Edmond Boissier. 309 



originally planned only to the Great St Bernard, so far as 

 Turin, returning with a franc in his purse. The elder De 

 Candolle was guide, philosopher, and friend to the young 

 botanist ; and, at least, two handsome publications will 

 permanently record his life work. 



The Voyage hotanique dans le midi de I' Espagne pendant 

 Vannee 1837, 2 vols. 4to ; and the Flora Orientalis, 5 vols. 

 8vo, 1867-1881, are both the records of travel undertaken 

 in the countries embraced in them, as well as of subsequent 

 systematic work in the herbarium and library; while, again, 

 the Monograph of the species of Euphorbia, which ori- 

 ginally appeared in De Candolle's Prodromus^ but was 

 afterwards published separately with a series of illustra- 

 tions, is equally valued. 



Boissier made himself a reputation as an horticulturist, 

 specially in the department of alpine plants ; while, again, 

 the Abies Pinsapo, now a well known denizen of our piue- 

 tums, was discovered by him in his Spanish travels on the 

 mountains of Granada, where it formed forests, at an eleva- 

 tion of 4000 to 5000 feet, in places where snow lies from 

 four to five months in the year. 



E. Boissier was a corresponding member of our Society. 



Dunbar James Douglas, sixth and last Earl of Selkirk, 

 died on April 4, 1885, after a short illness, at St Blary's 

 Isle, Kirkcudbright, having nearly completed his seventy- 

 sixth year. The Earl was elected a non-resident member 

 of our Society so far back as 1838. His mind was specially 

 of a scientific bent ; and though his geological inquiries, 

 notably " On Sea- Water Level Marks on the Coast of 

 Sweden," read to the London Geological Society in 1867, 

 may bulk most prominently in public notice, still his rela- 

 tion to us, specially in connection with his early colonising 

 work in the now celebrated Canadian Far West, demands 

 the present record. 



The late Alexander Croall was elected an Associate on 

 the same day in which the Earl of Selkirk was admitted 

 a member of our Society. The conjunction is at least 

 unique, and proves in the exhibition of two distinguished 

 after careers that science is the true leveller. We admitted 



