TKIM-; I'l.ANl INC, ( (tM !-i:ilTI()NS IN NAi Al,. ^^ I 3 



l)eii\^ used as prize-money, and so far as can be seen at present, 

 funds remain tor one more competition, and unless a further 

 amount becomes available, it may be necessary to discontinue 

 the excellent work which is being accomplished. 



The success attained in Natal seems to indicate that the sys- 

 tem of tree-planting- competilions under the aus])ices of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society and Natal .Vgricultural Union is well worthy 

 of extension to other Provinces of the Union of South Africa. 



John Medley Wood, D.Sc. A.L.S. — The 1915 volume 

 of the Kcw Bitilctiii recently received, contains a brief, but inter- 

 esting memoir of the late Dr. J. Medley Wood, over the signature 

 of N. E. Brown. Medley \\'ood was born in Nottinghamshire 

 during the reign of George IV, and therefore lived under the rule 

 of five British sovereigns. F. M. Bailey, the veteran Colonial 

 Botanist of Queensland, whose obituary notice appears in the 

 same volume, }:)redeceJised Dr. Wood by some two months, and 

 was about nine months the older of the two. The present writer 

 had the ]:)rivilege of making personal acquaintance with both these 

 distinguished botanists within a few months of each other — with 

 Medley Wood when the Cape University honoured itself in 1913 

 in conferring on him the honorary degree of D.Sc. ; and with 

 Manson Bailey in his herbarium in Brisbane. Closely resembling 

 each other in the venerable dignity of their personal appearance, 

 they were alike unremittingly enthusiastic in their devotion to 

 botanical science, and they were equally valued and long-standing 

 contributors to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Medley 

 Wood landed at Durban in 1852, but although his inclinations 

 from early boyhood pointed in the direction of botany, and his 

 first years in South Africa were largely occupied in the cultivation 

 of crops suited to the climate, it was not until 1875 that he first 

 entered into that correspondence with Kew which was terminated 

 only by his death. In 1882 he was ai)pointed Curator of the 

 Botanic Gardens at Durban, and two years later he was instru- 

 mental in establishing in the Colony the Uba cane now so well 

 known to the Natal sugar planters. Subsequently he became 

 Director of the Gardens, and afterwards of the Natal Herbarium. 

 His botanical zeal found a lasting monument in the six volumes 

 of " Natal Plants," and at the time of his death he was engaged 

 on an almost completed seventh volume. The eulogium pro- 

 nounced on Dr. Wood on the occasion of the conferring of the 

 doctorate by the University of the Cape of Good Ho])e. thus 

 summarised his work for botanical science and for South Africa : 

 " For sixty years Mr. Wood has been engaged in botanical inves- 

 tigation of an essentially ])ioneer character, and during this long 

 period he has consistently been one of the most diligent and disin- 

 terested of the scientific workers in the country. Much of what 

 he has accomplished will only be adequately ap])reciated when a^^ ^..^ 

 more intensive study of the .South African flora than has vet bG^^^GlC/f/* 

 attempted can be undertaken." /v^.^'i^Te''-^ X** 



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