LINNEiS.N SOCIETr OF LOXDOX, 55 



Cambridge, and succeeding, lie went into residence in October of 

 that year. He found himself amongst congenial companions, 

 amongst them Professor F. O. Bower, Dr. Hail (now Master of 

 Downing College), Professor Hillhouse, and Dr. Walter Grardiner, 

 attending physiological and morphological zoology under the late 

 Sir Michael Poster and P. M. Balfour. 



The opportunity of residence at the University came about 

 under singular circumstances. An anonymous letter came to him 

 saying that if he would enter at Cambridge he would find a 

 sufficient sum to pay his expenses at Mortlock's Bank. His 

 success in winning his scholarship thus assured him of means to 

 pursue his studies, and very shortly after tliis, in November of 

 the same year, the unknown benefactor died at sea ; but having 

 provided in his will for the conthiuunce of the subsidy, he 

 proved to be a young pupil of Huxley's, Mr. L. A. Lucas, who 

 had evidently observed the promise of distinction shown by Ward. 

 A first class in the natural history tripos brought his Cambridge 

 undergraduate cai-eer to a close in 1879. 



We may rejoice that one of the earliest results of investigation 

 was a paper on the embryo-sac, which was read before this Society, 

 20th jVovember, 1879, and published in the 'Journal' (Botany, 

 vol. xvii. (1880) 519-546, pis. 17-25). 



Por some months he worked at Wiirzburg under Sachs, and 

 then in 1880 he was commissioned to proceed to Ceylon to 

 investigate the coffee-leaf disease which was causing havoc in the 

 coffee estates in that colony. 



The outcome was another paper read on 1st June, 1882 

 (Journal, Bot. xix. (1880) pp. 299-335), followed by one on a 

 bve-product on an epiphyllous lichen, which appeared in our 

 ' Transactions '(ser. 11. Bot. ii. (1884) 87-119, pis. 18-21). It 

 was during his work in Ceylon that he formed views on the para- 

 sitism of Pungi, which largely influenced his succeeding labours. 



In 1882 he was elected Berkeley Pellow at Owens College, 

 becoming assistant to Professor Williamson, and staying there till 

 1885, in which year he removed to Cooper's Hill, as Professor of 

 Botany, in the Forestry Department of the Eoyal Indian 

 Engineering College. 



During the ten years he remained at Cooper's Hill, much of 

 his most striking work was accomplished. In 1887 appeared 

 a paper in the ' Philosophical Transactions' on the tubular 

 swellings on the roots of Vicia Faba, this paper contributing 

 some important facts in the biology of the case, proving that these 

 nodules were of parasitic origin, and that the parasite, since 

 known to be a bacterium, enters by the roat-hairs. The subject 

 was summed up in a kuninous article in the ' Annals of Botany ' 

 then just started. The same volume also contained' a joint paper 

 by him and Mr. T. Dunlop on the origin of rhamnin, the yellow 

 pigment of " Prench Berries" from Rhamnus by a ferment in the 

 testa of the seed. Another paper on a ferment, this time in a 

 lily, appeared in the following volume. A memoir on the relations 



