388 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



the Hookerian herbarium. These all display remarkable sagacity and 

 talent, together with a great amount of original research, an exten- 

 sive acquaintance with the literature of botany, skill in the discri- 

 mination of genera and species, and above all a rare and compre- 

 hensive knowledge of the structure and affinities of the natural 

 orders of plants : — a wide range of attainments this, which entitle 

 M. Planchon to be considered one of the first systematic botanists of 

 the day. Amongst his more important botanical papers are those 

 on the Natural Order Melianthece, published in our Transactions; 

 on Linew, Temstrosmiacem, Simarubece, Saurureee, and many others, 

 in Hooker's ' Journal of Botany ;' and on Droseracece and Nymphee^- 

 acece in the ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles ;' besides minor con- 

 tributions to these and other journals. 



Heinrich Robert Goppert, Professor in the University of Breslau, 

 is highly distinguished for his labours in vegetable physiology, and 

 particularly in fossil botany. The following list of his principal works 

 will show how extensive and important have been his contributions 

 to botanical science, and especially to our knowledge of fossil botany : 

 — " On the Condition in which Fossil Plants are found, and on the 

 process of Lapidification." This paper gives an account of some curious 

 experiments in producing imitations of fossils, by placing recent ferns, 

 &c., previously steeped in a solution of sulphate of iron, between 

 layers of soft clay, which, after having been dried in the shade, 

 were gradually heated till they became red-hot. By this means 

 exact counterparts of fossil plants were produced, some of which, 

 Mr. Kippist informs me, were exhibited at one of our meetings 

 many years ago. His ' Systema Filicum Fossilium ' occupies an 

 entire supplemental volume of the Acta Acad. Naturae Curiosorum, 

 and is beautifully illustrated with plates of the fossils themselves 

 and comparative figures of their analogues amongst recent forms. 

 ' De Floribus in Statu Fossili Commentatio ; ' ' Flora of the Tertiary 

 Period ; ' ' Flora Fossilis Formationis Transitionis ; ' ' Account of 

 Fossil Woods collected during MiddendorfF's Siberian Travels ; ' ' On 

 Fossil Plants found in Amber ; ' — these are amongst his extensive 

 publications on fossil botany ; and in addition to these he has 

 published several papers on vegetable physiology ; for instance, " On 

 the Development of Heat in the Living Plant ; " " On the Time of 

 Flowering of Plants," &c., and two papers on the Balanophoreee. This 

 brief account of the labours of the three distinguished men whom 

 you have recently elected upon your Foreign list, will, it is believed^ 

 afford a satisfactory justification of your choice. 



