308 Obituary Notices. 



of the beautiful little feather-star, the publication of whicli 

 led to his association with Wyville Thomson, and to the sub- 

 sequent deep-sea explorations, first of the " Lightning" and 

 then of the " Challenger/' In 1879 he retired from the 

 registrarship od a well-earned pension, being at the same 

 time elected a member of the Senate of the University of 

 London, and subsequently nominated a C.B. In 1871 the 

 honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the 

 University of Edinburgh. In 1872 he was president of 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 then met at Brighton. In 1873 he was elected a corre- 

 sponding member of the Institute of France. In 1883 the 

 Lyell medal of the Geological Society was awarded him, 



Dr Shapter of Exeter not unfrequently saw Dr Carpenter 

 in after life, though the last time was at Edinburgh, when 

 ]ie received the LL.D., and he writes: — " It is notable that 

 both he and his father met their ends by accidents." In 

 the summer of 1839 Dr Lant Carpenter had to cease his 

 multitudinous labours, and, accompanied by a medical 

 friend, to make a long continental health tour. On the 

 day before Good Friday of the next year, news reached 

 Bristol that while travelling one night from Leghorn to 

 Marseilles, he had been sitting solitary on the steamer's 

 deck, and was suddenly missed ; he must have fallen over- 

 board. Some forty-five years after the death the then 

 newly-made Edinburgh graduate was summoned as quickly. 

 When taking a hot-air bath, the curtains of his bed acci- 

 dentally got on fire on the Monday evening. He died at 

 3 A.M. of the following morning. 



On September 25, 1885, another of the great present- 

 day writers on geographic and systematic botany, Edmond 

 BoissiER, passed from us at Valeyels, his country seat, near 

 Orbe, Switzerland. Born at Geneva in 1810, he early 

 came under the influeDce of those enthusiastic naturalists 

 who pursued their studies in the glorious surroundings 

 which environ this centre of intellectual activity. When 

 a boy, he made a special collection of alpine plants grow- 

 ing around his paternal home, disciplining himself in 

 mountain wanderings for a future life work of botanical 

 exploration. On one occasion he extended a journey, 



