414 Linncean Society, 



observations made simultaneously with others on board the vessel. 

 " Some account" of his ascent of the former was subsequently given 

 by him in the 1st and 2nd volumes of Loudon's 'Magazine of Natural 

 History.' From an early period of the voyage Mr. Menzies added 

 to his duties as naturalist those of surgeon of the Discovery, and it 

 affords a striking proof of his professional skill, that on so arduous 

 a service and in so protracted a voyage, not a single man was lost 

 by disease after quitting the Cape of Good Hope in their passage 

 out. 



From these various voyages Mr. Menzies brought back with him 

 to England large collections of natural history, chiefly botanical. A 

 very considerable number of the plants which he had collected, and 

 especially of the Cryptogamous, to the study of which he was always 

 devotedly attached, were new to science, and have been described 

 from his specimens by Sir James Edward Smith, Mr. Brown, Sir 

 W. J. Hooker and other botanical friends, among whom they were 

 most liberally distributed. His own publications were few in num- 

 ber. In the 1st volume of our 'Transactions' are contained "De- 

 scriptions of three new Animals [Echene'is lineata, Fasciola clavata, 

 and Hirudo branchiatd] found in the Pacific Ocean" during his first 

 voyage round the world; and in the 4th, " A new Arrangement of 

 the Species of Polytrichum, with some Emendations," which, to- 

 gether with an Appendix, afterwards added, forms a valuable mono- 

 graph of that extensive genus. In the 'Philosophical Transactions' 

 for 1796, he gave, in conjunction with Mr. (afterwards Sir Everard) 

 Home, " A Description of the Anatomy of the Sea-Otter," of which 

 he had brought home a fine specimen, afterwards presented, with 

 many other zoological specimens and a set of his plants, to the Bri- 

 tish Museum. 



He subsequently served in the West Indies as surgeon of the Sans- 

 pareil, commanded by Lord Hugh Seymour; but early in the present 

 century he quitted the sea, and continued to practise his profession 

 in London. For some years previous to his death he had retired to 

 Notting Hill, where he passed the tranquil remainder of his length- 

 ened existence, eager to the last to obtain additions to his botanical 

 collection, and enjoying the society of his numerous friends with a 

 kindness of heart that never failed. 



He died on the 15th of February in the present year, having nearly 

 reached the age of 88, and was buried beside his wife (who died five 

 years earlier, and by whom he had no children), in the Cemetery at 

 Kensal Green. He left his herbarium, consisting chiefly of Crypto- 

 gamous plants, Graminece and Cyperacece, arranged with character- 

 istic neatness on paper of an 8vo size, to the Botanic Garden at 

 Edinburgh, where he had studied ; and also gave by his will a be- 

 quest of £100 to this Society, of which he became a Fellow on the 

 19th of January, 1790, and to which he was always most warmly 

 attached. 



David Pennant, Esq., son of the distinguished naturalist and ele- 

 gant writer to whom we owe so many agreeable and instructive 

 publications, and who, on the foundation of this Society, was elected 



