LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON, 43 



the Culm Measures of Noi'th Devon, wliich he investigated with 

 the utmost zeal, and showed to be mainly of Up])er Carboniferous 

 age (18, 1904); the Kent Coal-Field, on which he became an 

 expert authority (;^(), 1909; 03, 1914; 67, 191G); the' Yorkshire 

 Coal-Field (46, 1910); the Lower Carboniferous Flora of Co, 

 Antrim (50, 1912); the Coal-Measures of the Forest of Dean 

 (53, 1912) and tlie Forest of Wyre (61, 1914); the Devonian 

 Flora of North Devon (65, 1915) and the Coal-Measures of South 

 Staffordshire (68, 1916). All these works, and others not enume- 

 rated here, are of both taxonomic and stratigraphical importance, 

 and all are solid contributions to Fossil Botany on its geological 

 side. In the course of these studies he developed a considerable 

 consulting practice as an expert. 



Arber's most valuable memoirs on the fossil plants oi: distant 

 lands are his volume on the GlossojJteris Flora, alread}" mentioned, 

 and his Mesozoic Floras of New Zealand. An important mono- 

 graph on the latter subject was one of his latest publications (70, 

 1917). The age of the Floras described ranges from Triasso-Hhsetic 

 to Neocomian ; in the later deposits Angiosperms are already repre- 

 sented. Arber also did much work on the Antarctic fossil plants 

 of the Scott Expedition, though he never published on the subject. 

 As purely taxonomic A\'orks we may mention tiie papers on the 

 Cycadophytic genera Zamites and PterophyJlum (30, 1907) and. on 

 PsygmophjlUum (54, 1912). A useful elementary treatise on the 

 Natural History of Coal, one of the Cambridge Manuals (48, 1911), 

 was translated into Kussian in 1914. 



Arber contributed a little volume on Fossil Plants to Gowans's 

 sixpenny Nature Books, It consists of 60 admirable photographs, 

 neai'ly all by himself, with a few pages of explanation, and repre- 

 sents one of the rare attempts to interest the general reader in 

 fossil botany (37, 1909). 



Arber's hue book on the Coast Scenery of North Devon, 

 bountifully illustrated by his own beautiful photographs, deserves 

 mention, though scarcely at all botauical. It is a unique work, 

 embodying much original research, and a charming guide-book for 

 the geological tourist (47, ll^^fll). 



From the rapid sketch we have given of Arber's chief life-work, 

 it will be seen that his activities were very varied. He was an 

 enthusiastic field naturalist, in Geology as well as in Botany, while 

 at the same time he had an intimate knowledge of the great 

 European collections, and of the literature of his subjects. The 

 amount of work wliich he accomplished in a life unhappily cut 

 short in middle age, was extraordinary. His industry, however, 

 was not of the plodding order, but was fired by a burning interest 

 in Nature. The writer of these lines owes much to the constant 

 discussion of many problems with his old friend, by letter or woi'd 

 of mouth. 



Arber died at the height of his activity, and left behind a lunnber 

 of important unpublished MSS. One of these works, on the 

 external morphology of Calamites, in conjunction with his pupil 



