412 Linnean Society. 
Ivy House, Woodford, on Wednesday the 21st of February in the 
present year, was ovcasioned by an attack of cholera, contracted, as 
was supposed, a few days previously at the Refuge for the Destitute, 
of which valuable charity he had long been a most zealous and 
liberal supporter. He was buried on the Ist of March in the family- 
vault at Walthamstow, in the immediate neighbourhood of which his 
whole life had been spent. 
Mr. Forster possessed a very complete and well-arranged herba- 
rium of British plants, and particularly devoted himself to those of his 
native county of Essex; and he had long entertained the intention 
of publishing its ‘‘ Flora,” the manuscript of which he has left in an 
imperfect state. His contributions to our ‘ Transactions’ are limited 
to two papers ; the one ** On Vicia angustifolia, Smith,” in vol. xvi. ; 
and the other ‘“‘ On Esula major Germanica of Lobel,”’ in vol. xvil. 
George Gardner, Esq., was born in Glasgow in May 1812, and was 
educated for the medical profession in the University of that city. 
He displayed at an early period a taste for the study of natural 
history, but botany in particular was his favourite pursuit. At that 
time Sir William Hooker filled the Chair of Botany in that Univer- 
sity, and Mr. Gardner so far attracted his notice as to lead him to 
open to him the range of his fine herbarium, and allow him the free 
use of his extensive botanical library. ‘The ardent zeal of the young 
student urged him to make the best use of these rare advantages, 
and his progress was great and rapid. His numerous attainments 
and many excellent qualities soon obtained him the steady friendship 
of his generous teacher, and he continued the pursuit of his studies 
till the end of 1835, when having expressed his eager desire to 
explore the botanical treasures of tropical climates, Sir William 
Hooker obtained the cooperation of twenty-four subscribers who 
contributed towards the expenses of his journey and agreed to 
purchase sets of the dried plants he proposed to collect, while a 
number of others engaged to receive from him such living plants as 
he might select on account of their beauty or rarity. Among the 
latter was the late Duke of Bedford, who was one of the young 
botanist’s most liberal patrons, and Brazil was selected as the most 
appropriate field for his exertions. 
Previous to his departure, he published a pocket herbarium en- 
titled ‘Musci Britannici,’ on the plan of Funke’s ‘ Deutschlands 
Moose,’ where dried specimens illustrative of each species were neatly 
fixed according to the arrangement in Hooker’s ‘ British Flora.’ Mr. 
Gardner embarked at Liverpool on his projected expedition in May 
1836, and arrived in July following at Rio de Janeiro. The receipt 
of his first set of 400 species, collected on the Corcovado and moun- 
tain ranges immediately surrounding that city, showed how faithfully 
and successfully he discharged the duties of his mission, and proved 
the harbingers of the extremely fine collection he subsequently made 
in the interior of Brazil. The next field of his exertions was the 
lofty range of the Organ Mountains covered with primeval forests, 
which he explored with great success, being the first to scale the 
loftiest peak of that range, where he obtained much to reward his 
