NA TURE 



[October 12, 1905 



Mr. Buckton dedicated his first book, " British 

 Aphides," to Thomas Bell, "a friend of more than 

 forty 3'ears" standing " (in 1S76), whose sympathy 

 and encouragement had given him a taste for natural 

 history. During the earlier part of his life Mr. 

 Buckton resided in or near London, when his atten- 

 tion was given more to ph\'sical than to natural 

 science ; and he served as assistant to Prof. A. W. 

 Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry. From 

 1845 to 1865 he published several important papers on 

 chemical subjects (a list of which will be found in the 

 Royal Society's Catalogue of Papers) in the Journal 

 of the Chemical Society, the Proceedings of tlie Royal 

 Society, and elsewhere ; and his earliest published 

 paper on any entomological subject appears to have 

 been " On the Application of Cyanide of Potassium to 

 killing Insects for the Cabinet," published in the 

 Zoologist for 1854, cyanide compounds having been 

 one of his favourite studies during his chemical re- 

 searches. In the following year (1S55) he published 

 a short paper on bats in the second volume of the 

 Proceedings of the Linnean Society. 



He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society (1845), the 

 Chemical Society {1852), the Royal Society (1857), and 

 the Entomological Societv (1883), and was also a 

 member of the Entomological Society of France, a 

 corresponding member of the Royal Academy of 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, &c. He took great interest 

 in these societies, attending their meetings as far 

 as he was able, and occasionally serving on their 

 councils ; he also travelled in Italy, France, and other 

 Continental countries, as well as in the British 

 Islands. 



In 1865 Mr. Buckton published one of the last of 

 his chemical papers, in conjunction with Prof. W. 

 Odling, whose daughter, Mary Ann, he married in 

 the same year. He then settled at Haslemere, Surrey, 

 for the remainder of his life, where he had purchased 

 the estate at Weycombe, and built himself a house 

 after his own design, with an observatory. 



From the time of his residence at Haslemere, Mr. 

 Buckton devoted much of his time to entomology. 

 He formed a collection of Lepidoptera, but paid more 

 attention to the British Homoptera, being much 

 assisted by his children, whom he brought up in the 

 same tastes as his own. He wrote comparatively 

 little in the entomological journals, but published a 

 .series of very important entomological monographs 

 from 1876 to 1905, chiefly relating to the somewhat 

 neglected order Homoptera, which will not soon be 

 superseded. They may here be enumerated : — 1876- 

 1883, " Monograph of British Aphides " (Ray 

 Society), 4 vols., comprising upwards of 750 pages 

 of letterpress, 9 plain and 134 coloured plates; i8go- 

 1891, " Monograph of British Cicadse or Tettigidae " 

 (Macmillan), 2 vols., comprising 426 pages of letter- 

 press, 7 plain and 75 coloured plates; 1895, "The 

 Natural History of Eristalis Tenax, or the Drone- 

 Fly " (Macmillan), i vol., pp. vii4-88, with i coloured 

 and 8 plain plates. This work is illustrative of the 

 story of Samson and the Bees. 1901-1903, " A 

 Monograph of the Membracidse " (Lovell Reeve), 

 6 parts, comprising upwards of 300 pages of letter- 

 press, and I plain and 60 coloured plates. Mr. 

 Buckton 's last publication was a supplementary paper 

 to this work, comprising 10 pages of letterpress and 

 2 coloured plates, forming vol. xi., part ix., of the 

 Transactions of the Linnean Society, second series, 

 zoology, and dated July, 1905. 



The illustrations to Mr. Buckton 's works were all 

 drawn, and the pattern plates coloured, by himself. 

 Some of his plates were even lithographed by himself, 

 and most, if not all, of those "which were hand- 

 coloured were coloured by himself or his daughters. 

 NO. 1876, VOL. 72] 



The original drawings for the work on Membracidai 

 have been presented to the Hope Museum at Oxford. 



Mr. Buckton kept his genial force and vitality to 

 the end; "his eye was not dimmed, nor his natural 

 force abated." His last illness was of brief duration, 

 and the end was very calm and peaceful. His ashes, 

 after cremation, were deposited in a grave lined with 

 ivy leaves in Haslemere Churchyard on Saturday, 

 September 30. W. F. Kirbv. 



NOTES. 



We regret to see the announcement that Ferdinand 

 Baron von Richthofen, professor of geography in the 

 University of Berlin, died on October 7 in his seventy- 

 third year. 



The sixth annual Huxley memorial lecture of thr 

 Anthropological Institute will be delivered on Tuesday. 

 October 31, in the rooms of the Society of Arts, by Dr. 

 John Beddoe, F.R.S., the subject being " Colour and 

 Race." 



A JOINT meeting of the Royal Society and the Royal 

 Astronomical Society will be held in the rooms of the 

 Royal Society on Thursday next, October ig, at 4.30 

 o'clock, to receive preliminary reports on the observations 

 of the recent solar eclipse. It is expected that reports will 

 be presented by the Astronomer Royal, Prof. H. L. 

 Callendar, Mr. J. Evershed, Mr. H. F. Newall, Prof. 

 H. H. Turner, and others. 



The annual " fungus foray " of the Essex Field Club 

 will be held at High Beach, Epping Forest, on Saturday 

 next, October 14 ; referee, Mr. George Massee, of Kew 

 Museum. Any botanists wishing to attend should com-' 

 municate with the hon. secretaries of the club, Buckhurst 

 Hill, Essex. 



The death is announced of the Rev. S. J. Johnson at 

 his residence, .Melplash Vicarage, near Bridport, on 

 October 9. Mr. Johnson was well known in astronomical 

 circles for his writings upon eclipses and other astro- 

 nomical matters. He was a Fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society for more than thirty-three years. 



Sir Edward H. Carbutt, the eminent mechanical 

 engineer, died suddenly at his residence near Guildford 

 on October 8 at the age of si.xty-eight years. He was a 

 past-president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 

 and a vice-president of the Iron and Steel Institute. He 

 was an active member of the board of the National 

 Physical Laboratory, and represented the Iron and Steel 

 Institute on the departmental committee on the Royal 

 College of Science and Royal School of Mines. He also 

 represented the Iron and Steel Institute on the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers' committee to formulate a scheme of 

 education for engineers. 



The Municipal Museum at Hull recently acquired 

 a valuable addition to its collection of local Roman and 

 other remains. The specimens are principally of Roman 

 date, and include more than 2000 coins, nearly 100 fibulae 

 of a great variety of patterns, several dozen buckles, pins, 

 dress fasteners, ornaments, strap ends, bosses, spindle 

 whorls,, armlets, spoons, beads, and other objects. Among 

 the fibulce are two of exceptional interest, as they bear 

 the maker's name upon them (Avcissa). There is also an 

 extensive collection of pottery, including many vases, 

 strainers, dishes, &c., in grey ware, as well as many fine 

 pieces of Samian ware, several of which contain the 

 potters' marks. 



