1855.] Linnean Society. 417 



during his absence Conservator of Forests and Superintendent of 

 Botanic Gardens in Bombay, and thus obtained further opportunity 

 of extending his botanical researches, both personally and by means 

 of collectors. In the beginning of 1854 he returned to England on 

 furlough, bringing with him his collections, and took up his resi- 

 dence at Kew, where he occupied himself for some months in the 

 arrangement of his materials, and in comparing them with those 

 amassed by Sir William Hooker and by Drs. Hooker and Thomson, 

 to whose ' Indian Flora ' he would in all probability have largely 

 contributed. But unfortunately, although to all appearance a strong 

 and healthy man, his constitution had been undermined by his labours 

 in the unhealthy climate of Scinde : he was subject to intense neu- 

 ralgic pains in the head and neck ; and a change of air being deemed 

 advisable, he spent first a few weeks with some relations in the Isle 

 of Man, and then proceeded on a visit to another relative, Samuel 

 Watson, Esq., of Cottingham, near Hull. On his way to this place 

 he caught a cold, succeeded by fits of apoplexy, which in a very few 

 days put a period to his existence, on the 30th of August last, at the 

 early age of 34. He became a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 

 1848. Had he lived, much might have been expected from his con- 

 tributions to botanical science. Those already published are chiefly 

 (if not wholly) contained in Sir W. J. Hooker's ' London Journal of 

 Botany' and ' Kew Garden Miscellany,' and consist of the following 

 papers : — Notes on the " Botany (chiefly economic) of Scinde," 

 descriptive of specimens presented to the Kew Garden Museum ; 

 " Notes written during a short Botanical Excursion to Shah Bila- 

 wul ;" " On two Balsam-trees (Balsamodendron) of Scinde, B. mukul 

 9.nd B . pubescens ;" "Sketch of the Botany of Beloochistan;" 'Descrip- 

 tions and Figures of two new Plants of Scinde ;" " Notes on Beloo- 

 chistan Plants ;" and " Notes on the Botany and on the Govern- 

 ment Gardens of Bombay." He had also brought with him to 

 England materials, in a forward state of preparation, for a general 

 work on the Natural History, Manners, Customs, Arts, Manufac- 

 tures and Commerce, Agriculture, &c. &c. of Scinde, which it is 

 hoped may yet be published. It is described as written in a lively 

 and agreeable style, and rendered doubly valuable from the amount 

 of scientific knowledge which has been brought to bear upon it. 



William Edward Wing, Esq., an entomologist of considerable pro- 

 mise, and a zoological artist of distinguished merit, was early em- 

 ployed by Dr. Gray in illustrating several of the Catalogues of the 

 Zoological Department of the British Museum. He thus became 

 generally known as a skilful draughtsman, and his pencil was em- 



