Obituary Notice of the late T. C. Archer. 275 



manner in which the betel-nut, obtained from the Areca 

 catechu, is prepared and used in the East. 



In June 1865 he made three communications — one on 

 some galls new to commerce, another on Cape Saffron, and 

 a third on cubebs from South Africa. 



On April 12, 1866, he read a short paper on some 

 insects hurtful to forest trees. 



Mr Archer made his last communications to this Society 

 on the 12th May 1870. These were Botanical Notes — (1) 

 of a journey through Spain and Portugal, (2) on the 

 Garden of Montserrat, Portugal, and (3) on the Eock of 

 Gibraltar. The sights which most attracted his attention 

 were the forests of evergreen oak, which he at first mistook 

 for olive trees, enlivened, wherever peasants' houses were 

 situated, with herds of black swine feeding on fallen acorns ; 

 the brushwood of various species of Cistus, and the bush- 

 like Eitphorhia rupicola on the plains of La Mancha ; the 

 hill forests of Estremadura, with their luxuriant chestnuts 

 and oaks ; the large flocks of merino sheep wandering over 

 plains where not a blade of grass was to be seen ; and 

 generally, the grand orange and lemon trees, the pome- 

 granate orchards, the olive plantations, and the dwarf 

 palms of Southern Spain. Especially attractive to him 

 was the Botanic Garden of Madrid, with its sunproof plants 

 protecting those of a more tender nature from the scorching 

 heat rayfe, its blue blossomed hedges of Phimhago capensis, 

 its walls covered with the rose-coloured flowers of Bourjain- 

 villca spectahilis, and its splendid bushes of the beautiful 

 Barbadoes pride {Pomciana pulchei-rima). 



The separate account of Mr Cooke's garden at Montserrat, 

 near Lisbon, shows that it contains, or at least contained, 

 a greater variety of rare plants than any other garden in 

 Europe except Kew ; but whereas in the English garden 

 all the treasures are closely packed under glass roofs, at 

 Montserrat they have no covering but the azure sky. In 

 the third communication, he gave a list of plants which he 

 noticed on the Rock of Gibraltar. 



Mr Archer formed in 1862 or 1863 a Microscopical 

 Society in Edinburgh, but it was not long kept up. It 

 held, however, a good number of well-attended meetings, 

 at which many interesting microscopic objects were shown. 



