158 Obituary Notices. 



insisted on as a new standpoint in their science. The 

 Botanic Garden at Bonn was under Hanstein's superin- 

 tendence. It shows how very much may be accom- 

 plished by a scant treasury, if controlled by true artistic 

 taste combined with science. 



The career of the late General William Munro, C.B., 

 a Non-Resident Member of the Society, may be regarded 

 as a parallel with that of Sir Thomas MacDougal Bris- 

 bane, showing how profound scientific attainments may 

 be acquired even amidst most active service. MacDougal 

 Brisbane, amidst the horrid din of war, could quietly 

 apjjraise the capabilities of a continental battlefield as an 

 astronomical observatory. Munro, in the thick of the 

 siege of Sebastopol, sent home rare botanical and archseo- 

 logical specimens ; and during active service in East and 

 West Indies, indeed, over half the world, so pursued his 

 steady scientific aim of doing one thing, as to become our 

 best British authority on grasses, though as a soldier he 

 could write little ; — and his monograph on the Bambusacece^ 

 published in the 26th volume of the " Linnsean Transac- 

 tions," is his most prominent paper. He was a most 

 obliging and laborious botanical correspondent, receiving 

 and examining specimens of grasses from friends in all 

 parts of the world, which, in his own words, may be counted 

 " by tens of thousands." In the Herbarium, at the Royal 

 Botanic Garden, are many foreign species so named by him. 

 Such use of the faculties of quick decision and judgment 

 did not stand in the way of professional advancement. 

 Lieut. William Munro of H.M. 39th Regiment, Madras, 

 joined our ranks in 1839, He was one of that early band, 

 whose after-life careers have shown how compatible it is to 

 be good botanists and leading men in their respective pro- 

 fessions. The powers called out by plant diagnosis stood 

 him in capital stead in the trying time of commanding 

 officer and Governor of Bermuda, as well as at critical periods 

 in India or at Sebastopol, He became lieutenant-general 

 in 1873, and general in 1878. He had been previously 

 nominated a Companion of the Bath (Military Division) 

 in 1857. He was a capital gardener himself, and estab- 

 lished soldiers' gardens wherever he was stationed. 



