244 Annual Report of the Council. 



possessed an immense herbarium which the traditions 

 of the family imposed being made of a quasi-public 

 character. The father left to the son at least 70,000 

 species of plants, the whole of which have been used 

 in the preparation of the ' Prodromus ; ' the son, just 

 deceased, has added immense collections to the same 

 herbarium, and it doubtless decends to the third generation 

 with the same facilities for consulting it as have been 

 enjoyed by botanists of every country for more than half 

 a century, in Geneva, the city of great herbaria. Alphonse 

 de Candolle was a voluminous writer, as he is the author of 

 at least 250 separate publications and articles in scientific 

 journals. He was elected an honorary member of the 

 Society on April 26th, 1892. C. B. 



Ernest Werner von Siemens was born at Leuthe, 

 Hanover, in 18 16. He was the eldest of seven brothers, 

 one of whom, Sir William Siemens, was well known in this 

 country. Dr. Siemens, at the age of 18, joined the 

 Prussian Artillery, and gained the rank of lieutenant three 

 years later. A graphic description of his early career is 

 given in a short volume of autobiography which appeared 

 a few weeks before Lis death. While still holding his 

 military appointment, he became the inventor of a process 

 of electro-gilding and of an automatic recording telegraph 

 His attention was then drawn to the advantages of placing, 

 if possible, all electric leads under the surface of the ground. 

 The difficulty, which had to be overcome, was the finding 

 of a suitable covering to the wire, which should be insulating 

 and at the same time resist corrosion. Although unsuccessful 

 at the time, the experiments performed, and the researches 

 undertaken on the coating of wires with gutta-percha, were 

 ultimately found to be of great value. Shortly afterwards 

 Werner Siemens retired from the army, and gave up his time 

 to the working out of a series of inventions, which have 



