LUnS'EAX SOCIETY OF LOyDOS. 8 1 



and took up the botanical bookselling shop and agency in the same 

 place. Perhaps the most considerable of his publishing essays 

 was the reprint of Thomas Johnson's little tracts, edited hj T. S. 

 Ralph, in IS-tT, in small quarto, dedicated to William Borrer and 

 Edward Forster. He was also the publisher of the New Series 

 of the ' Phytologist' 1855-63, being an old friend of the editor 

 Alexander Irvine, with whom he made several excursions, the 

 account of each being drawn up by Irvine, and issued as by ' W. 

 P. and A. I.' He had travelled over the greater part of Great 

 Britain with an eye to plants, but his favourite locality was North 

 Wales, and hither he retired on quitting business in London, in 

 1862, when his stock of books was dispersed by auction. 



His aid in drawing up lists of plants for local floras is frequently 

 acknowledged, as may be seen in Irvine's ' London Flora,' 1838 ; 

 Trimen and Dver's ' Flora of Middlesex,' 1869 ; Druce's ' Floras' of 

 Oxfordshire (1886) and of Berkshire (1897); Pryor's 'Flora of 

 Hertfordshire' (1887); and Hanbury and Marshall's ' Flora of 

 Kent ' (1899). Quite recently a copy of the 'Flora of Middlesex,' 

 with MS. additions by Pamplin, has been acquired for the herbarium 

 library at Kew. 



For nearly forty ^-ears after his withdrawal from London, he 

 lived a quiet life in Wales. He married twice, and to his second 

 wife, who was much younger than himself, he made over his 

 remaining possessions. Unexpectedly she predeceased him, leaving 

 him in very straitened circumstances. This becoming known by 

 the agency of friends, a grant Avas made from the Scientific Relief 

 Fund of the Eoyal Society, which enabled the veteran to end hi& 

 days in peace, in the cottage he had so long occupied. 



HoEACE Pearce was the youngest son of the late Francis Pearce 

 of Hadley Lodge, Shropshire, who came of a West-country family. 

 He was born on 21st November, 1838. For a Ions period he had 

 tilled the post of private secretary to Mr. W. O. Foster of Stour- 

 bridge, and was a member of many Societies. He was elected a 

 Fellow of the Linnean Society on 7th December, 1876, and 

 belonged also to the Geological and Royal Astronomical Societies, 

 the Swiss Alpine Club, the Birmingham Naturalists' Society, and 

 the Worcestershire Naturalists' Field Club ; of the last he was 

 for some years president. He had a good knowledge of the local 

 flora and natural features of the county in which he lived. 



At the end of last year (1899) he went to the South of France 

 for the benefit of his health, but he did not find the relief expected. 

 He resumed his usual work on returning home, but was taken ill 

 and died within a week, on Monday, 19th February, 1900, and 

 was buried at Stourbridge on the 24th. 



Sir William Oteeexd Peiestlet, K.C.B., M.D., M.P., was born 

 24th June, 1829, at Morley Hall, near Leeds ; his father, Joseph 

 Priestley, being a nephew of the famous chemist. Leaving school 

 at Leeds, he proceeded to Edinburgh, «here he passed through a 

 LINN. SOC. PEOCEEDINGS. — SESSION 1899-1900. </ 



