Obituary Notice of the late T. C. Archer. 273 



the world. lie formed an extensive collection of Liverpool 

 imports for the Great Exhibition of 1851, and it was this 

 which first brought him into public notice. While other 

 public-spirited men at Liverpool were at a loss to know 

 what to send to the Exhibition, Mr Archer had the 

 shrewdness to see that nothing would show the greatness 

 of the town better than a correctly-named series of speci- 

 mens of the raw products — mineral, vegetable, and animal 

 — which, at one season or another, were floating in the 

 famous docks on the side of the Mersey. 



In 1853 Mr Archer wrote a small volume on Economic 

 Botctny for the well-known series of popular works on 

 Natural History, published by Reeve & Co., London. It 

 is illustrated with coloured plates by Fitch. This book 

 contains, in small compass, much useful information on 

 the botanical sources of imported fruits, nuts, and oil-seeds ; 

 starches and gums ; textile fibres ; dyeing and tanning 

 materials ; building and furniture woods ; and some 

 medicinal products. About this time, Mr Archer had a 

 good deal of correspondence with Sir William Hooker, who 

 was then forming the fine Museum of Economic Botany 

 at Kew. A few years later a collection of the same kind, 

 though smaller in scale, was got together by Mr Archer, 

 at an astonishingly small expense, in connection with the 

 Royal Institution, Liverpool. He also took a particular 

 interest in the Botanic Garden of that town, his liking for 

 exotic being stronger than for British botany. He was 

 fond, however, of making botanical excursions to country 

 districts in Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales. He 

 was appointed Professor of Botany in Queen's College, 

 Liverpool, in July 1857 ; but this College does not appear to 

 have been continued as an educational institution for more 

 than a few years afterwards. 



Professor Archer was appointed Director of the Edin- 

 burgh Museum of Science and Art in May 1860. He 

 brought with him from Liverpool his private collection, 

 which consisted of fully two hundred specimens, chiefly of 

 vegetable products used in the arts. These mainly con- 

 sisted of the same substances which he had obtained for 

 the collection of imports for the Great Exhibition, most of 

 those of vegetable origin being described in his book. 



