LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LOIfDOIT. 137 



OiEcers for their valuable assistance, and to assure you that I 

 shall always look back with pride to the period during which I 

 have occupied this chair — one of the greatest honours which any 

 Biologist can receive. 



Obituaeies. 



Rats-dal Hibbert Alcock was born at Gatley, Cheshire, July 

 21, 1833, but lived during the greater part of his life at Bury in 

 Lancashire, where he was a cotton-spinner. Taking a great 

 interest in Botany, he was mainly instrumental in establishing 

 the Bury Natural History Society, of which he was President 

 until his retirement from business; he also drew up a list of local 

 plants, which was printed in the report of that Society for 1871. 



He was naturally brouglit into close contact with the working 

 men botanists of Lancashire and Cheshire, and for their use he 

 compiled his ' Botanical Names for English Readers,' an 8vo 

 volume, in 1876. In 1S82 he left business and removed to 

 Didsbury, where he died of congestion of the lungs rather 

 suddenly on Nov. 9, 1885. 



He is described as a man of quiet and retiring disposition, of 

 much general information, a good letter-writer and contributor 

 to the local press. A MS. ' Flora of Virgil,' which he had woriied 

 upon for some years previous to his death, is so nearly complete 

 that it may possibly be published. He was elected a Fellow of 

 our Society December 7, 1876. 



Edmond Boissiee came of an old Protestant family which 

 removed to Geneva from France on the revocation of the Edict 

 ot Nantes ; lie was born in that town May 25, 1810, and brought 

 up there, the summers being spent at his father's place at 

 Valeyres. His sister next in age is the Comtusse de Gaspariu. 



When he had to choose a profession, he chose to study botany; 

 so, after careful preparation, he undertook a journey into Spain 

 in 1837, exploring Grenada and the Eastern Pyrenees; and in 

 1839-41 brought out his two sumptuous quarto volumes ' Voyage 

 botanique dans le midi de I'Espagne.' In 1842 he married his 

 cousin, Lucile de la Kive, and with his wife travelled in 

 Greece, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. To her he dedicated two of 

 their joint discoveries, Ompkalodes Lueilics and Ghiunodoxa 

 Lucillce. In 1849 he experienced the j.'reat sorrow of his life by 

 her death of typhoid fever during a second journey in Spain. 

 From 1842 to 1854 he brought out his ' Diagnoses,' hrst series, in 

 two vols., and a second series in 1855 ; his Monograph of Fliim- 

 iaginece was done m 1848 ; in 1862 he contributed a Monograph 

 of Euphorbia to DC. Prodromus, vol. xvii., the rest of the 

 order being worked up by Dr. Mueller of Aargau. Four years 

 later, 1866, he produced tiis ' Icones Euphorbiarum.' He paid an 

 eighth visit to Spain in 1881, but then in shattered health. His 



