XXXVlll PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



and was born on the 12th of January 1808. He received his 

 collegiate education in the Eoyal Belfast Academical Institution, 

 and, devoting himself to the ministry, attached himself first to the 

 Presbytery of Antrim, and afterwards to the Eemonstrant Synod 

 of Ulster. At a very early period of life he was chosen minister 

 of the Unitarian congregation of Dundee, whence, after the lapse 

 of a few years, he removed to Bolton in Lancashire, and subse- 

 quently to Stockport, where he continued in the exercise of his 

 ministerial functions from 1834 to 1845. Compelled by his health 

 to seek a milder climate, he became successively pastor of the 

 congregations in Torquay, Jersey, Cheltenham, Wareham, and 

 Lewes ; and towards the end of 1854 he was appointed, on the 

 recommendation of the late Professor Edward Porbes, to the Chair 

 of Natural History at Cork, which he occupied till his decease. 

 He was for many years a martyr to the gout ; but his ailment, 

 although severe, did not preclude the application of his mind to 

 study ; and in the pursuit of natural history, to which he had 

 been addicted from his youth, he found both solace from pain and 

 a pleasing occupation. Although well-versed in the knowledge 

 of British plants generally, he determined to restrict his more 

 immediate studies to one particular group ; and his fondness for 

 microscopical investigation led him to select the JDiatomacece as 

 the family to which his attention should be especially devoted. 

 Accordingly he published, in 1853 and 1856, two crown 8vo vo- 

 lumes, entitled "A Synopsis of the British Diatomacese," illus- 

 trated by sixty-nine plates, containing figiu-es of nearly four hun- 

 dred species of that singular group. The specimens which formed 

 the materials for this work are now deposited in the British 

 Museum, and constitute a striking memorial of his industry in 

 collecting, and patience in determining, objects so minute, but at 

 the same time so curious and interesting. As a professor, he 

 soon became exceedingly popular, and his class was one of the 

 most successful in the college; but his health had long been 

 declining, and he died on the 6th of October last, after having 

 occupied the chair only about three years, in the fiftieth year of 

 his age. He became a Pellow of the Linnean Society in 1847. 



Bicliard Sorsman Solly, Esq., was the eldest son of Samuel 

 Solly, Esq., P.E.S., P.S.A., of Serge Hill, near Abbots' Langley, 

 Herts, and was born on the 29th of April, 1778, at the house of 

 his father in Grreat Ormond Street, which he himself continued 

 to inhabit until the close of his life. Mr. Samuel Solly was ori- 

 ginally a very considerable merchant in the Italian and Levant 



