1891.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 11 



Among his unfinished works, almost ready for publication, were : — 



A List of Star Fishes and Ophiurans collected in the Bahamas, 

 — A List of Sea Anemones collected in the Bahamas with descrip- 

 tions of two probable new species (illustrated), and The Anatomy 

 of Hoya carnosa (illustrated). He was also at work on A Descrip- 

 tion of the Fossil Plants of the Yellow Gravel of New Jersey, for 

 publication by the U. S. Geological Survey, for v^/hich all the illus- 

 trations had been made. The general subject of the Yellow Gravel 

 was one in which he was particularly interested, and in regard to 

 which he had collected many notes. He also had in contemplation 

 a work upon the islands of New Providence and Andros, embody- 

 ing all the lists of collections and the various notes made there by 

 him during the early part of the year 1890. The amount and 

 variety of material collected during this trip (from Jan. 2d to July 

 .10th) was remarkable, and it has always excited my admiration 

 and wonder. Mineralogy, geology, botany, and zoology are all 

 represented, and the specimens are carefully labelled or tagged for 

 reference or for future study. One of the birds collected proved to 

 be new to science, and was described and figured by Prof. J. A. Allen 

 in the Auk, vol. viii, Jan. 1891, under the name of Icterus Norlhropi. 

 The two new sea anemones, previously mentioned, and several un- 

 described plants are also to be included amongst the specimens 

 collected during this trip, and finally it may not, perhaps, be amiss 

 to call attention to the word " rhizomorph," coined by Dr. Northrop 

 as descriptive of the peculiar cylindrical concretions formed around 

 the roots of plants. The word is a singularly happy one, and bids 

 fair to become a j^ermanent addition to scientific terminology. 



Dr. Northrop was married June 28, 1S89, to Alice Bell Rich, a 

 companion, the value of whose assistance in all his works he never 

 failed to recognize and proclaim — one whom I trust will carry to 

 completion much of the work which he left unfinished behind him. 



Dr. Northrop's excessive modesty gave him an appearance of re- 

 ticence and reserve which was not always understood by those who 

 did not know him intimately. He seemed to appreciate this, and 

 used to think that he never made a good impression on any one, 

 because he felt that he was not a good talker. To those who knew 

 him best, however, this apparent reserve was merely one of the 

 evidences of his retiring disposition, which showed itself in the in- 

 > difference with which he regarded the discovery and descriptions of 

 new species as compared with the study of their structure and life 

 history. He was an enthusiastic and indomitable collector and 

 careful observer, sparing neither time nor trouble to complete or 

 render correct whatever he undertook. He actually seriously i)ro- 

 posed to return to the Bahamas again for the sole i)urpose of making 

 certain in regard to the exact color of the disc of one of the new 

 sea anemones, that he proposed to have lithographed. Unlike some 

 collectors, however, he could never quite smother his sense of 

 humanity by his enthusiasm as a naturalist, as an instance which 



