May 7, 1914] 
reckoned with in the horticultural world, but also 
possessed examples of most of the cultivated 
genera, some of which are seldom met with, and, 
on this account, was perhaps as important from 
the scientific as from the gardening point of view. 
It included plants from almost every quarter of 
the globe demanding the most diverse cultural 
treatment. 
The magnificent selection from the collection at 
Burford now transferred to Kew is rich in such 
genera as Bulbophyllum, Cirrhopetalum, Pleuro- 
thallis, Maxillaria, Epidendrum, Eria, Angraecum, 
Dendrobium, and Ccelogyne, and includes many 
species and a few genera not previously repre- 
sented at Kew, some of these being rarely seen 
in cultivation. The genera not previously present 
in the Kew collection include Trichoceros, a high 
Andine genus very difficult to bring home alive 
and very difficult to cultivate afterwards, Nasonia 
and Quekettia, two small American genera, and 
Stereochilus and Sigmatogyne from Northern 
India. The collection also includes a number of 
undetermined species which have not yet flowered ; 
in a few cases the genus to which these belong is 
still doubtful. These unknown plants have been 
derived from various sources; some of them are 
plants contributed to the Burford collection by 
Sir Trevor’s son, Captain C. T. Lawrence, by 
whom they were obtained in West Africa. 
PROF. EDUARD SUESS, FOR.MEM.R.S. 
ati the death of Eduard Suess on April 26, 
Austria loses her most eminent man of 
science, and the world one of its greatest natural- 
ists. The son of a German merchant, domiciled 
in this country, Suess was born. in London on 
August 20, 1831. The family removed, while he 
was still young, first to Prague and then to 
Vienna—but to the end of his life Suess retained 
his affection for what he used to call his “native 
land,” and maintained the most cordial relations 
with his numerous English friends. His univer- 
sity career was commenced at Prague, but com- 
pleted in Vienna, and at the age of twenty-one 
he became an assistant in the geological depart- 
ment of the famous Natural History Museum of 
the latter city. Here he worked for five years on 
the collections, and, as the result of his studies, 
published a number of important papers on grapto- 
lites, brachiopods, and other fossil forms. 
It was in 1857, however, that Suess entered 
upon what was his life’s great work—that of a 
teacher. After serving ten years as an extra- 
ordinary professor in the University of Vienna, 
he was in 1867 appointed to the full professor- 
ship of geology, a post which he held for thirty- 
four years, retiring as emeritus professor in 1901. 
Of his success as a teacher it is needless to 
speak, for he numbered among his _ pupils 
Neumayr, Mojsisovics, Fuchs, Waagen, Penck, 
and other distinguished geologists, many of whom 
caught from their master that grasp of detail, 
combined with powers of generalisation, that so 
eminently distinguished him. The writer of this 
NO. 2323, VOL. 93] 
NATURE 
245 
notice recalls with pleasure the happy time he 
spent with Suess forty years ago, when he had 
the opportunity of witnessing the delightful rela- 
tions that existed between the professor and his 
students. Not only during geological excursions 
in the neighbourhood of Vienna was the charm of 
Suess’s society felt, but in the Wurstel-Prater, 
where we joined the young fellows during hours 
of relaxation—in the beer-gardens, and even on 
the “merry-go-rounds.” Yet, amid all the fun 
and frolic, the signs of affectionate respect and 
devotion to the great teacher were never for a 
moment wanting. 
It was at this time that Suess’s daughter be- 
came engaged to his most distinguished pupil, the 
young Bavarian, Melchior Neumayr. After 
working for a time on the Geological Survey of 
Austria, Neumayr had established a great reputa- 
tion as a paleontologist, and at the age of twenty- 
eight became a colleague of Suess, as professor 
of paleontology inthe Vienna University. Greatly 
impressed by reading the ‘Origin of Species,” 
he entered into correspondence with Darwin, by 
whom his work was held in high estimation, and 
in the end he came to be regarded as the stoutest 
champion of evolution on the geological side. 
Suess’s own researchés ranged over every 
branch of geological science, as may be seen from 
the titles of sixty memoirs and books published 
by him prior to 1875. But in this year there ap- 
peared his remarkable work, ‘“ Die Entstehung der 
Alpen,” to be followed five years later by the first 
part of the still more famous “ Antlitz der Erde.” 
In this great work, which engaged his labours 
during twenty-five years, Suess aimed at no less 
a task than taking a comprehensive survey of all 
that has been accomplished in elucidating the 
geological structure of every part of the globe, and 
drawing general conclusions from that survey. 
How admirably this herculean undertaking was 
performed is told—with an estimate of the great 
merits, the small defects, and the enormous in- 
fluence exerted by this monumental work—by 
Sir Archibald Geikie in a contribution to the series 
of ‘Scientific Worthies” (see NaTurRE, vol. 
Ixxii., May 4, 1905). It will suffice here to 
say that the book will undoubtedly take its place 
as a scientific classic, side by side with Hutton’s 
“Theory of the Earth” and Lyell’s “ Principles of 
Geology.” 
In 1890 there came a sad interruption to Suess’s 
scientific labours. His distinguished son-in-law 
and colleague, Neumayr, died at the early age 
of forty-four, when only the first volume 
of the great work on which he was engaged, 
“Die Stamme des Thierreichs,” had been pub- 
lished. It is very touching, even at this date, to 
read the letters in which Suess wrote of his great 
sorrow to his friends; but fortunately these same 
letters contained the expression of a new hope, 
founded on the fact that his own son had just taken 
his doctor’s degree in geology. Happily, Suess 
lived to see his son become an extraordinary pro- 
fessor in the University. to find him the author 
of valuable geological papers, and, shortly before 
