136 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



sequently gave up the garden and established himself in medical 

 practice, which proved very lucrative. After some years he em- 

 barked his savings in the purchase of land and retired from prac- 

 tice. This kind of property, however, becoming greatly reduced in 

 value, and having a family to provide for, he was again obliged, 

 scarcely two years ago, to have recourse to his profession for a live- 

 lihood. He was most active among all classes of people during the 

 prevalence of the cholera, which has lately so devastated that island, 

 and in the course of his professional labours he took the disorder 

 himself and fell a victim to it. His kind and benevolent disposition 

 endeared him to a large circle of friends, and his hospitality to 

 strangers, especially naturalists, visiting Jamaica, was almost pro- 

 verbial. 



In 1837 he printed, at Glasgow, and at his own expense, the 

 first volume of his ' Flora of Jamaica,' which extended as far as the 

 end of Leguminosas, following DeCandolle's arrangement. It de- 

 scribed in popular language the then known species of the island, 

 and treated largely on the uses and properties of the native plants. 

 Its limited sale and the arduous duties of his profession retarded the 

 continuation till last year. A great portion of the second volume 

 was actually printed in Jamaica, including a very considerable num- 

 ber of new species, when the further progress of the work was ar- 

 rested by his sudden decease. He was elected a Fellow of the Lin- 

 nean Society in the year 1838, and the intelligence of his being- 

 chosen a Fellow of the Geological was sent out only a few days be- 

 fore his decease. Besides the ' Flora of Jamaica,' Dr. Macfadyen 

 wrote and published in the island an account of the Nelumhium 

 Jamaicense of Patrick Browne, and of the particulars of its re- 

 discovery nearly a century after Browne had noticed it ; and he also 

 published several memoirs relating to the commercial and agricul- 

 tural welfare of Jamaica. 



Joshua Milne, Esq., well-known to many among us as an intel- 

 lectual companion and amiable man, was in early life a clerk in the 

 banking-house of the Messrs. Currie, but subsequently became con- 

 nected with the Sun Life Insurance Office, of which he was the 

 Actuary for more than thirty years. He was best known as a ma- 

 thematician, and his two volumes, ' On Annuities and Reversionary 

 Payments,' published in 1815, still keep their place as one of the 

 most complete and satisfactory treatises on that intricate subject. 

 He also contributed to the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica' two articles 

 on Annuities and on Mortality, which are regarded by actuaries as 

 of great practical value ; and constructed from Dr. Heysham's data 



