BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



127 



intended ; but his ascent of the Kagera river, and the discovery that 

 it is navigable, was regarded as an important contribution to geo- 

 graphical knowledge, and to the political future of Africa. 



The ninth edition of the London Catalofjue is on the eve of 

 publication. We hope to notice it in our next issue. 



Dr. Eyre Champion de Crespigny died of heart-disease on 

 Feb. 15th, at his residence at Beckenham, Kent. He was born at 

 Vevay, Switzerland, May 5th, 1821, and was educated at St. Paul's 

 School, Loudon, and at Heidelberg. After receiving his diploma 

 he returned to England, and went through Bartholomew's and 

 Guy's Hospitals. In 1845 he received an Indian appointment, and 

 arrived in Bombay in September of that year. During his resi- 

 dence in India he was employed in the performance of various 

 military, naval, and civil medical duties. In 1859 Dr. de Crespigny 

 became Acting Conservator of Forests and Superintendent of the 

 Government Botanical Gardens at Dapsorie, near Poonah ; but 

 failing health compelled his return to England in 1862. During 

 his residence in India he made a small but interesting collection of 

 coloured drawings of plants, which were acquired for the Botanical 

 Department of the British Museum. On returning home he took up 

 his residence at Beckenham, and devoted himself to his favourite 

 study. He formed, partly through the Exchange Club and partly by 

 purchase, a herbarium of considerable extent, mainly of British 

 and European plants. The state of his health necessitated much 

 open-air exercise, and the results of this appeared in his New 

 London Flora, published in 1877. This is a handy Httle pocket 

 volume, and was reviewed in this Journal (1877, pp. 311-314) by 

 Mr. Keginald Pryor, whose singularly exact mind found a good 

 deal to criticize both as to matter and manner. Beyond this Dr. 

 de Crespigny did not publish, but devoted himself quietly to the 

 study which had for many years been his chief interest. 



Dr. David Lyall, E.N., died at Cheltenham at the end of 

 February, aged 77. Sir Joseph Hooker, whose companionship 

 Dr. Lyall enjoyed in the Antarctic Expedition of 18o9-42, has 

 kindly consented to contribute to these pages a notice of the 

 deceased botanist. 



A RISING worker in Botany has been taken from us in the person 

 of Edward Hamilton Acton, who died suddenly at Cambridge from 

 heart-disease on February 15th. Mr. Acton was born at "Wrexham 

 on November 16th, 1862. From a school in Chester he obtained in 

 1877 an entrance Science Scholarship at Eugby, and while there 

 published a paper on the carboniferous limestone in Denbighshire 

 in the Keport of the Natural History Society for 1886. In 1881 he 

 went to St. John's College, Cambridge, and took up Natural 

 Science. Brought up in the country, he had observed from 

 boyhood the pLmts and animals around him. His father was a 

 lover of nature, and had a thorough knowledge of the British Flora. 

 Mr. Acton took a first class B.A. degree in 1885, his principal 

 subject being Botany. In 1888 he was elected to a Fellowship. 

 He assisted in the Chemical Laboratory very soon after taking his 



