4o PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Zoological Garden at Hamburg was helped by him at its founda- 

 tion. The year 18S0 witnessed the completion of the Zoological 

 Museum and Institute at Kiel, in great measure due to the strong 

 efforts of Mobius. In 1887 he was called to Berlin as Director 

 of the new Zoological Museum, which he held till the close lof 

 1905, retiring at the age of 80 ; and on his 80th birthday was 

 published a Festschrift in his honour from his many pupils. The 

 various publications to which bis name is attached show his wide 

 range, from Alcyonarians to fishes, and the ' ArtbegrifFe ' ; but his 

 chosen field was amongst marine organisms, particularly MoUusca. 

 He had a strong practical sense, and was therefore able to make 

 many useful suggestions in connection with fisheries and other 

 marine industries. 



His connection with our Society dated from the oth May, 1892, 

 when he was elected a Foreign Member. [B. D. J.j 



George Nicholsok was born at Eipon, Yorkshire, on December 4th, 

 1847, as the son of a nurseryman. After having received the 

 usual general education, he worked for several years in various 

 nurseries in England, and afterwards in the La Muette Gardens 

 in Paris. In 1873, not long after his return to England, he 

 entered the Civil Service as Clerk to the Curator of the Eoyal 

 Gardens, Kew ; and in 1S86, on the retirement of the then 

 Curator, John Smith the second, he succeeded him in that oifice, 

 holding the post until 1901, when failing health obliged him to 

 retire. He resided for the remainder of his life in Eichmond, 

 Surrey, where he died on September 20th, 1908. He was entirely 

 a selfmade man. Although the love for plants and gardening 

 may have run in his veins, a particularly keen intellect making 

 much easy to him that would have been a stumbling-block to 

 others, the success of his life was after all greatly due to the 

 adroit and persistent application of his gifts to a well-defined 

 field ol activity. The trend towards concentration and persistence 

 is curiously i-eflected by the fact that his first publication was on 

 the AVild Elora of Kew Gardens and Pleasure Grounds (1875) ; 

 whilst almost his last visits to the Gaixleus — a few weeks before 

 his death and in a bath-chair — were brightened and enlivened to 

 him by the search for minute Lepidoptera and Pungi, which 

 should serve as further contributions to the AVild Pauna and 

 Plora of the Gardens, the exploration of which he had always had 

 at heart. If this was rather in the nature of a hobby, his more 

 serious work shows the same traits. Ofiicially special stress has 

 been laid on his long-continued devotion to the development of 

 the Kew Arboretum, one of the finest collections of this kind; 

 whilst his ' Dictionary of Gardening' (1884-88 in four volumes, 

 and in a Prench edition, 1892-99) soon became a standard work 

 of gardening. He Avas also a fertile and serious contributor to 

 the horticultural papers. The Linnean Society recognised his 



