REPORT ON THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE GENEVA SOCIETY OF 

 PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY, FROM JUNE, 1876, TO JUNE, 

 1877. 



By Adolf Favre, President. 

 f Translated for the Smithsonian Institution by M. A. Henry.] 



Gentlemen : Called for the second time to render an account of all 

 that concerns oar society, I have the pleasure to state that the number 

 of members has considerably increased, notwithstanding our previous 

 sad losses. 



In presenting to you a summary of the condition and i)roceediugs of 

 the society, as well as of the various subjects which have engaged your 

 attention during the seventeen meetings of the year, I will follow the 

 usual order. 



I.— OBITUAKY NOTICES. 



Joseph de Notaris, made an honorary member of our society in 1871, 

 was born in 1805 at Milan, was of a noble family, and died at Kome on 

 22d of January, 1877. During his medical studies at the University of 

 Eome, where he received the degree of doctor, he acquired an ardent 

 taste for natural history. In 1832 he was made professor of botany at the 

 Lyceum of Milan ; in 183G, assistant in the Museum of Natural History 

 of Turin; in 1839, professor at the University of Genoa, and director of 

 the Garden ; and finally, in 1872, he accepted the same position at Rome. 

 This was contrary to the advice of his friends, who feared, not without 

 reason, disappointment in the hopes he had conceived of the restoration 

 of the Garden and of science in the new capital of Italy. His nomination 

 to the Senate was but a small compensation for the numerous difiSculties 

 he encountered. 



As soon as he was established at Turin, J. de Notaris commenced the 

 publication of botanical works, particularly upon Cryptogamia. The 

 memoirs devoted to the mosses have been collected in a magnificent 

 volume, published at the expense of the municipality of Genoa, and con- 

 stitute a reliable system of Italian Bryology, to which the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris awarded the Desmazieres prize. 



The other branches of Cryptogamy were also pursued with careful and 

 accurate research by the learned professor. J. de Notaris was the soul 

 of an important publication, " VRerhier cryptogamique^^ (the Cryptogamic 

 Herbal). The flora of Liguria, as well as the fragmentary records of 

 Egyptian Agrostography, equally attest his profound knowledge in 

 every branch of botany. 



225 



15 s 



