412 Linnaan Society. 



Ivy House, Woodford, on Wednesday the 21st of February in the 

 present year, was occasioned by an attack of cholera, contracted, as 

 was supposed, a few days previously at the Refuge for the Destitute, 

 of which valuable charity he had long been a most zealous and 

 liberal supporter. He was buried on the 1st of March in the family- 

 vault at Walthamstow, in the immediate neighbourhood of which his 

 whole life had been spent. 



Mr. Forster possessed a very complete and well-arranged herba- 

 rium of British plants, and particularly devoted himself to those of his 

 native county of Essex ; and he had long entertained the intention 

 of publishing its " Flora," the manuscript of which he has left in an 

 imperfect state. His contributions to our ' Transactions ' are limited 

 to two papers ; the one " On Vicia angustifolia, Smith," in vol. xvi. ; 

 and the other " On Esula major Germanica of Lobel," in vol. xvii. 



George Gardner, Esq., was born in Glasgow in May 1812, and was 

 educated for the medical profession in the University of that city. 

 He displayed at an early period a taste for the study of natural 

 history, but botany in particular was his favourite pursuit. At that 

 time Sir William Hooker filled the Chair of Botany in that Univer- 

 sity, and Mr. Gardner so far attracted his notice as to lead him to 

 open to him the range of his fine herbarium, and allow him the free 

 use of his extensive botanical library. The ardent zeal of the young 

 student urged him to make the best use of these rare advantages, 

 and his progress was great and rapid. His numerous attainments 

 and many excellent qualities soon obtained him the steady friendship 

 of his generous teacher, and he continued the pursuit of his studies 

 till the end of 1835, when having expressed his eager desire to 

 explore the botanical treasures of tropical climates, Sir William 

 Hooker obtained the cooperation of twenty-four subscribers who 

 contributed towards the expenses of his journey and agreed to 

 purchase sets of the dried plants he proposed to collect, while a 

 number of others engaged to receive from him such living plants as 

 he might select on account of their beauty or rarity. Among the 

 latter was the late Duke of Bedford, who was one of the young 

 botanist's most liberal patrons, and Brazil was selected as the most 

 appropriate field for his exertions. 



Previous to his departure, he published a pocket herbarium en- 

 titled ' Musci Britannici,' on the plan of Funke's ' Deutschlands 

 Moose,' where dried specimens illustrative of each species were neatly 

 fixed according to the arrangement in Hooker's ! British Flora.' Mr. 

 Gardner embarked at Liverpool on his projected expedition in May 

 1836, and arrived in July following at Rio de Janeiro. The receipt 

 of his first set of 400 species, collected on the Corcovado and moun- 

 tain ranges immediately surrounding that city, showed how faithfully 

 and successfully he discharged the duties of his mission, and proved 

 the harbingers of the extremely fine collection he subsequently made 

 in the interior of Brazil. The next field of his exertions was the 

 lofty range of the Organ Mountains covered with primaeval forests, 

 which he explored with great success, being the first to scale the 

 loftiest peak of that range, where he obtained much to reward his 



