272 Obituary Notice. 



on this memorial. The paper on the restorative and 

 preservative virtues of the Peruvian cuca or ooca-leaf 

 {Erythroxylon Coca) in bodily fatigue from severe exer- 

 cise,* is still a subject of popular conversation. The 

 narrative of the ascent of Ben Vorlich by the experimen- 

 talist, quite out of the habit of much exercise for five 

 months, and carrying the weight of seventy-eight years, 

 together with its side hints of previous athletic perform- 

 ances, mark the unique nature of this most vividly in- 

 teresting communication. Under this head also falls the 

 paper " On the Botanical Source of the Turkey (or Eus- 

 sian) Rhubarb-root of Commerce " ; f also, the " Notice of 

 a Polyporus from Canada with specimens." | 



The presidential addresses of 1874 and 1875, one " On 

 the History of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden," § the other 

 " On a Visit to Lochearnhead,"|| well represent the nature 

 of Sir Robert Christison's papers on general botany. There 

 are also several notices by him of remarkable beeches 

 and crab-apple trees at Eccles House, T[ Newbattle,** and 

 Kelloe,tt as well as " On a Station for Primula veris in 

 Coldingham Bay, Berwickshire." J| 



The paper " On a Tree struck by Lightning," §§ one of 

 several on this subject, applies the skilled diagnosis of the 

 consulting physician to such arboreal destruction. The 

 research into " The Exact Measurement of Trees " extends 

 over five papers; |||| it indeed occupied Sir Robert's attention 

 in his last illness. Beginning with an inquiry into the 

 true age of the Fortingall yew, the first paper exposes the 

 error of De Candolle's rule for measuring the age of old and 

 middle-aged trees, after their first season of rapid and irregular 

 growth, by decades of years ; and then goes on to particu- 

 larise a special method of dendrometry. The second paper 

 attempts to fix the rate of growth of the adult beech and 

 the young Sequoia, so far as the measurements of a single 

 year go. While the third paper concerns the rate of growth 



* Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., vol. xii. p. 478. t Ihid., vol. xiii. p. 403. 



X Ihid., vol. xii. p. 180. § Ihid., vol. xii. p. 189. 



II Hid., vol. xiii. p. 395. H Ihid., vol. xii. p. 110, 



** Ibid., vol. xii. p. 179. tt Ibid., vol. xii. p. 186. 



JJ Ibid., vol. xii. p. 46. §§ Ibid., vol. xii. p. 497. 



nil Ibid., vol. xii. p. 497; vol. xiii. p. 217; vol. xiii. p. 394; vol. xiii. p. 

 410; vol. xiv. p. 79. 



