LINNBAN SOCIETY OF LONDOT^. 35 



was a surgeon in the British Army from 1854 until his retirement 

 to Colchester ; he was the father of Brigadier- General C. T. 

 Becker. [B. D. J.] 



A veteran has passed from our ranks in the person of Dr. Robeet 

 Braithwaite at tlie age of 93. He came froDi a north Yorkshire 

 family, his grandfather Robert Braithwaite, who married Sarah, 

 daughter of Thomas Fishburn of Whitby, was a shi])()\\iier, and 

 his father, of the same name, who married Sarah, daughter of 

 Howden Major of Ruswarp, was of the same occupation, and a 

 master mariner of the Merchant Service. Our late Fellow, the 

 third Robert in lineal succession, was born at Ruswarp, a hamlet 

 close to AVhitby, by the River Esk, on the 10th May, 1824. His 

 early education was derived at the school kepr by Mr. Piidsey in 

 Bagdale, and afterwards at that of Mr. Richard Breckon in Well 

 Close Square. After leaving school he was apprenticed to Dr. 

 Holtby, and in 1844 came south permanently. After acting as 

 assistant for ten years to Dr. Jones at Dalston, he entered 

 University College as a medical student, and in 1858 be liecame 

 M.R.C.S.Eng. and L.S.A., beginning medical practice in Lambeth, 

 at 59 Vauxhall Walk. He was elected Fellow of this Society on 

 5th February, 1863. 



From his early days he had shown great devotion to botany, 

 and this was continued in the intervals which a busy practice 

 permitted. In 1869 he married Charlotte EHzabeth, the younger 

 daughter of Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, F.R.S. (1791-1868), the 

 inventor of the Wardian case for the growth of ferns, and tlie 

 transportation of plants overseas. Mr. Ward had removed in 

 1848 from Well Close Square to a house on the east side of 

 Clapham Rise, where he developed a garden full of interesting 

 plants, and upon his marriage Dr. Braithwaite (M.D. St. And. 1 S65) 

 took up his residence there. The writer came to know him about 

 this time, and well remembers some of the less common |)l;inrs 

 in the garden in rear of the house. Trachycavpus excelsa fi-om 

 Fortune's introduction flowered repeatedly, and the inflorescences 

 were often sho\\n in June at our meetings ; Taxodium dhtklnnn 

 grew on a tiny island, close by which the North American NujJiar 

 advena flourished ; Allium triquetrum from the Channel Islands 

 was rampant, and many alpine plants now common in cultivation, 

 such as Saxifragn Geum from Ireland, but at that date rarely 

 found in gardens. 



Dr. Braithwaite came under the influence of S. 0. Lindberg 

 (1835-89), and was ])is host in London when the Swedish 

 bryologist came to the metropoHs in 1872 and 1873, and he held 

 fast to the views then imbibed; in 1889 he wrote an appreciative 

 account of the Helsingfors Professor in the ' Journal of Botany,' 

 xxvii. (1889) 147-148. He served twice on the Council oi' the 

 Society — the first time, 1872-74, when that body was accustomed 

 to meet at 3 in the afternoon and adjourn in less tlian an hour. 

 This period covered the dramatic incident of Mr. Bentham's 



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