﻿29 



written several works. He retired from active work at the 

 Gardens twenty years since, but not until he had largely 

 helped to make Kew the celebrated place it is. 



Henry James Stovin Pryer, C.M.Z.S., whose death I 

 regret having to record, was born in London, June loth, 

 1850. His taste for Natural History developed at a very 

 early age; and before he was eighteen he had formed a 

 considerable collection of British Lepidoptera, as well as 

 Trichoptera, chiefly from the neighbourhood of London. 

 Among the former he took Sten'ha sacraria close to London, 

 and Eiipithecia togata in Essex, TracJioneiis pryerella being 

 named in his honour. He left England for China in 1871 ; 

 but his stay there was of short duration, he being offered a 

 position in Japan, where he made his home. He never 

 revisited Europe, but was in hope of doing so this or next 

 year. Mr. Pryer was engaged in mercantile pursuits ; and 

 at the time of his death was in partnership with another 

 well-known naturalist, Mr. James Bisset, F.L.S. As soon as he 

 settled down in Japan he systematically studied the Fauna 

 of the surrounding islands. He visited Borneo in 1884; and 

 in June, 1886, accompanied by a Japanese collector, he made 

 a tour of the Loo-Choo Islands. As little was known of 

 the Fauna of this interesting group, a very large proportion 

 of the species of insects discovered were new to science. 

 The birds have been described by Mr. Seebohm ; but the 

 Lepidoptera are yet only partially described. He was a 

 Fellow of the Entomological Society of London, and oc- 

 casionally contributed papers, notably one on the mimicry 

 of insects of different orders. Quite recently he projected a 

 monograph of the Japanese butterflies, under the title of 

 " Rhopalocera Niponica,"a work unique of its kind, executed 

 entirely in Japan, with the text in the vernacular and in 

 English. One part has appeared ; and the second of the 

 three parts proposed was in the press at the time of his 

 decease. He was elected a Corresponding Member of the 

 Zoological Society in 1878, for his many valuable contribu- 

 tions of living animals to the Gardens. He was attacked 

 by bronchial pneumonia, and died unexpectedly on the 17th 

 February at his residence, 127, Bluff, Yokohama, Japan, at 



