44 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



tired to rest after his long ride, when he was suddenly attacked by 

 a fit of apoplexy, which rendered him quite insensible, and of which 

 he died in a few hours. In communicating this sad news by the 

 last overland mail. Lord Torrington, Sir Emerson Tennent, and many 

 other persons of consideration in the island, spoke of it not only as 

 an irreparable public loss, but expressed extreme regret upon being 

 thus suddenly deprived of an invaluable friend, for whom they felt the 

 most sincere affection ; for Mr. Gardner possessed in a rare degree 

 the faculty of making friends in every direction. The cheerfulness of 

 his disposition, his never-tiring energy, the variety and extent of his 

 acquirements, his desire to impart information wherever required, his 

 vivacity and pleasing conversational powers, secured hiin wherever 

 he went the esteem and friendship of all well-informed persons. 



Thus has been suddenly cut off in the prime of his life one of the 

 most active of the practical botanists of the day. It is much to 

 be desired that the work which he has advanced so far towards 

 completion may not be lost to science, and that a successor may be 

 found fully competent to arrange the large mass of materials already 

 accumulated ; and in carrying out this object, it is to be hoped, the 

 merit which belongs to this deserving botanist will be recorded to 

 the full extent of his due. Independently of the labours already 

 noticed, Mr. Gardner had just completed for publication a ' Ma- 

 nual of Indian Botany ;' an elementary work of that nature having 

 been long a great desideratum to the numerous students of botanical 

 science in India. In addition to his contributions before mentioned, 

 he published in the ' Calcutta Journal of Natural History,' several 

 interesting memoirs, viz. on the Cyrtandracece of Ceylon, on Anstru- 

 theria, Sarcandra, &c., Carria, Dysodidendron, Leucocodon, and on 

 Christisonia, &c., together with a valuable paper on the Podoste- 

 macece of the island and of Southern India, to which he added 

 descriptions of the plants of this order met with during his travels in 

 Brazil. 



William Gordon, Esq., M.D., was born on the 2nd of August 1800, 

 at Fountain's Hall near Ripon in the county of York. He received 

 the rudiments of his education at the Grammar School of that city, 

 and subsequently pursued his medical studies in London and at the 

 University of Edinburgh. He resided for twelve years as a general 

 practitioner atWelton in the neighbourhood of Hull, and there married 

 a sister of Sir William Lowthrop. In 1 841 he took his degree of M.D. 

 and settled as a physician at Hull, where, in addition to the duties 

 of his profession, he devoted himself to the placing the means of ac- 

 quirement and improvement within the reach of the working classes. 



