GEORGE BENTHAM. 527 



Professor Silliman was a man of exceedingly generous nature and 

 kindly disposition, and he will always be affectionately remembered 

 by his friends. lu society he was most genial, and his lively con- 

 versation exhibited broad intere.-ts and a wide range of general 

 information. He was married in 1840 to Miss Susan H. Forbes, of 

 New Haven, a most accomplished woman, who united with him to 

 make their home exceedingly attractive to a very wide circle of rela- 

 tives and friends. Tlieir hospitality was unbounded, and was enjoyed 

 by men of science from every quarter of the globe. 



Professor Silliman had a fine physique, and his powers of endurance 

 and of work were remarkable. He always enjoyed excellent health 

 until 1880, when he was prostrated for some weeks by heart disease. 

 From this he soon rallied, and, though conscious of a weakened con- 

 stitution, was able to resume work with his usual energy. His last 

 illness beran in October last with a severe return of his heart com- 

 plaint, complicated by an attack of pneumonia. From that time the 

 decline was slow, but steady, to the end ; and the unselfish and whole- 

 souled nature of the man, which marked his entire life, was never more 

 manifest than during his last days. 



Professor Silliman was elected Associate Fellow of this Academy, 

 May 28, 1851, and at his death his name was one of the oldest on 

 its list. 



FOREIGN HONORARY MEMBERS. 



GEORGE BENTHAM. 



George Bentham, one of the most distinguished botanists of the 

 present century, and at the time of his death one of the oldest, was 

 born at Stoke, a suburb of Plymouth, September 22, 1800. He 

 died at his house, No. 25 Wilton Place, London, on tlie 10th of 

 September, 1884, a few days short of eighty-four years old. His 

 paternal grandfather, Jeremiah Bentham, a London attorney or 

 solicitor, had two sons, who both became men of mark, Jeremy and 

 Samuel. The latter and younger had two sons, only one of whom, 

 the subject of this memoir, lived to manhood. George Bentham's 

 mother was a daugliter of Dr. George Fordyce, a Scottish physician 

 who settled in London, was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a lecturer 

 on chemistry, and the author of some able medical works ; also, of a 



