February 14, 1901] 



NATURE 



377 



bird lover can fully realise the joy of the owner at the 

 completion of the series, in 1894, by the arrival of a 

 specimen of the wattled species. 



Lord Lilford, in his published letters, constantly depre- 

 cates his own claims to be regarded as a scientific 

 ornithologist ; but, altogether apart from his beautiful 

 work on British birds, we venture to think that the work 

 of the field-naturalist, which he did so much to advance, 

 is at least as important as that of the systematist. Not 

 that the late peer was in any way out of sympathy with 

 the latter line of research ; quite the contrary, as is 

 demonstrated by the letter from Mr. O. Thomas, referring 

 to his generous aid in assisting to complete the collection 

 of European mammals in the British Museum with a 

 view to a future exhaustive work on the subject. In 

 addition to his energetic efforts on behalf of bird protec- 

 tion (including the prohibition of indiscriminate .egg- 

 collecting). Lord Lilford displayed especial interest in 

 the fauna of Spain — an interest which has been happily 

 commemorated by the name assigned by Mr. de Winton 

 to the Spanish hare, which has been recently found 

 entitled to specific distinction. 



In the main the letters which the author of the memoir 

 has selected for publication help in forming a true esti- 

 mate of the character of their writer ; but, in our 

 opinion, some of those to artists and taxidermists re- 

 ferring to minute details in their works might advan- 

 tageously have been omitted. One of the most interesting 

 portions of the volume is the concluding chapter, which 

 is made up by extracts from Lord Lilford's notes on his 

 own collection of living birds and other animals. And 

 the interest of this is much enhanced by the beautiful 

 sketches of birds in the collection from the talented 

 pencil of Mr. Thorburn, one of which we are enabled to 

 reproduce. One of the objects dear to Lord Lilford's 

 heart was to obtain portraits of birds in their natural and 

 characteristic attitudes, and thus to improve the system 

 of mounting specimens in museums, where it was 

 formerly the exception to find a species in anything ap- 

 proaching a natural pose. 



Apart from the noble example of his life to mankind in 

 general, the loss to natural history of a man like Lord 

 Lilford is one that will not easily be replaced, as, un- 

 fortunately, but few of those endowed with wealth and 

 leisure display any inclination to follow in his footsteps. 



R. L. 



PROF. J. G. AGARDH. 



JACOB GEORG AGARDH, the great Swedish 

 J phycologist, was born at Lund on December 13, 

 1813. His father was the celebrated Dr. Carl Adolf 

 Agardh, professor at Lund University, and afterwards 

 bishop in the diocese of Karlstad. The elder Agardh 

 was the author of the " Synopsis Algarum Scandinavias," 

 the " Systema Algarum " and the " Species Algarum," 

 which laid the foundation for the brilliant work accom- 

 plished by his son. 



Jacob Agardh entered as a student in the University of 

 Lund in the year 1826, became doctor of philosophy in 

 1832, docent in 1834 and demonstrator of botany in 1836. 

 In 1847 he became extraordinary professor, and in 1854 

 he was made ordinary professor, which post he held till 

 1879, when he retired. 



His first paper, on Pilularia, was published in 1833 

 and was followed by several others on botanical subjects, 

 mainly systematic. In 1836 appeared his first paper on 

 alga;, and from that time till shortly before his death he 

 continued with unfailing activity to publish papers and 

 books on marine botany. The greatest work of his life 

 was the " Species, Genera et Ordines Algarum," in which 

 he laid down for the first time the lines of a natural 

 system of classification in algae. The English phycolo- 

 gists, Greville and Harvey, had helped to pave the 



NO. 1633, VOL. 63] 



way for this monumental work, and the elder .\gardh 

 had prepared some of the ground in his " Species 

 Algarum '' already mentioned. Dr. Kiitzing in Ger- 

 many had already begun, in 1845, his "Tabulae 

 Phycologicas, but it remained for Jacob Agardh to 

 bring into order the many genera of marine algae which 

 had been left untouched, and to divide up the whole 

 group into series, orders and genera. It is difficult for a 

 worker in these days to realise the chaos in which 

 the whole subject of alga; was involved when Prof. 

 Agardh began his great work. Records were scattered 

 throughout botanical literature, and it is no marvel that a 

 species was described more than once through ignorance 

 of an already existing diagnosis. The " Species, Genera 

 et Ordines " brought together all the hitherto described 

 species and added many new ones. These were arranged 

 according to a natural system, and their synonymy, litera- 

 ture and geographical distribution were appended. From 

 that time all work on algae was straightforward, and 

 although in time this book of Prof. Agardh may be 

 superseded, it will long remain the ground plan of 

 systematic phycology. The first volume dealt only with 

 Phasophyceas, and was published in 1848. Four volumes 

 on Floridea; followed, of which the last is a revision and 

 enlargement of the first part. The Corallineae were 

 worked out by Prof. Areschoug and included in the third 

 volume of the work. In the introduction to the last 

 volume, published in 1876, the author states that he has 

 treated of "the disposition and description of forms" 

 rather than " of the organs which have been considered 

 of the greatest importance" — the trichogyne and an- 

 theridia, and the functions of these organs. This state- 

 ment is specially interesting in regard to the classification 

 of Prof. Schmitz, which is now so largely followed. There 

 the differences which form the groundwork of the classifi- 

 cation consist in the various forms of development in the 

 carpogonium after fertilisation has taken place, thus form- 

 ing a system which, however correct scientifically, is 

 wholly unpractical for systematic workers. (It is, how- 

 ever, only fair to add that in this respect the system was 

 perhaps only left incomplete through the premature death 

 of its author.) In Prof. Agardh's system the algae are 

 classified according to their mature form, and indeed, as 

 is only natural, the whole of his earlier work makes more 

 of macroscopic, or at least of the less minute characters, 

 than is usual in these days. In somercases this led him 

 into error, but, on the whole, it is interestmg to see how 

 much his work is confirmed in the main points by the 

 investigations of later botanists working on different 

 lines. 



In 1872 there appeared the first part of "Till Algernes 

 Systematik," which was published at intervals till 1890, 

 and dealt at length with genera in all groups of algae. 

 The treatment of the genus Caulerpa has been alluded 

 to by Mdme. Weber van Bosse in the dedication of her 

 monograph of this genus, in which she declares Prof. 

 Agardh to be the first to give a natural system to 

 Caulerpa and to open the road for a special study of these 

 alga;. These words apply to many another genus as 

 well. In 1879 an important work, " Florideernes Mor- 

 phologi," appeared, followed by "Species Sargassorum 

 Australiae" in 1889; and in 1892, when in his eightieth 

 year, a new work was undertaken entitled " Analecta 

 Algologica." Parts were issued at intervals, and, although 

 it was supposed a few years ago that the aged botanist 

 had finished his work, and that the "Analecta " had come 

 to an end, he still continued writing, and even published 

 a pa' t so late as last year. The work of these years 

 cannot be ranked so highly as that of his middle life ; 

 but nothing can ever detract from the brilliancy and 

 lasting worth of his work in earlier years. 



Prof. Agardh was referee to Kew for algae, and many 

 specimens in that herbarium bear their names in his 

 handwriting. In later life he received much material 



