LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 37 



" lu the spring of 1859 my maternal uncle died, leaving me his 

 landed property, requesting me to take his name, which 1 did, and 

 thenceforth subscribed myself ' Prior.' Since my return from 

 America iu 185U I have devoted myself more to literature than 

 botany, finding, like many others, that after a rambling life in 

 quest of plants it is very irksome to work them up in the cabinet." 



In 1859 he published translations of ' Ancient Danish Ballads ' 

 in three volumes, and in 18G3 his ' Popular Names of British 

 Plants,' ^^•hicll is now in its third edition. " Por forty years I have 

 spent the summer half of the year at Halse, near Bishops Lydeard, 

 seven miles west of Taunton, and the six winter months at York 

 Terrace, London, occupying myself with literary pursuits, while 

 the summer months were devoted to croquet " [he prided himself 

 on his lawn at Halse House] " and antiquarian researches. A 

 translation of ' Ancient Danish Ballads ' required a perusal of all 

 the ballad literature that I could obtain. A small work upon the 

 ' Popular Names of British Plants ' afforded me much amusement 

 and no little labour in reading up old herbals. In these studies 

 forty years have sped away very rapidly, and I am now (in 1899) 

 ninety years of age, very feeble, but in the enjoyment of good 

 general health. I find that I have out-lived all but one of my 

 contemporaries [Nelson Goddard, Esq.], school-fellows, and college 

 friends.'' These are the closing words of his autobiographic sketch. 

 For some years past his increasing weakness had kept him away 

 from the Society, but until he was long past eighty he used to 

 attend the meetings regularly, and by virtue of his position as 

 senior member of the Club took the Chair at the meetings of the 

 Linnean Club iu the absence of the President. He was never 

 married, but greatly admired the other sex, and was fond of paying 

 them an old-world attention and deference, which recalled past 

 manners. More than once he served on the Council ; and it is to 

 him that the Society owes its optical lantern, a gift made in 1890 

 in acknowledgment of a long enjoyment of the Fellowship of the 

 Society, which dated from 6th May, 1851. An attack of influenza 

 was the actual cause of Dr. Priors death, which took place as 

 recorded in the first paragraph. By will he left a legacy of .£100 

 to this Society, and his herbarium to the Eoyal Botanic Gardens, 

 Kew. His estate passes to Sir Prior Goldney, Bart, 



Botanically our late Fellow is commemorated in the genus 

 Prioria, dedicated to him by Grisebach (Flora British West Indies, 

 p. 215) on account of his support of West Indian botany. Prioria 

 copaifera was further investigated by Mr. Bentham, and figured in 

 our ' Transactions,' xxiii. (1861) pi. 40. 



The Eev. Thomas Wiltshire, who died at his house, Granville 

 Park, Lewisham, 27th October, 1902, was born in London on 

 21st April, 182G, the son of Sampson Coysgarne AViltshire and 

 Sarah {nee Goodchild). His father was a man of business in the 

 City and a Freeman of the Clothworkers' Company, who possessed 

 much facility witii pencil and brush, an aptitude which reappeared 



