40 PKOCEEDINGS or THE 



drawn up by lii.s pupil, Pr()f. U. Martinelli, in AVt^bbia, v. (1921), 

 61 pp., with 2 maps, from whose vivid narrative the toregoinj; 

 pages have been ;'onilensed. 



An operation was performed on the 25tli October, 1920, when 

 Beci-ari hail reached bis 77th year; death ensued in bis sleep 

 without shock or pain. He was biu'ied in the cemetery of tlie 

 ' -Misericurdia' at Soffiana, near Florence. 



Beccari was elected a Foreign Meuiber of the Liunean Society, 

 3rd May, 1883. [B. D. J.] 



William Beecroft Bottomley, the only son of J. Bottomley, 

 of Fern Cliffe, Morecanibe, was born at Apperley Bridge, Leeds, 

 in 1863; educated at the B/oyal Grammar School, Lancaster, and 

 King's College, Cambridge, whence he graduated in 1891, pro- 

 ceeding M.A. in 1900. At the age of 23 be was science tutor 

 and lecturer in Biology at St. Mary's Hospital School, retaining 

 that position till 1891, when he succeeded to the professorial 

 chair of Biology at the Eoyal Veterinarv College; two years later, 

 on the retirement of Prof. Richard Beutley from the chair of 

 Botany at King's College, Strand, Bottomley succeeded, an oflfice 

 he held from 18'J3 to 1921, when ill-health obliged him to retire. 



Prof. Bottondey was much interested in such movements as the 

 South Eastern Co-operative Agricultural Society, but he was 

 perhaps best known by his experimental research on " bacterised 

 peat" as a plant-stimulant and fertilizer, thereby securing nitrogen- 

 fixing organisms for the benefit of the crops. One result was 

 that as animals are in need of vitamines or accessory factors for 

 their nutrition, so plants need the help of similar factors, which 

 iie termed " auximones," to thrive. Considerable success followed 

 his efforts, and it is said that during the war, attempts were made 

 to obtain cultures for an enemy nation, but without success. 



He was elected Fellow of our Society, 3rd November, 1892; 

 besides his Cambridge degree, he was Ph.D., and a Fellow of the 

 Chemical Society since 1886. He died at Huddersfielil on the 

 24th March, 1922. [B. D. J.] 



GrEOEGE SiMOXDS BoULGER, who died suddenly at his house in Rich- 

 mond on the 4th May, 1922, was the son of Dr. Edward Boulger, 

 and was born on the 5th March, 1853, at Bletehingley, Surrey, 

 and was educated at Wellington and Epsom Colleges, and for a 

 short time at the Middle Temple; at the age of 23, in 1876, he 

 was appointed Professor of ^.'atural History at the Royal Agri- 

 cultural College, Cirencester, where he became Honorary Professor 

 in 1906; since 1884 he was Lecturer on Botany and Geology at 

 the City of London College, and at the Imperial Institute since 

 1917. Much of his time was spent in coaching students and 

 officers for examinations, and although the books noted below 

 show great perseverance, be once admitted to the present writer, 

 that he only wrote slowly : anyhow, his work was solid and good. 

 From 1884 to 1890 he edited the ' Proceedings' of the Geologists' 



