LINNEAN" SOCIETY OF LONDON. 55 



as a Vice-President. The Entomological Soci-^ty naturally was 

 a source of great interest to him, and his i''ellovvships also 

 extended to the Royal Geographical Societ)^ and Royal Horti- 

 cultural Society ; his bond with the latter being his collection 

 of living orchids under cultivation. 



After some months of failing health, he died on the 11th April, 

 ] 913, in the 67th year of his age. [B. D. J.] 



Theodor (Thoee) Magnus Fuies was the son of EHas Magnus 

 IVies, at that time Professor of Botany at the University of Lund ; 

 ha was born on the 28th October, 1832, at Pemsjo, in south- 

 western Smalaud. In 1834 the family removed to Uppsala, where 

 the elder Fries had been appointed Borgstromian Professor of 

 Botany. 



The younger Fries developed in the footsteps of his celebrated 

 father. Botany became and remained his great love during lite, 

 and it was in its service that his life-records accumulated. As 

 early as 1850 the iirst of his long list of botanical memoirs was 

 printed, Avhich gave the author an honourable place amongst his 

 countrymen as a naturalist. For 25 years he was Docent iu 

 Botany at the University of Uppsala, till in 1862 he became 

 Borgstrcimian Adjunct in Botany and practical Economy, and 

 1877 full Professor in the same subjects. 



When the history of Swedish learning comes to be written, 

 Thore J^'ries will certainly be regarded as an eminent member of 

 the principal personalities during the latter half of the nineteenth 

 century. He has been called " the last of the Linneans," and with 

 good reason. Elias Fries felt it a deep obligation to preserve the 

 iniieritance from Linne's classic time, especially to maintain and 

 pursue the principles of definition of species, which the Master 

 once achieved, as the main support of natural history research. 

 Most carefully he collected all traditions from Linne's pupils who 

 were still liviug during the first decade of the last century, and to 

 no better hands could he commit those traditions than those of 

 his son. 



The investigation of Linne's life, which took up the last twenty 

 years of Fries's time, was also for him au early love, towards 

 which, during the heavv labours of his middle age, he longed 

 to revert. It is marvellous what a gigantic work he achieved : 

 besides the great and well-known standard work ' Linue : 

 lefnadsteckning,' 1903, he edited volume after volume of 

 Linne's correspondence, together with publications which had 

 not been printed before, or had been badly done. The inheritance 

 from his father and grandfather, an easy knowledge of Latin, 

 which made him supreme in the deciphering of Linne's 

 manuscripts, stood him in good stead. It must not be for- 

 gotten, that it was upon Fries's powerful initiative, that the 

 Liiinean Foundation at Hammarby, now a State Possession, came 

 into existence, and that he was the first Inspector. 



