LIITNEAN SOCTETT OF LONDOX. 47 



grandfather, James So\verby, A.L.S. (1757-1822), is known for 

 his draAviuf^s in ' English Botany ' and ' Coloured Drawings of 

 English Fungi,' and his three sons, James De Carle Sowerby, F.L.S., 

 George Brettingham Sowerby, F.L.S., and Charles Edward 

 Sowerby, A.L.S., continued the family tradition as botanic artists 

 or conch ologists. 



The subject of our notice, the son of James De Carle Sowerby^ 

 was born in 1827. About the year 1844 he became assistant to 

 his father, the first Secretary to the Eoyal Botanic Society, 

 Eegent's Park, -v^hom he ultimately succeeded about 1869, In 

 1880 he noticed the presence of a freshwater Medusa in the tank 

 in Mhieh the great water-lily Victoria regia was cultivated in 

 the Gardens under his charge, and the singular occurrence in 

 fresh-water was investigated independently by the late Prof. 

 Allman, at that time our President, and Prof. E. Bay Lankester. 

 The President described the animal as Limnocodium Victoria in 

 our ' Journal,' Zoology (xv. pp. 181-137), while Prof. Lankester 

 suggested that L. Sotverbii would appropriately commemorate the 

 discoverer. In 1895 Mr. Sowerby resigned his post, and was suc- 

 ceeded by his son, Mr. J. B. Sowerby, the present Secretarj-. He 

 was elected Eellow, 7th March, 1872. [B. D. J.] 



Eeedeeick Towksekd, who died at Cimiez, Alpes-Maritimes, on 

 16th December, 1905, at the age of 83, was elected comparatively 

 recently into the Linnean Society, on 18th April, 1878. He 

 was born at Eawmarsh Eectory, Yorkshire, on 5th December, 

 1822, was educated at Harrow, and Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 graduating B.A. in 1850, and proceeding M.A. in 1855, It was 

 whilst he was in residence at Cambridge that he became acquainted 

 with C. C. Babington and W. W. Kewbould, whose critical views 

 on British botany were congenial with his own. With them he 

 botanised round Cambridge, and his first paper, on GJyceria pecli- 

 celhda, was published in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History ' in 1850 ; from this time onward he was constantly pub- 

 lishing notes of his observations, as may be seen overleaf, and in 

 ' The Journal of Botany' for April 1906, which also contains an 

 admirable photogravure of our late Eellow, In our ' Journal," 

 Botany, xviii, (1881) pp. 398-405, pi. 15, he gave an account 

 of his discovery of Eryihrcea ccqntata. His most considerable 

 undertaking was his ' Elora of Hampshire,' 1883, the result of 

 many years' work, and he lived to revise it and issue a second 

 edition in 1904. 



Soon after his marriage in 1863, Townsend settled at Shedfield 

 Lodge, "Wickham, South Hants, and there he began his work on 

 the county flora, which practically ended only with his life. In 

 1874 he succeeded to the family seat of Hojihigton Hall, Shipstou- 

 on-Stour, "Warwickshire, on the border of Gloucestershire. Here 

 he lived as an ideal country squire, and represented the Stratford- 

 on-Avon division in the House of Commons, from 1886 to 1892, 

 when he retired. 



