304 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



One of these was Mr. Main, whom he despatched to China, and who 

 continued in Mr. Hibbert's employ for some years after his return to 

 England, but afterwards took a farm in Scotland. Here he was 

 unsuccessful ; but having made himself well-acquainted with the re- 

 ceived theories and practice both of horticulture and of agriculture, 

 he turned his attention to the literature of those subjects, and from 

 this time forwards became a frequent and welcome contributor to 

 some of the principal periodicals devoted to their illustration. In the 

 year 1830 he published 'The Villa and Cottage Florist's Direc- 

 tory,' which reached a second edition in 1835 ; in 1833 ' Illustra- 

 tions of Vegetable Physiology, jDractically applied;' in 1835 'Po- 

 pular Botany;' and in 1839 'The Young Farmer's Manual,' and 

 ' The Forest Planter's and Pruner's Assistant ;' and he also edited 

 new editions of Mawe's ' Every Man his own Gardener,' and of 

 several other works of a similar character. 



Mr. Main was elected an Associate of the Linnean Society in 

 1829, and communicated to us in 1844 a paper entitled " Remarks 

 on Vegetable Physiology," in which he reproduced the leading ideas 

 on the growth of plants contained in his ' Illustrations of Vegetable 

 Physiolog}^' Of this paper an abstract is published in the ' Proceed- 

 ings ' of the Society. He died at Chelsea in the spring of the pre- 

 sent year at an advanced age. 



Mr. George Samouelle was brought up to the business of a book- 

 seller, and was for several years an assistant in the establishment of 

 Messrs. Longman and Co. He early imbibed a taste for natural 

 history, and more especially for entomology, and became an assi- 

 duous collector of British insects. In 1819 he published a work en- 

 titled ' The Entomologist's Useful Compendium, or an Introduction 

 to the Knowledge of British Insects, comprising the best means of 

 obtaining and preserving them, and a description of the Apparatus 

 generally used ; together with the genera of Linne, and the modern 

 method of arranging the Classes Crustacea, Myriapoda, Spiders, Mites 

 and Insects, from their affinities and structure, according to the views 

 of Dr. Leach. Also, an explanation of the terms used in Entomo- 

 logy ; a Calendar of the times of appearance and usual situations of 

 near 3000 species of British Insects ; with instructions for collecting 

 and fitting up objects for the Microscope. Illustrated with twelve 

 plates,' 8vo, Lond. In this work, the multifarious nature of which 

 may be inferred from the title-page, Mr. Samouelle furnished the 

 British entomologist with a careful and valuable compilation, and 

 added moreover numerous original observations calculated to be 

 useful to the collector ; but the greater part of the work, as well as 



