LI>'>'E\N SOCIETY Or LONDOX. 95 



t\^o brothers the tastes and aptitudes for wliicli their father was 

 distinguished. However that question may be answered, it is 

 certainly a little, or not a little, remarkable that George, born 

 March 9, 1842, and Edward, born March 22, 1848, published in 

 joint authoi'ship, through the Holmesdale Natural History Club, 

 a "List of the Land and Freshwater Mollusca of the Keigate 

 District," in February 18(51. There is reason to believe that in 

 this publication Edward Saunders, not yet thirteen years of age, 

 was the predominant partner. A second edition, brought up to 

 date, was issued in January 18G4. The correspondence for 

 exchange of specimens in wliich the younger of the two naturalists 

 had at once become involved, though no doubt a trial for youthful 

 vanity, was only a foretaste of the incessant appeals for friendly 

 scientific aid which throughout his life he never failed to answer 

 with unselfish readiness. At sixteen, by his " Coleoptera at 

 Lowestoft'" he opened on a new subject, which was thenceforward 

 for several years to engage his special attention. This early con- 

 tribution appeared in the first volume of 'The Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine,' a useful serial destined to have him for the 

 last thirty years of his life as one of its editors. In its March 

 number for the present year there appears an admirably sympathetic 

 appreciation of his work and character by his long-time friend and 

 well-wisher, the Kev. F. D. Morice, M.A., formerly a master at 

 Rugby. It is unnecessary, therefore, to repeat the details there 

 given of his assiduous labours and numerous publications, succes- 

 sively on the Buprestidse, the Hemiptera Heteroptera, and lastly 

 on the Aculeate Hymenoptera. It may, however, be noticed as a 

 token of the ardour with ^^•hich he carried out his investigations, 

 that when publishing in 1871 his important ' Catalogus Bupres- 

 tidarum,' he had won the right to say in his Preface : — " To render 

 the synonymy as full and accurate as possible, I have myself 

 examined the types in the following collections : — British Museum, 

 Museums of Berlin, Copenhagen, Kiel, Leyden, Oxford, d'Hist. 

 JS'aturelle de Paris, Stockholm, and Upsala; Colls. Chevrolat, 

 Kirsch, Le Conte, Linna)us, Mniszech, Reiche, Salle, Thomson, 

 AVeyers." 



Concerning his later efforts Mr. Morice writes : — •' It is quite 

 impossible within the limits of tins Notice to give even the titles 

 of Saimders's minor writings on Aculeates. It must suffice to sav 

 that his grand work ' The Hymenoptera Aculeata of the liritish 

 Isles ' (18'J6)is one of the few without which no serious Hymeno- 

 pterist thinks his working-librarj complete, and that its merits 

 have been ackno\\ledged in the warmest terms by every one at 

 home or abroad who is competent to form an opinion upon it." 

 Among his minor writings on the subject, however, one of the 

 latest is worthy of record, becaitse it shows that he could at will 

 descend from that impassioned sublimity of style, with which, as 

 is well known, specialists are wont to soar over the heads of the 

 vulgar. In 1908 he published with Routledge & Sons a pleasant 

 little Tractate for the unlearned, illustrated by h.is daughter 



