302 



NATURE 



[May 6,' 1,920 



not the knnck of recording- his experience. Not 

 only was he destitute of all turn for literature, 

 but the mere act of putting- pen to paper was 

 intolerably irksome to him. This is the more to 

 be regretted, because the few papers on zoology 

 and botany which he contributed to scientific 

 journals contained sound, and sometimes import- 

 ant, information. - 



Sir Edmund's indolence in this respect had no 

 ■counterpart in his botanical work, for he took 

 infinite personal pains in the delicate operation of 

 hybridising rhododendrons. His crowning- 



achievement in that line has been the magnificent 

 cross between R. Griffithianum and R. Fortunei 

 which appropriately bears the name R. Loderi, 

 and is generally admitted to be the grandest 

 hardy hybrid hitherto raised in that genus. The 

 •collection of conifers which he formed and grew 

 at Leonardslee contained more species than any 

 other in the United Kingdom. 



Only a few weeks before Sir Edmund's death 

 the present writer spent an afternoon with him in 

 the wonderful landscape he had created at 

 Leonardslee. The early Asiatic rhododendrons 

 were already ablaze ; there was no warning- in that 

 fair scene; but now comes Horace's dirge 

 irresistibly to mind : — 



Linquenda tellus et domus et placens 

 Uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum 

 Te, praeter invisas cupressus, 

 Ulla brevem dominum sequetur. 



Herbert Maxwell. 



Prof. Wilhelm Pfeffer, "For.Mem.R.S. 

 W. Pfeffer, who died on January 31 last at 

 Leipzig, was born in 1845 near Cassel, the son 

 of an Apotheker; he studied at a number of 

 German universities, his Ph.D. being taken- at 

 Gottingen. He was first a Privatdozent at Marburg, 

 then assistant-professor at Bonn, and later full 

 professor at Basel, in Switzerland. In 1878 be 

 went to the University of Tubingen, and in 1887 

 to the University of Leipzig, where he remained 

 for the rest of his life. He was elected a foreign 

 member of the Royal Society in 1897. Pfeffer 

 may be associated with Sachs as the founder of 

 modern plant physiology. He and the late Prof. 

 Strasburger, of Bonn, were for a long time the 

 two best-known German botanists, and for many 

 years they drew to their respective laboratories 

 numerous foreign workers, particularly from the 

 United States. Pfeffer was the author of many 

 scientific papers, but he is perhaps best known for 

 his "Pflanzenphysiologie," of which the first 

 edition appeared in 1880, and the last part of the 

 second edition in 1904; the second edition was 

 translated into English. This handbook was a 

 truly monumental work, in which a wealth of 

 material was dealt with with great critical insight ; 

 hence it was for many years the standard and 

 invaluable reference book on the subject. Pfeffer's 

 work in 1877 on osmotic pressure, which laid the 

 foundation of our more exact knowledge of that 

 phenomenon, must also be referred to. With his 

 NO. 2636, VOL. 105] 



death the three outstanding figures of the older 

 German botany — Sachs, Strasburger, and Pfeffer 

 — have all passed away. V. H. B. 



It is with much regret we learn of the death, 

 on February 20, of Mr. Maxwell Hall, Govern- 

 ment Meteorologist of Jamaica. Mr. Maxwell 

 Hall was a barrister-at-law and resident magis- 

 trate for the district of Hanover. His interest in 

 meteorology has placed the knowledge of the 

 weather of Jamaica on a better basis than 

 that of any other West Indian island. He 

 succeeded in establishing a weather service in 

 Jamaica in 1880, the objects being to encourage 

 the recording of rainfall and to foretell the 

 approach of hurricanes. In 191 1 rainfall records 

 were available from 194 stations, with observa- 

 tions at each for at least ten years. It is hoped 

 that this fine record of work will not be inter- 

 rupted by the death of its originator. For upwards 

 of thirty years Mr. Maxwell Hall was a fellow of 

 the Royal Meteorological Society. 



The death is announced of Lord Guthrie, one 

 of the senators of the College of Justice in Scot- 

 land, at seventy-one years of age. Charles John 

 Guthrie was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates 

 in 1875, and, after a successful career at the Bar, 

 was appointed a Judge in the Court of Session 

 in 1907. Lord Guthrie -was for a time president 

 of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and 

 chairman of the Early Scottish Text Society. His 

 interest in antiquities led to his election as 

 member of the councils of the Antiquarian and 

 Scottish History Societies. He was joint author 

 of the memoirs of his father, the Rev. T. Guthrie, 

 D.D., founder of the Ragged Schools and editor 

 of the Sunday Magazine. In the world of litera- 

 ture he will be best remembered as a friend in 

 youth of Robert Louis Stevenson, of whose nurse, 

 "Cummy," he published an appreciation in 1914. 



Members of the British Association who have 

 attended any meeting for many years past will 

 learn with regret of the death of Mr. H. C. 

 Stewardson, the chief clerk and assistant 

 treasurer. Mr. Stewardson 's record of devoted 

 work was particularly notable. He entered the 

 service of the association in 1873, being en- 

 couraged to do so by William Spottiswoode, 

 president of the association in 1878, to whom he 

 was apprenticed in the printing business. The 

 annual reports of the association owe much to 

 his careful reading and indexing, and he was 

 also specially concerned with the work of the 

 Corresponding Societies Committee, and compiled 

 its valuable annual catalogue of communications 

 to local scientific societies. Mr. Stewardson was 

 a member of the Stationers' Company. 



The Right Hon. Sir Thomas W^ Russell, 

 Vice-President of the Department of Agriculture 

 and Technical Instruction for Ireland from 1907 

 to 1918, died on May 2 in his eightieth year. 



