Ixvi PEOCEEDTIfGS OF THE 



at Kew, a ' Flora of Northumberland and Durtam.' About 

 the year 1869 he began a book which he proposed to call 

 'A Handbook of British Medical Botany.' He worked at this for 

 three winters ; but when it was more than half finished, was com- 

 pelled, through failing health, to give up his task. His herba- 

 rium, which he had begun to collect as far back as 1853, was 

 an interest to him to the last. He was constantly adding 

 to it until it contained about 1500 British species. He also 

 made, while at Torquay, a collection of Devonshire MoUusca. 

 Had his physical strength equalled his mental vigour, there might 

 have been a longer record of a life which promised so much. 

 He died on the 23rd of September, 1874 at the age of 39, 

 having been elected a Fellow on the 17th of June, 1869. 



GrTJSTAV Adolph Thueet belonged to an old French Protestant 

 family which fled to Holland upon the Revocation of the Edict of 

 Nantes. His father, Isaac Thuret, was the first of the family who 

 returned to France, having come to Paris as Consul General from 

 Holland ; and his third son Grustav Adolph was born there on the 

 23rd of May, 1817. After careful education at home, he attended 

 the lectures at the School of Law, and worked with so much in- 

 dustry that at the age of twenty-one he obtained the degree of Licen- 

 tiate. During his University career he travelled at dififerent times 

 in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and England ; but he passed 

 the greater part of his time at his father's residence at Rentilly, 

 near Lagny (Seine et Marne). The study of the law, however, was 

 not to his liking. He had a great love for music, and happened 

 to make the acquaintance of M. A. De Villers, who, besides being 

 an enthusiastic musician, was also an amateur botanist who had 

 taken excursions with Adrien de Jussieu. De Villers induced 

 Thuret to study botany, and taught him the first rudiments of the 

 science. Thuret diligently collected the plants of his own imme- 

 diate neighbourhood, and determined them as well as he could with 

 the aid of Bautier's 'Flora of Paris' or De Candolle's 'Flora of 

 France,' By the aid of De Yillers he obtained, when necessary, 

 the assistance of M. Deca^sne. In the winter of 1839 Thuret 

 went to Paris, and asked for Decaisne's assistance in the study 

 of botany, in which his progress was so rapid that in a compara- 

 tively short time he was in a position to undertake independent 

 investigations. At this time Decaisne was engaged in the study 

 of the Algae, and his pupil, as he became initiated into this branch 



