160 BOTANICAL NEWS. 



Ascomycetes ; also, the orgauiscation of botanical laboratories ; the 

 arrangement of botanical museums and herbaria ; and the planning, 

 classifying, and labelling of botanic gardens. It is desired to form 

 an exhibition of herbaria, botanical instruments and apparatus, 

 plans of laboratories and gardens, books, plates, drawings, diagrams, 

 &c. Botanists intending to be present should send their names to 

 the Organismg Committee at the above address. Besides the 

 sessions of the Congress, there will be organised excursions and 

 visits to scientific establishments, the details of which will be pub- 

 lished hereafter. 



We are pleased to learn that the Senate of the University of 

 Cambridge has granted an assistant curator of the herbarium 

 which has long been in need of such help. 



The vacancy caused at Kiel by Prof. Eichler's call to Berlin is 

 filled by the api3ointment of Prof. Engler, of Munich. Prof. 

 Schwendener, of Tubingen, also goes to Berlin. 



The death, in his sixtieth year, of Moeitz Seubert, Professor in 

 the Polytechnic School at Carlsruhe, occurred on April 6th. He 

 is known as the author of the first Flora of the Azores, — ' Flora 

 Azorica,' published in 1844, and founded on Hochstetter's collec- 

 tions made in 1838 ; this is illustrated w^tli good plates, drawn by 

 the author. He also published a monograph of the genus Elatine 

 in' the 'Nova Acta' for 1845, and elaborated many of the mono- 

 cotyledonous Orders for the ' Flora Brasiliensis,' besides writing 

 some good local Floras of S.W. Germany. Mr. H. C. Watson 

 dedicated a genus to him, founded on Bellis azorica, but Seubertia 

 has not been mamtainedby the authors of the ' Genera Plantarum.' 



We have also to note the death, at Friburg, of August Jaeger, 

 a well-known Swiss bryologist, and author of several papers on the 

 mosses of that country. 



We regret to record the death of Thomas Thomson, M.D., which 

 occurred on 18th Aj)ril. He was born in Glasgow in 1817, and 

 was educated in the University of that city. He entered the 

 service of the Hon. E. India Company as assistant-sui-geon, and 

 botanized in the N.W. j)rovinces. In 1847, he was selected to 

 accompany the mission to Tibet, which visited that country in 

 1848-49. At the end of that year he joined Dr. J. D. Hooker, at 

 Darjiling, and they spent the year 1850 in travelling and collecting 

 in the Kliasia Mountams, returning together to England in the 

 spring of 1851 with very large collections. The next few years 

 was emi)loyed at Kew in naming and distributing these. Dr. 

 Thomson w^as afterwards appointed to the Directorship of the 

 Calcutta gardens, but remained there but a few years, returning 

 to England about 1860, since when feeble health has prevented 

 him from doing much botanical work. Dr. Thomson's most im- 

 portant contribution is the first volume (extending only from Uanun- 

 culaceir to Fuiiiariacea) of the elaborate "Flora Indica," of which 

 he was joint author with Dr. (now Sir) J. D. Hooker, and which was 

 pubhshed in 1855. 



