LI>N£AN SOCIETY OF J.ONDO>'. 35 



At the time of his death he was Superintendent of the gardens 

 of the Maharajah of Grwalior, having previously been in charge of 

 those at Durbhungah, India; passing away on 11th October, 1902, 

 and leaving a widow and two children. 



He was elected Fellow on 3rd March, 1877. He also received 

 the distinguished award of a Victoria Medal of Honour from the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society. His published papers were confined 

 to gardening papers and the Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society ; but his title to lasting remembrance lies in his success as 

 a plant- collector. 



The death of Dr. Eichaed Chandler Alexander Prior, who 

 died at his residence, Eegent's Park, on 5th December, 1902, 

 removes one of the most constant attendants at our meetings until 

 increasing weakness confined him to his house and room. 



The following account is based upon memoranda drawn up in 

 1S99, when ninety years of age, by the subject of this notice. He 

 \^ as born on 6th March, 1809, at Corsham in Wiltshire, his parents' 

 surname being Alexander ; his horoscope Avas drawn on the day 

 of his birth by Wm. Sainsbury, M.D., and carefully preserved. 

 When eight years old, he was sent to the Eev. J. T. Lawes's 

 school at Marlborough, and five years later to the Charterhouse, 

 when the Eev. J. Eussell, D.D., was headmaster. At the age of 

 17 he went up to.Wadham College, Oxford, Dr. Symons being then 

 subwarden, and took his degree in 1830. 



The same year, having decided to study medicine, he came to 

 London, and began his studies at Mayo's Anatomy School, Great 

 AVindmill-street, and also attended Faraday's chemical lectures. 

 The next year, 1831, he entered St. George's Hospital, but his 

 health broke down ; he had typhus fever the first winter, and 

 continuing unwell, the following year went to Belgium for change 

 of air, and then proceeded to AVeimar, where he spent the summer. 

 The next medical season was spent at Berlin, and then, in 1833, 

 he resumed his studies at St. George's Hospital. At this time he 

 attended Dr. Eobert Dickson's lectures on botany, " to which I 

 have to trace the greatest happiness of my subsequent life " being 

 his own testimony. After one season at Edinbm'gh. Mr. Prior 

 took his M.B. degree at Oxford, and settled in practice at Bath 

 in 1836. But here, fate was against him : he was ill all the time 

 he was in residence there, fifteen months. '•' A most malignant 

 fever broke out in the street where I had hved, Edward Street, 

 shortly after I left, and attacked the inmates of nearly every house 

 on one side, many of whom died. It was then discovered 

 that the main sewer was choked up, the cause, no doubt, of my 

 constant indisposition while I hved there, and especially of the 

 sore throats to which I was subject." He removed to Chippenham, 

 became Fellow of the Eoyal College of Physicians in 1840, and in 

 the spring of 1841, when he gave up the practice of medicine, he 

 went to Gratz in Austria for three years. It was during his stay 

 here that he contributed two papers, describing his excursions into . 



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