186 



Ohituary : — Francis Bauer. 



flies deposit their eggs by preference on any particular kind of manure, or do 

 they deposit them in the garden soil ? What means can I adopt to guard my 

 beds of onions against them for the future. — T. Haiyer. York, Feb. 6. 1S41. 



Our correspondent is referred to our January Number, p. 88., and to Vol. 

 XIII. p. 241. In the latter article he will find the onion fly (Anthomyia 

 ceparum) figured in all its different stages, and in the former the only remedy 

 that we have heard of as likely to prove effectual. — Cond. 



The small Stag-Beetle. — The beetle sent by Mr. Thomas Weaver, found 

 by him in considerable numbers in the perfect state, on the 19th of January, 

 in the old root of an elm tree, near Winchester, and which was completely 

 bored through by them, is the small stag-beetle, i)6rcus parallelipipedus, a 

 very common insect, of which you have given full illustration, both in the 

 Gardener's Magazine and Ar- 

 boretum Britannicicm. {^eefig. 

 22. from the latter work.] It 

 attacks rotten trees of other 

 kinds besides the elm. On 

 breaking up some of the rotten 

 wood sent, I was pleased to 

 find some of the insects also 

 as larvae of very small size. 

 — J. O, Westwood. Hammer- 

 smith, Jan. 20. 1841. 



Oak Spangles. — Mr. Long's 

 short note sent to me some 

 time ago on the various kinds 

 of oak spangles, the preva- 

 lence of some, and the entire 

 absence of them on certain 

 species of Quercus, is so far 

 interesting as confirming to a 

 certain degree, what I have 

 long suspected, that there are several species of gall flies which make these 

 different spangles, the history of which, hitherto neglected, would be an inte- 

 resting subject of enquiry for an out-door country observer of nature. — Id. 



Fig. 22. V>6rcus parallelipipedus. 



a. The male. b. The female. c 



The larva. 



) 



Art. VIL Obituary. 



Fbancis Bauer, Esq. — We have just heard that the remains of this fine- 

 hearted old man were, on Wednesday the 16th [Dec], consigned to the grave 

 in the churchyard of Kew, in which village he had resided for more than half 

 a century. To the scientific world, his merits are sufficiently known ; but the 

 following short sketch of his life, for which we are indebted to a friend, will, 

 no doubt, be acceptable to the general reader. 



Mr. Bauer was born at Feldsberg, in Austria, on the 4th of October, 1758, 

 and died at Kew on the 11th of December, 1840. He lost his father (himself 

 an artist) at an early age, and was initiated, with his brothers, in the ready use 

 of the pencil, under the guidance of an excellent mother. He came to Eng- 

 land in the year 1788, with the intention to proceed to Paris, vphere, notwith- 

 standing the progress of the revolution, artists and scientific men were allowed 

 to follow their pursuits without molestation. His brother Ferdinand, scarcely 

 less skilful in the art of delineating botanical subjects, and who subsequently 

 accompanied Mr. Robert Brown as draughtsman on Flinders's voyage, had 

 already been with Sibthorpe in Greece, and was then at Oxford, busy in 

 completing the Flora Grceca. Sir Joseph Banks soon appreciated Mr. 

 Bauer's rare talents, as well as his singular sagacity in botanical physiology, 

 and prevailed on him to remain in England. Sir Joseph, in fact, settled on 

 him 300/. per annum for life, on condition that he should reside at Kew, as 



