34 PHOCEEDTNGS OF THE 



persuaded to keep his room ; aud on the 4tli Feb. 188-i, he 

 succumbed to the efl'cct of cold on the lungs. Thus closed the 

 career of an able physician, an acute botanist, an indefivtigable 

 labourer in the field of science, and a simple-minded, warm- 

 hearted, sympathetic friend. 



He was elected a Foreign Member of the Linnean Society 

 May 2nd, 1878. 



De. Oswald Heek was born at Glarus on Augu:st 31st, 1809. 

 He studied theology at first ; but afterwards abandoned it for 

 medicine, his father's profession ; and devoted himself to ento- 

 mology and botany. In 1832 he was living at Zurich, where he 

 remained during life. In 1837 he was Professor at the IJjii- 

 versity or Polytechnic School, and Director gf the Botanic 

 Grarden. In 1818 he began to collect materials for a fossil flora of 

 Switzerland and the adjoining countries ; in which he was helped by 

 the I'ich collections of the Zurich Museum, of Alexander Braun 

 of Berlin, and especially by the resources of a rich lady, Madame 

 von Bumine, who opened upon her property near Lausanne, 

 quarries and tunnels for the disco vei'v of fossil plants, which 

 materials were sent to lieer at Zurich by the ton, many of the spe- 

 cimens figured in the ' Flora Tei'tia Helvetica ' being from that 

 source, and suitably acknowledged in vol. iii. of that work. A 

 fourth volume, ' Flora fossilis Helvetica,' was published in 1876, 

 with illustrations of plants from the Carboniferous, Trias, 

 Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Eocene of Switzerland, its publication 

 advancing its author to the leading rank of phytopaleoutologists. 



An earlier work of his, ' Die Urwelt der Schweiz,' was pub- 

 lished in 1865 ; although restricted in its area, it has been trans- 

 lated into six languages, and has run through several editions. 



He examined and named many collections of fossil plants, 

 amongst which may be specified the Flora of the Clays of Bovey 

 Tracy (1861), Baltic Miocene Flura (1863), the Eocene Flora of 

 Bornstaedt (1869), the Chalk Flora of Moletin and of Quedlin- 

 berg (1871). During this time he was steadily at work upon his 

 ' Flora fossilis Arctica,' which, begun in 1862, was finished by the 

 issue of vol. vii. only a few months before bis death ; herein he 

 brought to light the remains of a subtropical vegetation for 

 Grreenland and Sjjitzbergen, a climate during the Tertiary period 

 resembling that of Florida aud tbe Grulf of Mexico at tlie present 



His character is described as simple and modest in the highest 

 degree. His lectures at the University were largely attended, 

 even when his weak health, against which his life was a constant 

 struggle, compelled him to lecture from iiis bed. He was once 

 elected Councillor of State ; but finding that his new duties took 

 him too much from science, he resigned. In 1869 he was created 

 a Citizen of Zurich. He was elected F.M.L.S. on May 4th, 1871. 



He died 27th September, 1883. 



