34- • PEOCEEDIITGS or THE 



forming botanical collections. During the voyage of tliis ship, 

 whicli did not return to England till late in 1842, his conduct was 

 officially reported to the Admiralty as " meriting the highest 

 commendation." He had further the advantage of the fellowship 

 which led to the life-long friendship of Dr. (now Sir) J. D. 

 Hooker, and to him were due many of the botanical results of 

 the expedition. " Mr. Lyall," says Sir Joseph (' Fl. Antarctica ' 

 p. xii), "who was appointed to take charge of the botanical 

 collections on board the 'Terror,' formed a most important 

 herbarium, amounting to no less than 1500 species." Duriug 

 the fine winter months of 1842, when the ships remained in. 

 Berkeley Sound, he formed a " beautiful collection of interesting 

 Algag, which made an important addition to Antarctic botany " 

 {op. cit. part ii. p. 215). On this expedition was found ia 

 Kerguelen's Land the remarkable plant which Dr. Hooker 

 named Lyallia — " Genus dicatum Doctori D. Lyall, amico meo 

 periplique Antarctic! participi, assiduo solertique plantarum 

 indagatori." 



Shortly after the return of the Antarctic expedition, Dr. Lyall 

 Avas appointed to the Mediterranean, where he served iu several 

 vessels as Assistant Surgeon till 1817, when he was promoted, 

 and, at the recommendation of Sir W. Hooker, was selected as 

 Surgeon and K'aturalist to accompany Captain Stokes in H.M.S. 

 'Acheron ' on the survey of the coast of New Zealand. Here, 

 devoting himself to the collection of the lower orders of plants 

 especially, he amassed the most beautiful and important her- 

 barium in those branches of botany which had ever been formed 

 in the islands, besides making considerable discoveries in phaeno- 

 gamic plants and collecting many that had only been previously 

 gathered by Banks and Solander and the Porsters *. 



Among his many important botanical discoveries iu this survey- 

 was that of the monarch of all buttercups, tlie gigantic white- 

 flowered Ranunculus Lyallii, the only known species with peltate 

 leaves, the Water-Lily of the New Zealand shepherds. In 1852 

 Dr. Lyall was appointed Surgeon and Naturalist to the 'As- 

 sistance,' one of the squadron sent out to the Arctic regions 

 under the command of Sir E. Belcher in search of Sir John 

 Eranklin. When in this service he received an acting order as 

 a lieutenant in command of one of the sledges employed in the 

 search ; and, further, as Senior Medical Officer of the Expedition, 

 he was appointed Superintending Surgeon of the ' North Star' 

 when the crews of the ' Investigator,' ' Eesolution,' and ' Intrepid,' 

 and the invalids of the 'Assistance ' and ' Pioneer ' retreated to 

 that ship, which was subsequoitly lost in the Arctic Sea. 

 During this Arctic expedition Dr. Lyall made good collections 

 at every point visited from Disco Islands to the Polar Islands. 

 A list of these is published in the Journal of the Linneau Society.* 

 It contains about ninety Phanerogams and vascular Crvptof^amsj 

 and a large number of Musci, &c. Exclusive of Greenland" this 

 * Journ. Linn. Soc. i. (1857) p. 114, and vi. (1862) p. 157. 



