1850.] Linnean Society. 93 



ployment, he sought and found in Baron Alexander von Humboldt 

 a patron, who gave him the means of attending the natural history 

 courses of the University of Berlin. In 1813 he published his first 

 botanical work, ' Flora Berolinensis,' of which a second and enlarged 

 edition was published in 1838. After the death of Willdenow, he 

 undertook the arrangement and publication of the very extensive 

 collections of plants made by Humboldt and Bonpland in Equinoctial 

 America. For this purpose he took up his abode in Paris from 1813 

 to 1819, engaged chiefly in the preparation of his principal work, 

 ' Nova Genera et Species Plantarum,' in seven vols, folio, Paris 

 1815-25 ; of which he also published a ' Synopsis,' in five vols. 8vo, 

 Paris 1822, &c. During the same period he completed Bonpland's 

 * Plantes Equinoxiales,' and ' Melastomees,' and published a Mo- 

 nograph of the " Mimoses et autres Plantes Legumineuses " of the 

 same countries. To these at a later period he added a Monograph 

 of the Grasses of Tropical America, in two vols. fol. Paris 1829-33. 

 These elaborate works, containing together descriptions of 6000 

 species, and figures in folio of 1000, for which he himself drew the 

 anatomical details, established his character as a descriptive botanist, 

 and secured for him an extensive reputation. In 1819 he returned 

 to Berlin, where he was appointed Professor of Botany, and Vice- 

 Director of the Botanic Garden. In 1829 he became a Member of 

 the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and he was also a Correspondent 

 of the Botanical Section of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute 

 of Paris. He visited London in 1830 as the representative of the 

 Berlin Herbarium, to assist in the distribution of the great East 

 Indian Herbarium, of which this Society, through the munificence 

 of the East India Company, and under the auspices of Dr. Wallich, 

 possesses the type collection. For many years past he had occupied 

 himself in the preparation of a general systematic work, of which 

 six volumes have appeared under the title of ' Enumeratio Plan- 

 tarum omnium hucusque cognitarum,' Berlin 1833, &c. He is also 

 the author of numerous papers in the ' Annales des Sciences Natu- 

 relles,' and in the ' Memoires de I'Academie Royale de Berlin.* 



As a systematic botanist M. Kunth deservedly enjoyed a high 

 reputation. His descriptions are copious, minute and accurate, and 

 his analyses carefully and clearly executed. By his important pub- 

 lications connected with the journey of Humboldt and Bonpland, he 

 contributed more than any other botanist to our knowledge of the 

 plants of Equinoctial America ; and on these publications his fame 

 will chiefly rest. He died at Berlin in the month of March in the 



