40 President's Address. 



which he devoted special care, and whicli he cultivated 

 with much success. He knew flowers well, not only those 

 of the greenhouse and under cultivation, but also the wild 

 flowers of our country. I am informed that Mr Kobertson, 

 mindful of his own early struggles, interested himself in 

 the welfare and prosperity of the younger members of the 

 trade, and was very helpful to young foresters and 

 gardeners by advice and sympathy, that he proved himself 

 a kind and constant friend, and was esteemed by those who 

 knew him. His death, which resulted from disease of the 

 heart, was sudden. 



Mr William Mudd, Curator of the Botanical Garden at 

 Cambridge, died of a brief illness at the age of forty-nine. He 

 was an Associate of our Society, as well as of the Linnaean. 

 He was born near Bedale, in Yorkshire, in 1830, where his 

 early education was very deficient. His first appointment 

 was to the garden of Joseph Pease, Esq., at Southend, 

 Darlington, where he enjoyed the advantage of good 

 training under Mr Pope. He married in early life, and 

 was appointed to the charge of the garden of T. Richardson, 

 Esq., at Great Ayton in Cleveland. While here he 

 became acquainted with some teachers in a boarding-school 

 in the neighbourhood who were fond of science, and by 

 their aid he strove to supply the defects of his education. 

 He also made long botanical excursions through the 

 district, the results of which were published in a local 

 periodical in 1863. A new era now dawned on his history. 

 He purchased a microscope and devoted himself to the 

 study of lichens, and by dint of great industry, zeal, and 

 self-denial (for all this time he was regular at his garden 

 duties), he secured a fine collection of these cryptogams, 

 which he carefully dissected and accurately described. 

 Shortly after this, viz., in 1861, he published his "Manual 

 of British Lichens," which was very complete, containing 

 as it did all the species and varieties then known in 

 Britain. This work gave him a high position as a botanist, 

 and with his previous thorough training and experience in 

 horticulture, we need not be surprised that, when a vacancy 

 occurred in the curatorship of the Botanic Garden at 

 Cambridge, Mr Mudd should have been chosen to fill that 



