CHAP. XL] SKETCH BY THE EDITOR 75 



occasion the whole Chinese Embassy, excepting the 

 Ambassador himself, came in Chinese costume. Miss 

 Ormerod asked permission of Lady Hooker to speak to the 

 Naturalist, who talked English very well. The information 

 elicited however was but trifling, amounting to the fact that 

 in China a yellow powder (probably flowers of sulphur) was 

 used to dress plants to ward off disease. She suggested tea 

 as an escape from a ' disappointing position and then 

 adjourned to the tea-room followed by the whole Embassy. 

 The Entomologist took tea, but another minor member 

 of the group, being reputed at times to indulge in 

 potations to which the hosts were not accustomed, gave 

 great cause for anxiety by taking possession of a wine 

 bottle. Miss Ormerod was successful in spiriting the bottle 

 away and in substituting a cup of tea, but great was her 

 relief when Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker arrived on the scene. 

 At Kew she also met Andrew Murray, Secretary of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, who did excellent work in 

 Economic Entomology for the Bethnal Green and South 

 Kensington Museums. Miss Ormerod described him as a 

 " profoundly scientific and intellectual man." 



An interesting instance of the widespread benefit of Miss 

 Ormerod's work and the affection with which her name and 

 personality were revered by her distant correspondents was 

 supplied by Dr. Lipscomb, her trusted medical attendant. 

 He says : 



" My sister was talking to a small market gardener in a 

 flower garden she was painting near Penzance, and Miss 

 Ormerod's name happened to be mentioned. The old 

 gardener was beside himself with delight to meet some one 

 who knew Miss Ormerod. He said she had saved him 

 from utter ruin. His flowers had become infected with 

 some injurious insect which bade fair to devastate the whole 

 garden. In despair, hearing of Miss Ormerod, he wrote to 

 her and not only received a kind letter of advice, but also 

 a copy of her work on 'Injurious Insects' with the page 

 turned down and the paragraphs specially applicable to the 

 case marked. No wonder the poor old chap with tears in 

 his eyes said he loved his unknown benefactress." 



Miss Ormerod was appointed Consulting Entomologist to 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1882, and 

 for ten years retained that honourable position to the 

 advantage of the Members and the British public generally. 



