LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOIS'. 35, 



is far the largest herbarium ever formed in the American Polar 

 seas, and exceeds those of all previous Arctic expeditions put 

 together; but, as was to have been expected, no novelties re- 

 warded his labours. On his return he was appointed to the 

 ' Pembroke,' Captain Seymour, under whom he served throughout 

 the Baltic Campaign of 1855, and was present at the bombard- 

 ment of Sweaborg. After a short period of home service iu the 

 ' Eoyal "William ' at Devouport, Dr. Lyall was commissioned as 

 Surgeon and Naturalist to H.M. Surveyiug-sliip 'Plumper' and 

 afterwards to the ' Hecate,' under Captain (now Admiral Sir 

 George) Richards, employed in the delimitation of the sea- 

 boundary between Grreat Britain and the Uuited States in the 

 Pacidc Ocean. Prom this his services were, in 1858, transferred 

 to the land-boundary commission under Col. Sir John Hawkiiis, 

 H.E., which he accompanied iu its survey of the boundary-liue 

 between British Columbia aud the United States possessions from 

 the Gulf of Georgia to the summit of the Hocky Mountains. 

 Prom this expedition Dr. Lyall brought home a magnificent 

 herbarium, one of such importance that, at the urgent repre- 

 sentation of Sir William Hooker, he was borne on the books of 

 H.M.S. ' Pishguard ' at Woolwich as Staif Surgeon, a vicarious 

 appointment that allowed of his residing at Kew for the purpose 

 of arranging, reporting on, and distributing his collections. The 

 results are published in a valuable contribution to the Linneau 

 Society *, which contains an excellent botanical account of the 

 regions traversed from the sea to 8000 feet alt. of the Eocky 

 Mountains, where the various zones of vegetation in British 

 Columbia are for the first time indicated and scientifically 

 portrayed. Immediately after the conclusion of his labours at 

 Kew, Dr. Lyall was appointed Surgeon to Pembroke Dockyard, 

 at that time a permanency. When the regulations affecting this 

 service were changed in 1868, he accepted home appointments to 

 H.M.S. ' Trincomalee ' and ' Daedalus ' consecutively till 1878, 

 when he retired, finally residing at Cheltenham, where, shortly 

 before his death, he met with an accident — the breaking of an 

 arm, — from the effects of which he never wholly recovered. 



Dr. Lyall's only other published contribution to science was a 

 paper on the habits of the New Zealand Ground-Parrot or 

 Kakapo, Strigops habroptilusf. He married, in 1866, Miss P. 

 A. Eowe, daugiiter of Dr. Eowe, of Haverfordwest, by whom lie 

 had three children, who survive hun. He was elected a Pellow 

 of the Linneau Society in JN^ovember 1862. (Jos. D. Hooker.) 



James Buntan Lillie Mackay was the second son of the 

 Eev. Alex. Mackay, M.A., LL.D., and was born in 1855. He 



* "Account of the Botanical Collections made by David Lyall, E.N., M.D., 

 F.L.S., Surgeon and Naturalist to the N. -American Boundary Commission," in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc vii. (18(53) pp. 124-147. 



t 'Proceedigs of the Zoological Society,' 1852, pp. 31-33. 



d2 



