470 Miscellaneous. 



crossed the country once more to Mendoza, to meet his wife and 

 family ; and it was during his return journey that he made his prin- 

 cipal collections of the plants of the Pampas. Having successfully 

 erected a mint at Buenos Ayres, he contracted with the Brazilian 

 Government to supply the mint-machinery at Rio de Janeiro ; and 

 during a seven years' residence at that capital (a period of close 

 application to his duties as an engineer, and of many and prolonged 

 professional anxieties), he succeeded in making most extensive 

 botanical and entomological collections, besides many observations 

 upon the structure and affinities of the plants of Bio in the living 

 state. He left South America finally in 1838. 



From this period may be dated his career as a botanist. He was 

 elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1839, and from that date 

 almost till his death was a regular and frequent contributor to 

 the various scientific journals and the ' Proceedings ' of the Lin- 

 nean Society. Among his principal papers may be mentioned a 

 valuable series of " Contributions to the Botany of South America," 

 which appeared in the ' Journal of Botany ' between the years 

 1845 and 1851 ; " Observations " on the affinities of the Solanacece, 

 Olacacece, Canellacece, Rhamnacece, and Menispermacece, published in 

 this journal in 1849, 1851-52, 1858, 1860, and 1864-67, his 

 " Memoir on the Triiwiaceoe," in Trans. Linn. Soc. for 1850, and his 

 " Observations on the Structure of the Seed and Development of the 

 Raphe," in the ' Transactions ' of the same Society for 1855-56. 



Mr. Miers was also the author of several monographs, which, 

 although consisting in great part of reprints of his smaller papers, 

 are enriched with many additional observations and numerous elabo- 

 rate lithographic plates, all executed from original drawings, and 

 many drawn by himself upon the stone. His ' Illustrations of South- 

 American Botany,' in two volumes, appeared in 1850 and 1857 ; and 

 his ' Contributions,' in three volumes, followed in 1867, 1869, and 

 1871 ; the third and concluding volume is occupied exclusively with 

 his " Monograph of Moiispermaceous Plants," and is an enduring 

 monument of the industry and learning of its author. His latest 

 volume, a ' Memoir on the ApocynacecpJ was published in 1878, 

 when its author was in his eighty-ninth year. He may be said to 

 have died, as he had lived, in harness ; for his last two papers ap- 

 peared in the ' Journal of the Linnean Society ' not two months 

 before his decease. 



Mr. Miers was elected F.R.S. in 1843, and served two years upon 

 the Council. He was subsequently a Vice-President of the Linnean 

 Society, and was also a member of several foreign learned bodies. 

 He served as juror in the Brazilian section of the Exhibition of 

 1862, and was rewarded for his services by the Cross and Grand 

 Cross of the Brazilian Order of the Rose, conferred upon him by the 

 emperor. 



As a botanist, Mr. Miers was distinguished by the accuracy of his 

 observations and descriptions, and the beauty and fidelity of his 

 drawings and analyses. He was a most indefatigable worker; and 

 his botanical researches, pursued in earlier days amid circumstances 



