63 



ISotantcal NtU)S« 



Another of the few remaining links which connect the present 

 generation of EngHsh botanists with the past has been removed by 

 the death of the Eev. Gerard Edwards Smith, at the age of 

 seventy-seven. Mr. Smith, who was a Church of England clergyman 

 of the 'Evangelical' school, is best known by his work, published 

 in 1829 during his residence at Sandgate, entitled ' A Catalogue 

 of the rare or remarkable phaenogamous plants of South Kent.' 

 Although arranged upon the Linnean system, this little volume 

 was an advance upon previous works of the kind : it contains 

 critical notes upon the species of Orobanche, Medicar/o, and Oplirys 

 (upon which he had previously published remarks in the ' Magazine 

 of Natural History' for 1828 (i., 398)), and the first recognition 

 as British of Statice occidentalis, Lloyd, then identified with 

 S. cordata, L., and subsequently described and figured by 

 Mr. Smith (in Engl. Bot. Suppl., t. 2663), as S. binervosa. 

 This species, with others, is figured in the careful plates (five in 

 number), from Mr. Smith's own drawings, which accompany the 

 ' Catalogue.' In 1837 he added Scirjms parndus to the list of British 

 plants ; a specimen from him in the British Museum (Natural 

 History) Herbarium is labelled — " Collected in July, 1837, at 

 Lymington, Hants, in the newly excavated swimming-bath, with 

 Scirpiis Savii." In 1846 he sent to the Botanical Society of 

 London specimens of a plant, with the provisional name 

 (which has since been generally accepted) of Filago apiculata, 

 accompanied by a description, which is published in the ' Phy- 

 tologist' (iii. 575, o. s.). But Mr. Smith's contributions to 

 botanical literature were very few, the only paper attributed to 

 him in the Royal Society's Catalogue being a note on the claims 

 (of which he was a supporter) of Alyssum cahjcmum to a place in 

 the British flora (Phyt. ii. 282-4, o. s.). At this time (1844-1846) 

 he was vicar of Cantley, Yorkshire, where the above-named Filago 

 was first detected. In 1861 he wrote a preface to a little illus- 

 trated volume ' On the Ferns of Derbyshire,' and his help is 

 acknowledged by the Rev. W. H. Painter, in his ' Notes on the 

 Flora of Derbyshire,' published last year in this Journal. He died 

 at Hillside, Ockbrook, Derbyshire, on the 21st of December last. 

 Many of his specimens are in the British Herbarium of the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington. 



Mr. Rich.ard Kippist, long known in connection with the Lin- 

 nean Society, died at Chelsea on the 14th of January. Born in 

 1811, his early life was spent in Stoke Newington, though his 

 parents came originally from Bedford. When quite a lad he was 

 clerk in the office of Mr. Joseph Woods. His taste for Botany 

 either originated or was acquired when under that gentleman, 

 with whom he travelled, and whom he afterwards assisted in 

 the publication of ' The Tourist's Flora.' Mr. Woods leaving 

 London for Lewes, Mr. Kippist, in February, 1830, entered the 

 service of the Linnean Society, then located in Soho Square. 



