LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XXXV 



ber 1830), he says, " I now possess about 15,000 species of plants, 

 all gathered by my own hands, in their natural places of growth, 

 in various parts of the world. I say nothing about the other 

 parts of my collection, which are each of them proportionably 

 extensive." 



He returned to England in 1830, and resided for the remainder 

 of his life at Fulham, where he died on the 23rd of March 1863. 



Dr. Bui'chell was a very intelligent man, and a good artist, as 

 may be gathered from the fact that the panorama of Rio de Janeiro 

 was painted by Mr. Biu'ford from his sketches. He was also a 

 good musician, and by those who enjoyed his acquaintance he was 

 regarded as an agreeable companion. His merits as a traveller, 

 naturalist, and collector are too well known to require mention in 

 this Society, of which he became a Fellow in February 1803. 



In John Curtis we have lost one of the most successfid cvdtiva- 

 tors of British zoology and entomology, one of the most accom- 

 plished deliueators of insects, and one of the closest observers of 

 the phenomena of insect-life. 



Mr. Curtis was born at Norwich, on the 3rd of December 1791, 

 and died on the 6th of October 1862. 



His father having died before the son had reached his fourth 

 year, his training devolved upon his mother, whose love of flowers 

 had no doubt great influence in the developing of that love of nature 

 which he very early manifested. It is related that his notice, as 

 a child, having been attracted by the large hairy caterpillar of 

 Arctia Caia, which, to his great astonishment and delight, was trans- 

 formed, whilst \mder his care, into a beautiful moth, entomology at 

 once became his ruling passion. About this time, also, he became 

 acquainted with an older and well-informed youth, Richard Walker, 

 afterwards B.D., F.L.S,, and Fellow of Magdalen, and the author 

 of * !Flora Oxoniensis,' in company with whom numerous excursions 

 were made in the marshy districts surrounding his native place. 

 He thus became much interested in the insects inhabiting and 

 found upon the aquatic plants collected by his friend. These pur- 

 suits, however, were interrupted by a severe and even dangerous 

 attack of rheumatic fever. On his recovery he was sent to school 

 at Norwich, where he was again fortunate in making the acquauit- 

 ance of a youth named Henry Browne, whose mother possessed a 

 collection of British Lepidoptera, the inspection of which still 

 further increased the zeal of Curtis in his old pursuits. Wliilst 

 at school, he captm-ed the rare Staiiropus Fagi on the lime-trees 

 surrounding the Cathedral Close — an insect then so rare as to ]je 



