18VS.] 215 



Atlantica," will shortly be publislied by Messrs. Lovell Reeve, & Co., in two volumes 

 — a most evident proof of his having " died in harness." His most important work, 

 however, is undoubtedly his classical " Insecta Maderensia," published in 185-4 : a 

 quarto volume of 677 pages, illustrated by 13 plates, drawn by Prof. Westwood, and 

 engraved by Mr. F. Smith, and probably one of the most interesting and valuable 

 of its kind. After the acquisition of his typical Madeiran collection (mounted and 

 arranged with a precision peculiar to himself) for the nation by the Trustees of the 

 British Museum, he published a more complete account in the shape of a Museum 

 Catalogue in 1857, and another, containing the whole of the Canarian Coleopterous 

 fauna, in 186J;. Further acquisitions resulted in the " Coleoptera Atlantidum," 

 1865 ; and his Cape de Verde journey was followed in 1867 by the " Coleoptera 

 Hesperidum." Hie last separate work, the " Coleoptera Sanctse-Helense," 1877, is 

 reviewed in the present Number, and is an astonishing instance of the power of 

 exact knowledge, as it incontrovertibly proves the existence of a special endemic 

 fauna, in the shape of a peculiar family, which had practically eluded former ob- 

 servers. This peculiar family, the CossonidcB, was always a favourite one with Mr. 

 WoUaston, who specially monographed it, and who described some 255 new species 

 in it, as against 67 discovered by all other naturalists. His next favourite group 

 was perhaps the ColydiidcB. 



Mr. WoUaston has, in the introductions to the various works on insular faunse 

 above named, elaborately discussed and analyzed the results of his investigations of 

 the Madeiras, Salvages, Cape de Verdes, and St. Helena, with the conclusion that their 

 really endemic Coleopterous inhabitants cannot be satisfactorily referred to any 

 geographical area now existing, but rather to some Atlantic region of which they are 

 the sole representatives in modern times. 



Apart from his high standing as a man of science, Mr. WoUaston wiU be re- 

 membered as emphatically a gentleman, and, if possible, stiU more emphaticaUy as 

 an instance of the power of mind over material. 



Andreto Murray, F.L.S., was born in Edinburgh on the 19th February, 1812 

 the son of Mr. W. Murray, of Conland in Perthshire. He was educated for the 

 law, and became a Writer to the Signet, practising as such in Edinburgh for some 

 time. His earliest entomological paper (on two new Buprestidce) appeared in 1852 

 in the Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France ; this was soon followed by 

 many others, including a Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Scotland (1852), a Note on 

 the Metamorplioses of PJiyllium, and a Monograph of the genus Catops (1856), 

 numerous Notes on the Coleoptera of Old Calabar (where we believe he had a brother 

 — a missionary), a paper on the conditions of Fediculus, as affected by the races of 

 men on which it is parasitic (1860) ; the most important of all was probably a Mono- 

 graph of the I\itidulidce, of which the first portion appeared in the Transactions of the 

 Linnean Society, vol. xxiv (1861), but unfortunately, owing to difficulties with the 

 Council respecting the expense the work entailed, it was never completed. Probably 

 finding the legal profession ill-suited to his tastes, lie came, in 1860, to London, and 

 was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, which position 

 he held for some years, and, up to the time of his death (which happened on the 10th 

 of last month) , he retained an intimate connection with the Society, having long held a 

 scat on its Scientific Committee, and, for a few months before his decease, he was its 

 Scientific Director. Mr. Murray's position on the above-named Committee enabled 

 him to enlarge his knowledge of the habits of insects injurious to vegetation, &c., 

 and, in 1868, he became engaged upon the formation of a collection illustrative of 



