LIXXEAX SOCIETY OF LONDON'. 51 



3E the temperate portion of the basin of the Nile, it was an 

 mvahiable contribution to geographical botany. To turn from the 

 flora of Egypt to that of its natural extension into Tripolitania 

 rtas only a logical step ; and so we find hiui soon lending a helpful 

 liand to £. Durand and G. Barratte in the execution of tlieir 

 important Tloroe Libycae Prodromus' which appeared in 1910. 



His travels were, however, not confined to Egypt. They also 

 extended to many parts of Europe and were mostly undertaken in 

 the company of congenial friends. 



Wide and diversified as his interests were, there are many 

 Dbservations scattered through his writings that thi-ow light '^n 

 mbjects only loosely connected with botany or quite outside it,, 

 [particularly in the domain of ethnography and antlu-opology, 

 towards M'hich he was drawn through his friendship with Yu'chow^ 

 If his university career did not carry him to the forefront of 

 academic life, he was nevertheless an important factor in that 

 he understood to keep alive the contact between the university and 

 the large number of free lances who, having been imbued with an 

 interest of botany in their academic days, found in the study of 

 their local flora a field to exercise it. Nowhere was this influence 

 more evident than in the ' Botauische Yerein der Provinz Branden- 

 burg,' which was entirely his creation, and whose soul he remained 

 to the end of his life. How beloved he was in those cii'cles and 

 how respected by his professional colleagues became manifest on 

 the occasion of his 70th birthday, which Mas celebrated by the- 

 publication of a jubilee volume or " Festschrift. It will be long 

 before another Ascherson will arise ; but as to his main work, he- 

 has early taken care that it should be carried on in his spirit 

 and with the promise of success. [O. S.] 



Professor Bexjamix James Austi>' was born at Horsley Down 

 on April 5th, 1S:?9. He was the first science teacher appointed by 

 the Reading Science and Art Committee, in 1871, and for a loi:!g 

 period he was the Secretary of the Eeading Microscopical Society. 

 When University College, Reading, was established in 1S92, he 

 became lecturer in Physiology and Hygiene, and his association 

 with the College was only severed by death. In 1903 his portrait 

 was presented to the College, and is hung in the Senior Common 

 Eoom ; four years later, the College conferred upon Mr. Austin 

 the title of Emeritus Professor of Botany, and in 1911 he received 

 the Associateship, honoris causa. 



In a career of more than forty years, our late Fellow had been 

 the stimulating teacher of a very wide circle of pupils, at Eeadiug, 

 and also at South Kensington ; amongst these pupils was our 

 President, Professor Poulton, F.R.S. Details of his earlier life 

 are wanting ; he was very reticent himself, and his early friends 

 who could have spoken about it, predeceased liim. 



After a long illness he died on the 2nd June, 1912, and was 

 buried amidst tokens of the greatest esteem, from his fellow 

 townsmen and brother professors. His connection with this 



e2 



