127 



unique — no species of Splachnobryum being known to occur on 

 plant stems. Mr. Dixon after seeing a second specimen and the 

 drawings writes : 



I certainly cannot see anything to separate the Splachnobryum 

 from S. Wrightii, C. Mueller, judging from the drawings ; and I 

 cannot help thinking it would be a mistake to describe it as new, 

 from the material available unless there were some decidedly 

 marked character to base it upon. It is I suppose possible that it 

 may not be on its original host at present ; the Baldersby plant 

 (see Journ. Bot., 1907, 81) died away each year and re-appeared, 

 presumably from the spores, and if this were the case with the 

 Kew plant it might conceivably have come over with a western 

 plant originally." Dr. Brotherus in a further communication 

 states that he is unable to say whether or not the plant is identical 

 with S. Wrightii, as he has not had an opportunity of comparing 

 it with that species. 



Eurhynchium piliferum, Bruch. et Schimp. On clay in the , 

 Rhododendron dell ; a new locality. Previously only known 

 from the Palace Grounds. 



XX -MISCELLANEOUS NOTES, 



Sib Richard Strachey, R.E., G.C.S.I., F.R.S.— By the death 



at his residence in London on February 12, 1908, of this distin- 

 guished Anglo-Indian official and statesman, in his 91st year, 

 Kew has lost a warm and devoted friend. 



A grandson of Sir Henry Strachey, Bart., of Sutton Court, 

 Somerset, and third son of the late Edward Strachey, Bengal 

 Civil Service, Sir Richard was born at Sutton Court on July 24, 

 1817. After two years spent at the military college of the Hon, 

 East India Company, Addiscombe, he was appointed to the 

 Bombay Engineers in 1836, and was transferred to the Bengal 

 Engineers in 1839. With the exception of an interval of active 

 military duty daring the first Sikh war, when at the battle of 

 Sobraon his horse was shot under him, and of another interval 

 during the Indian Mutiny, when he served as Secretary in all 

 departments to the Central Provinces Government temporarily 

 constituted to meet the occasion created by the investment of the 

 Lieutenant-Governor of the North- West Provinces in Agra, the 

 whole of Sir Richard's services were devoted to the Department 

 of Public Works, at first in connection with irrigation and later in 

 connection with railways. Of his great and lasting achievements 

 as a civil servant, and of his many and signal services to India ' 

 and its Government, this is not the place to speak; nor is it 

 necessary here to detail his contributions to, or to describe the 

 results of his active interest in, the subjects of Indian meteorology 

 and Indian geography, as to which he was a recognised authority. 

 A record of his efforts to advance our knowledge of Indian 

 botany may, however, be appropriately given here. 



At the close of the Sikh War Strachey, who had made the 

 authoritative plan of the Sikh position and of the attack at • 



Sobraon. and had assisted in the construction of the bridge acroR* 



