LINNEAK SOCIETY OF LONDON. 21 



.Force Inn, where " Mr. Backhouse's room " was in full view of 

 the Force itself. Geology was a favourite pursuit with him, 

 and he had many a rich find in the Teesdale region. 



Mr. Backhouse died at his house in York 31st August, 1890; 

 his connexion with this Society dated only from 7th May, 1885. 



TnoMAS Richard Aechee Beiggs, whose recent death will be 

 fresh in the memories of most here, was born at Fursdon, Egg 

 Buckland, near Plymouth, in May 1836. His health was rather 

 delicate whilst young, and it was not until he was about 15 years 

 of age that he showed any love for natural history ; then, how- 

 ever, he began to collect in many departments, at last coming to 

 confine his efforts to plants, of which he had so accurate a know- 

 ledge. He hardly stirred from home during his life, never for 

 more than a few days, so that his local knowledge was only 

 ijiupplemented by dried plants from other parts of the kingdom. 

 Beyond his scattered papers on sundry critical plants, he will be 

 best remembered by his admirable ' Flora of Plymouth,' on 

 every page of which is to be read his intimate acquaintance with 

 the various phases of the local vegetation. On the completion of 

 this book he presented a set of the Rubi therein mentioned to 

 the British ^Sluseum ; and since his death his herbarium has 

 been gone over by the authorities of Kew and the British 

 Museum with a view of securing the most valuable of his 

 plants. 



Mr. Briggs was a bachelor, and latterly lived with a brother ; 

 in addition to his chosen study, he was active in helping on every 

 good work in his native parish. He died on 23rd January last 

 from inflammation of the lungs, due no doubt to the severe 

 winter through which he had passed, and was buried in Egg 

 Buckland churchyard. He was elected Fellow 18th January, 

 1872. 



Alexandee von Bunge, who died at Dorpat on the 6th July 

 last in his 86th year, was the Nestor of Russian botanists. He 

 was born at Kiew on the 24th September, 1803, and went at an 

 early age to Dorpat, passing out from the Gymnasium there 

 when eighteen, in 1821 ; two years later he was the recipient of 

 a gold medal, and on 24th November, 1825, he took his degree of 

 M.D. at that University. Between the last two dates he had 

 travelled through the Baltic provinces, and then, having duly 

 qualified himself, he engaged in practice as a country doctor. 

 In 1830 the St. Petersburg Academy despatched him to China as 

 medical ofiicer of an expedition sent thither ; and on his return 

 be published, in the ' Memoires des Savants etrangers,' his well- 

 known " Enumeratio plantarum quas in China boreali collegit " 

 in 1831. This, with a conspectus of " Russian Gentians " in the 

 Moscow ' Memoirs ' in 1824, was his first contribution to scien- 

 tific botany ; and it is worthy of remark that Bunge's published 



