3b PHOCEEDIXGS OF THE 



III 18G1 lieccari, liaviiij"; completed his course at Lucca, entered 

 tlio faculty of Natural ^Science at the Universitv at Pisa. His 

 work in botany attracted the attention of the celebrated Giuseppe 

 Mene<i[liini and Pietro Savi ; but the atmosphere was not 

 sutliciently tonic, and lie passed to IJologna in 18<'4, where 

 A. JJcrtoloiii was Professor; here he presented his lliesis, " Illus- 

 trazione dell' Amoldia cj/aihoiles, Massal." 



.Soon after this he met with Giacomo Doria, just returned 

 from a scientific journey in Mesopotami:i, and tlu'two j'oung men 

 became intimate. By the advice of one of our Fellows, John Ball, 

 they determined to undertake the exploration of the then little- 

 known Northern Borneo, especially Sarawak. Whilst his companion 

 was making the needfid ])reparatious, Beccari came to London, 

 and visited the British Museum and Kew to get an acquaint- 

 ance with the Bornean and Indian floras. This was in 1865, when 

 he made the acquaintance of the two Hookers ; in 1908, when he 

 visited Sir Josei^h Hooker for the last time, the veteran said: 

 "I knew he would become a famous botanist, but he has surpassed 

 my expectations ; he is the greatest biologist and systematist of 

 the i)resent moment ; he has the intuition of what a species is." 



To return to his first visit, Beccari was introduced to Darwin, 

 and hy Miss Burdett-Coutts presented to Sir James Brooke, 

 Raja of Sarawak, who ])romised him help in his territory. 



lie sailed from Southampton to Borneo on the 4th April, 1865, 

 meeting a l)roth^r and Doria, as arranged, at Suez; passing Aden 

 they landed in Ceylon and visited Thwaites at Peradeniya, 

 rearhing Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, in June. 



G. B. Beccari left for Japan in three months' time, and the two 

 remained to prosecute their respective ends ; by the beginning of 

 March, Doria's health gave way, and Beccari accompanied his 

 friend to Singapore to return home. For three years, 1865-68, 

 Beccari remained in Borneo ; his vohnne ' Nelle foreste di Borneo,' 

 issued in 1902, gives a vivid picture of his life during this period. 

 He returned to Italy in March 1868, and began in Florence to 

 work out his collection, there founding the ' Nuovo Giornale 

 Botanico Italiano,' which he directed during 1869-71 ; neverthe- 

 less he took advantage of a special expedition to Ethiopia in 1870 

 to go thither and return with a rich cargo of jilants ; he wrote an 

 account of this journey, but for some unexplained reason it was 

 not published. 



Meanwhile he had been preparing himself for another 

 expedition, attracted by the charm of the forest, and possessed of 

 the methods for the best employment of the si-heme, he further 

 studied geodesy, astronomy, and raeteoi'ology. All being ready, 

 at the end of 1871, with Luigi Maria d'Alberfcis, he started from 

 Genoa for JVew Guinea, at that time quite unexplored ; pausing a 

 fortnight at Bombav, he continued to Singapore, finally reaching 

 Batavia. After a short stay here, to acquire further information 

 concerning Malaya, the traveller journeyed to Macassar in Celebes, 

 Amboina, where a small schooner was chartered, and after many 



