LINNEAN SOCIETY OE LONDON. 41 



Society of Aberdeen, and to the Natural-History and Pliilo- 

 sophical Society of Belfast. 



His earlier articles mostly deal with Vegetable Morphology 

 and Physiology, especially reproduction in plants. In 1844 he 

 first wrote on Algae, but gradually devoted his attention more 

 and more entirely to this group, and for some years almost re- 

 stricted it to Algae. In his knowledge of marine species he 

 had few equals. He also wrote on zoological subjects on several 

 occasions. In 1838 he joined the Edinburgh Botanical Society, 

 in 1863 the Linnean Society, and in 1881 the Royal Society of 

 Loudon. He was also a member of the Societe des Sciences 

 naturelles de Cherbourg, and of several local Societies for the 

 study of science. In private life he was much liked by his friends, 

 and as a teacher by liis students, being most willing to assist in 

 any way any student of Science, more especially of Botany. 



"William Alexander Foebes, born at Cheltenham on 

 June 24, 1855, was the second son of Mr. J. S. Forbes, Chair- 

 man of the London, Chatham and Dover Eailway. He was edu- 

 cated at Kensington School and Winchester College. Leaving 

 the latter in 1872 he spent a year at Aachen studying Grerman, 

 and then entered the University of Edinburgh. In 1875 

 he came to London, and was induced by his friends to pro- 

 ceed to Cambridge ; entering at St. John's College as undergra- 

 duate, he was afterwards elected Scholar; took his B.A. in 1879 

 with a first class in the Natural-Sciences Tripos ; and was subse- 

 quently elected a Fellow of his College. In the same year he 

 was unanimously chosen Prosector to the Zoological Society, 

 vacant by the death of Prof. Grarrod. During the three follow- 

 ing Sessions of the Zoological Society he amply veiified the pre- 

 dictions that had been uttered as to his fitness for the post. In 

 1880 he travelled to Pernambuco in Brazil, and in 1881 he went 

 to America. In July 1882 he left England for a journey into 

 Africa, but fell a victim to dysentery on January 14, 1883, at 

 Shonga, a station on the Niger. He published about sixty 

 memoirs and papers on various points of scientific interest. 



GrEORGE Stacet Gibson was born at Saffron Walden in Essex 

 on 20th July 1818, and died at the Temperance Hotel, Bishops- 

 gate, after some weeks' illness, on 5th Aj)ril 1883, and was 

 buried at his native place. He was elected Fellow of the Society 

 in 1847; and having paid ccmsiderable attention to the botany of 

 his native county, he published a Flora of it in 1801. This work 

 was one of the first to call attention to the local labours of the 

 pre-Liunean botanists, and gave impetus to the system of collect- 

 ing all possible information, past and present, of the plants 

 occurring in definite districts. This book was Mr. Gibson's chief 

 contribution to scientific literature ; but his sympathies were 



