MEMOIR OF THE LATE FRANCIS BAUER. 89 



preserved Moss- coral animalcules, but which are invisible to the naked 

 eye ; and thus our natural vision receives from such a surface the im- 

 pression of the purest white, little dreaming that it contains the bodies 

 of millions of self-existing beings, of varied and beautiful forms, more 

 or less closely crowded together, as in Plate IV. of Ehrenberg's work, 

 where the subjects are magnified 300 times. 



XXI. MEMOIR OF THE LATE FRANCIS BAUER, ESQ., F.R.S., ETC. 



AT the Anniversary Meeting of the Linnsean Society on the 24th of 

 May 1841, the Bishop of Norwich, President, alluded, among others, 

 to the death of this distinguished Microscopic Observer, an account of 

 which we extract from the Proceedings of that Society : 



FRANCIS BAUER was born at Feldsberg, in Austria, October 4th, 1758. 

 His father, who held an appointment as painter to Prince Lichtenstein, 

 died while he was yet a boy, and the care of his education devolved 

 upon his mother. So early was his talent for botanical drawing mani- 

 fested, that the first published production of his pencil, a figure of 

 Anemone pratensis, L., is appended to a dissertation by Storck, " de 

 Usu Pulsatillse nigricantis," which bears date in 1771. 



In 1788 he came to England, in company with the younger Jacquin, 

 and after visiting his brother Ferdinand, who was then engaged in 

 completing the beautiful series of drawings, since published in the 

 " Flora Graeca," was about to proceed to Paris. But the liberal pro- 

 posals made to him by Sir Joseph Banks on the eve of his intended 

 departure, diverted him from this resolution, and induced him to remain 

 in England, and to take up his residence in the neighbourhood of the 

 Royal Garden at Kew, in which village he continued to dwell until the 

 termination of his life. 



It was the opinion of Sir Joseph Banks, that a botanic garden was 

 incomplete without a draughtsman permanently attached to it, and he 

 accordingly, with the sanction of his Majesty, fixed Mr. Bauer in that 

 capacity at Kew, himself defraying the salary during his own life, and 

 providing by his will for its continuance to the termination of that of 

 Mr. Bauer. In fulfilment of this engagement with Sir Joseph, Mr. 

 Bauer made numerous drawings and sketches of the plants of the 

 garden, which are now preserved in the British Museum. A selection 

 from his drawings was published in 1796, under the title of " Delinea- 

 tions of Exotick Plants cultivated in the Royal Garden at Kew," and 

 this was intended to be continued annually : but no more than three 



