possible, there 

 was never an hour during the whole time we staid there sufficiently 

 moderate to allow of dredging. Captain Kellett, with his usual kind- 

 ness and zeal for the interests of science, made me welcome to a 

 manned cutter whenever the weather should allow of my using it ; 

 it was however never sufficiently moderate in the wind to render 



