OBITUARY. 245 



president of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a Victoria 

 Medallist. In 1921 he was elected president of the British 

 Ornithological Union, having been a member for 55 years. In 

 1897 the Royal Society elected him a Fellow. On frequent 

 occasions he attended the expeditions of the Royal Scottish 

 Arboricultural Society. 



Elwes' first publication appeared in the Ibis of 1869, the 

 subject being "The Bird Stations of the Outer Hebrides." 

 Four years later, in June 1873, he published in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society his paper "On the Geographical 

 Distribution of Asiatic Birds," his most important contribu- 

 tion to Ornithology, and to it he attributed his subsequent 

 Fellowship of the Royal Society. In 1880 his great mono- 

 graph on the genus Lilium appeared, a book which has long 

 been out of print, but is still the recognised authority on the 

 subject. From 1880 to 1906 he published 27 papers on the 

 lepidoptera of many regions, and described numerous new 

 species of his own finding. In 1888 there appeared in the 

 Transactions of the Entomological Society his " Lepidoptera of 

 Sikkim," a very valuable record of the numerous species of that 

 country. He was in Formosa in 1912, and succeeded in bringing 

 home alive several specimens of the splendid Mikado Pheasant. 



Elwes' botanical discoveries in all the countries he visited were 

 very numerous, and he introduced many species. The Botanical 

 Magazine has figured no fewer than 87 plants of his growing or 

 finding ; many fine plants now familiar in most gardens we owe 

 to him. It is not unfitting to add here that largely through his 

 generosity, and by his active interest, that venerable publication 

 {Botanical Magazine) has now been launched again on what we 

 all hope will be another century of unbroken prosperity and 

 even greater usefulness. The School of Forestry at Cambridge 

 has greatly benefited by his munificence, and owes many of its 

 finest timber specimens to him. 



In 1900, with his friend. Prof. Augustine Henry, as colla- 

 borator, Elwes began the preliminary labours which resulted in 

 the production of that monumental work. The Trees of Great 

 Britain and Ireland. The first of the seven volumes appeared 

 in 1906, and the last in 1913. Never before has a book on 

 European trees been attempted on such a scale, and with so 

 lavish an expenditure of money in its preparation. Indeed it 

 can only be compared with Sargent's Sylva of North America, 



