708 - New Zealand Institute. 



standard work on the New Zealand Forest Flora, the late 

 Mr. Kirk contributed 122 botanical papers to our Transac- 

 tions, and supplied numerous papers for publication in the 

 Journal of the Linncean Society, London, the Gardener s 

 Chronicle, Nature, Joiirnal of Botany, and the Journal of the 

 LinncBan Society of Neio South, Wales. In his official capa- 

 city as Commissioner of Forests he made botanical explora- 

 tions in every part of the colony, and no other botanist has 

 ever acquired such a complete familiarity with the New Zea- 

 land flora, and particularly with the geographical distribution 

 of the various species of plants. 



William Miles Maskell will be greatly missed by all 

 workers in the special branch of entomology which deals with 

 the most difficult family of Coccidse or scale-insects. The 

 laborious study of these msects is of great economic import- 

 ance, as they are the cause of the blights which are now 

 spreading rapidly all over the world and tending to the destruc- 

 tion of the fruits of labour in the field, garden, and orchard. 

 Mr. Maskell took up the subject twenty-five years ago, after 

 the death of Signoret. and his name is now famous throughout 

 the world as the best authority on it. It is a very tedious 

 branch of study to prosecute, requiring the most delicate and 

 precise microscopic manipulations. He did it all in his spare 

 time, of which he could not have much, as since 1875 he has 

 been fully occupied, and in late years, it is to be feared, over- 

 worked himself in the performance of his duties as Registrar 

 of the New Zealand University, the official organization of 

 which he worked up almost single-handed from its inception 

 to the large proportions it has now attained. The enormous 

 amount of work he did in his special studies is evidenced by 

 his standard work on the New Zealand scale-insects and the 

 series of elaborate and beautifully illustrated memoirs, twenty- 

 four in number, which he has published in our Transactions 

 during the last thirteen years. He has also left an enormous 

 collection of specimens and microscopic preparations, the great 

 majority of which are original types of species he described. 

 These include cabinets containing over a thousand species of 

 named Coccids ; over thirteen hundred mounted specimens for 

 the microscope of Coccidas, Desmidieae, x\lg8e, and Diato- 

 macese ; 750 nained but unmounted species of Coccids; manu- 

 script books containing a catalogue of Mr. Maskell's collection; 

 Signoret's Essai sur les Homopteres-Coccides, 1867 to 1875, 

 with an analytical index by Mr. Maskell in manuscript. 

 Specimens were transmitted to him for identification or 

 original description from all parts of the world, and the 

 accumulation of specimens and correspondence since he 

 became incapacitated for work in January last is very large, 

 and awaits the attention of an entomologist who will continue 



