LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 37 



The writer has to thank Mrs. Horsley of Wellingborough and 

 Mr. E. J. Heseltine of Hull, niece and nephew of Dr. Braithwaite, 

 for man_y details of the foregoing sketch. [B. D. J,] 



Dr. Ethel Louise de Fraine, D.Sc, E.L.S. (1879-1918).— The 

 death of Dr. Ethel de Fraine at Falmouth on March 25th, 1918, 

 leaves yet another gap in the ranks of British botanists. 



Born at Market Street, Aylesbury, on the 2iid November, 1879, 

 Miss de Fraine became interested in Botany whilst in training for 

 the teaching profession at Whitelands College, Chelsea. She 

 proceeded to take the B.Sc. Honours degree, and thereafter 

 devoted all her spare time to research, at first carried out at East 

 London College in collaboration with Mr. (now Major) T. G. Hill. 

 This resulted in a series of papers on seedling structure, and in 

 1910 her paper on the seedling structure of the Cactacese gained 

 for her the degree of Doctor of Science (London). She became a 

 Fellow of the Linnean Society on the 7th May, 1912, and was a 

 life-member of the British Association. Her later research was 

 carried on chiefly from University College, London, where she 

 completed an important investigation on the rare fossil stem 

 Sutcliffta. She frequently joined in the oecological expeditions 

 organized from tliat college at first to Erquy (Brittany), and 

 afterwards to Blakeney Point (Norfolk). She thus became deeply 

 interested in salt-marsh plants, and soon applied her wide know- 

 ledge of plant anatomy to the intensive study of single genera, 

 correlating the structural features with morphological and 

 oecological problems. She had investigated some species of the 

 genera Salicornia and Statice, and had already planned and partly 

 written a book on the oecology and anatomy of halophytes, when 

 her health broke down, and she entered upon the slow course of 

 what proved to be her last illness. 



In spite of her devotion to research, Miss de Fraine responded 

 generously to the many claims on her time as lecturer and 

 teacher. She was in succession Science Lecturer at Norwich 

 Training College (1902-3), and at Whitelands College (1911-13). 

 She was assistant lecturer in Botany at Battersea Polytechnic 

 (1910-13), and at University College, Aberystwith (1913-14), 

 and in 1915 she was appointed resident lecturer in Botany at 

 Westfield College, becoming a Eecognised Teacher of the 

 University of London and a member of the Board of Studies in 

 Botany. 



Her energy and enthusiasm made her successful alike as teacher 

 or investigator. Her personal character and her sound judgment 

 made her a valuable colleague, and she was a most unselfish 

 friend. She was cut off at the height of her powers, and her 

 death is a loss to the scientific and also to the educational world. 



Appended is a list of her publications. 



