68 Linnean Society. [May 25, 



1814, having been appointed a Botanical Collector for the Royal 

 Gardens, he left England, in company with Mr. James Bowie (who 

 had also received a similar appointment), for the Brazils, where they 

 remained two years, and among many other plants transmitted by 

 them, were Gloxinia speciosa, Cereus speciosissimus, Jacaranda mi- 

 mosifolia, and Calathea zebrina, then new to the Gardens. The two 

 companions now separated, Mr. Bowie having received instructions 

 to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope, and Mr. Cunningham to 

 New South Wales, where he arrived in 1817, and shortly after 

 joined the expedition into the interior of that colony, under Mr. 

 Oxley, the Surveyor-General. On his return to Sydney he em- 

 barked as botanist in the voyage of survey under the command of 

 Lieutenant, now Captain Philip Parker King, of the Royal Navy. 

 The survey continued four years, and during that period they cir- 

 cumnavigated Australia several times, and visited Van Diemen's 

 Land, Timor, and the Mauritius, at all of which places Mr. Cun- 

 ningham formed extensive collections. After the conclusion of these 

 voyages, Mr. Cunningham made several journeys into the interior 

 of New South Wales, and subsequently visited Norfolk Island and 

 New Zealand, where he remained several months. The fruits of 

 his researches in the latter country are given in the ' Companion to 

 the Botanical Magazine,' and ' Annals of Natural History.' After 

 an absence of seventeen years, Mr. Cunningham returned to his 

 native country, and continued to reside in the vicinity of Kew, until 

 the melancholy tidings arrived of the death of his brother Richard, 

 whom he was appointed to succeed in the quality of Colonial 

 Botanist in New South Wales, where he again arrived in February 

 1837. In the following year he revisited New Zealand, and re- 

 mained there during the whole of the rainy season, which produced 

 serious effects upon a constitution already greatly debilitated, and 

 on his return to Sydney his health visibl)' declined until the period 

 of his death, which took place on the 27th of June last, at the age 

 of 48. He was distinguished for his moral worth, singleness of 

 heart, and enthusiastic zeal in the pursuit of science. 



Davies Gilbert, Esq., F.R.S. — Mr. Davies Gilbert was distin- 

 guished by his high attainments in science and literature, his simple 

 and gentle manners, and his amiable purity of heart. He was the 

 son of the Rev. Edward Giddy, and was born on the 6th of March, 

 1767, at St.Erth, in Cornwall. 



Davies Giddy was a child of early intellectual promise, but his 

 health was feeble, and he received not only the rudiments, but al- 

 most the vdiole of his education under the paternal roof, guided and 



