LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LOKDOX. 53 



liis degree of B.A. in the following year, being placed in the tirst 

 divicsiun. 



He was obliged, soon after this, to give up his position as 

 schoolmaster on account of growing deafness, but j)is former 

 acquaintance with the leading partner of the firm of Messrs. 

 James Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, was of the greatest value to him, 

 as he became private secretary to the head of the firm, and for many 

 years he was occupied in drawing up works of very great value 

 which were published by that firm. We may name 'A Manual 

 of the Coniferae,' published in. 1880, and reaching a second 

 edition in 1900 ; another work, the outcome of long-continued 

 labour, is ' Manual of Orchidaceous Plants cultivated under 

 Glass in Great Britain ' in ten parts — the first, devoted to the 

 genus Odontorjlos.mm, appeared in 1889, the last, in 1894, gave a 

 genera] review of the Order. 



He was elected aTi Associate of this Society on the 5th May, 

 1889, and made constant use of our Library. Upon his retire- 

 ment, a few years since, upon a hberal pension, he still enjoyed 

 borrowing books on the various subjects connected with botany 

 and gardening. His own large collection of books he bequeathed 

 to a nephew, as he had no children and his wife predeceased him. 

 He died at his house, " Mycene," Doria Koad, Fulham, on the 

 12th September, 1913. [B. D. J.] 



The Society has the misfortune this year to record the death of 

 two former Presidents in the same year — Lord Atebury and 



Dr. GtJNTHEE. 



The Eight Hon. Sir JoHif Lubbock, 4th Baronet and 

 1st Baron Avebury, was born in London on the ;30th April, 1834, 

 the eldest son of Sir John William Lubbock, 3rd Baronet, who was 

 well kuown as a physicist and mathematician. After education 

 under tutors, he went to Eton, and was thei'e simultaneously 

 with four younger brothers. He left Eton at a very early age, 

 losing all chance of a University training, in consequence of the 

 serious illness of some of the partners in his father's bank. 

 Thus, at the age of 14, he made his first acquaintance with the 

 routine of the banking business of Sir John Lubbock, 

 Edward Forster, and Georg-e Hotham, which afterwards became 

 Eobarts, Lubbock & Company. At the time young Lubbock 

 entered business, one of the partners was Edward Eorster, as 

 mentioned above, and this man was Treasurer of the Linnean 

 Society from 1816 to 1849, a long period of 33 years. There 

 is no record of the influence Forster may have exercised upon 

 the youth at the impressionable age, but as the elder man was 

 of considerable note in botanical circles, and possessed a fine 

 herbarium, it is not perhaps unduly hazardous to speculate that 

 he may have had a considerable share in directing young 

 Lubbock's attention to natural history. In passing, it may be 

 poiuted out that Forster's herbarium was acquired by the British 



