LINNEAN SOCIETT OF LONDON. I 5 



portraits of John Eeaser, F.L.S., by John Hoppner and Sir George 

 Raebarn ; the latter, he pointed out, was the unacknowledged 

 source of the lithographed portrait in Hooker's ' Companion to 

 the Botanical Magazine,' vol. ii. (1836) p. 300. The following 

 note accompanied the exhibit : — 



"John Fraser (1750-1811) was born at Tomnacloich, Inverness- 

 shire in 1750, and apparently came to London in 1770, when 

 he married and settled as a hosier and draper at Paradise Row, 

 Chelsea. Having acquired a taste for plants from visiting the 

 Botanical Garden, Chelsea, then under the care of Forsyth, he 

 sailed to Newfoundland in 1780 in search of new species, return- 

 ing the same year. In 1784 he embarked for Charleston, whence 

 he returned in 1785, only to start again the same year. His 

 third, fourth, and fifth visits to North America were made in 1790, 

 1791, and 1795, he having in the latter year established a nursery 

 at Sloane Square, Chelsea, to which his discoveries were consigned. 

 Having introduced various American pines, oaks, azaleas, rhodo- 

 dendrons, and magnolias, in 1796 he visited St. Petersburg, where 

 the Empress Catherine purchased a collection of plants from him. 

 Revisiting Russia in 1797 and 1798 he was appointed botanical 

 collector to the Czar Paul, and commissioned by him, returned to 

 America in 1799, taking with him the eldest of his two sons. 



" In Cuba he met and was assisted by Humboldt and Bonpland. 

 On his return the Czar Alexander declined to recognise his appoint- 

 ment; by his predecessor, though Fraser made two journeys to 

 Russia to obtain remuneration. 



" In 1806 he started on his seventh and last visit to America, 

 again taking his son ; he returned with many new plants, in 1810, 

 to his nursery, which however was never successful." 



He died at Sloane Square on 26th April, 1811. Walter's 

 herbarium, which he possessed, was presented in 1849 to the 

 Linnean Society, of which he was a Fellow, by his son ; but was 

 disposed of in 1863. 



The following papers were read and discussed : — 



Mr. A. D. Daebishiee. — " On the Respiratory Mechanism in 



certain Elasmobranchs." (Communicated by Prof. A. Dendy, 



Sec.L.S.) 

 Prof. E. B. PouLTON, F.R.S., F.L.S.— On the Fauna and Flora 



of Abyssinia as compared with that of West Africa." 

 Herr C. J. With. — " Pseudoscorpions." (Communicated by the 



Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, F.R.S., F.L.S.) 



The Peesident then laid before the Society four papers of a 

 proposed series on the Fauna of the Sudanese Red Sea ; they con- 

 sisted of (1) An Introduction, by the President; (2) a narrative 

 of Mr. Cyril Crossland's explorations; (3) Mr. Crossland's account 

 of the formation of certain shore-cliffs in Egypt, and (4) of the 

 Red Sea Coral Reefs ; with (5) Mr. E. R. Sykes's enumeration of 

 the Polyplacophora collected. 



