LIIfNEAX SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



43 



and see him in Hertfordshire and explain to hiin the best method 

 of experimenting with some peciihar Foxgloves which lie had, as 

 he wished to know how to carry out experiments on evokifionary 

 lines. This I did, and took him some cut spikes of my flowers. 

 He very kindly gave me some in return, and I used the pollen of 

 one or two flowers in order to compare the result with those 

 of the matings already made with my own plants. 



The specimens which I forwarded for exliibition at the meeting 

 on the ITtli of June last, were sent as curiosities, possibly un- 

 familiar to many, and were not intended to illustrate any new 

 point in genetics. Hence I did not attach any importance to 

 their pedigree, and simply cut them at random. They were, in 

 fact, taken from six F., descendants of my heptandrous race after 

 it had been crossed with peloric pollen, the pollen being derived 

 in four cases from the Cambridge peloric ])lant, and iu the other 

 two from the Hertfordshire specimens. 



Colonel Montagu, Xaturalist. By Bruce F. Cummings, ' 

 (Communicated by the General Secretary.) 



[Eead 17th June, 1915] 



Colonel George Montagu (1755-1815) is not a star of great 

 magnitude in tlie firmament of illustrious dead naturalists, I 

 cannot even claim for liim that, like Patrick Mathew, he antici- 

 pated Darwin, or that, like Gilbert White, he wrote a book which 

 everybody reads. Yet English field-naturalists have always been 

 read}' to give him his due as one of the earliest observers to 

 describe with accuracy and scientific precision the many singular 

 and interesting animals inhabiting our shores and countrysidei. 

 Professor Edward Forbes wrote of him : — 



" Montagu's eminence as a naturalist depended upon his 

 acute pow"ers of observation and the perspicuous manner in 

 which he regarded the facts which came under his notice. . . . 

 I have had occasion chiefly to test the observation of Montagu 

 in cases where marine animals were concerned and have 

 been astonished at the extent, variety and minuteness of his 

 researches. He laboured at a time when there were few 

 people who took an interest in marine zoology. . . .but Mon- 

 tagu did not shrink from his work because he met few 

 companions or found little sympathy. He steadily pursued 

 his chosen task and laid the foundation of that thorough 

 investigation of the Natural History of the British seas 

 which now forms so distinctive and appropriate a feature of 

 the science of our country." 



