OBITUARY. 
RIGHARD FRANCIS LINGEN BURTON, 1865-1922. 
RicHaARD Francis Lineen BURTON, of Longner, died on the 7th January, 
1922, after a lingering illness, aged fifty-seven. He was educated at Eton, 
Sandhurst, and Cirencester. He came to New Zealand in 1881 with his 
cousin, Mr. Pryce (Halcombe, N.Z.) to learn farming, and was for a time 
on one of Mr. Riddiford’s stations, afterwards taking up land at Арш. 
From here he explored the- Ruahine Ra nge. He also spent some time in 
Westland. Afterwards he visited New Guinea, and this brought him into 
association be Captain C. A. Ww. Monckton, who dedicated one of his 
books to Burton, describi * a crack shot, a fine boxer and fencer, 
afraid of nohis that either eked, flew, or swam, and crammed wit 
a vast lore of onde! knowledge.” 
ucceeding to the family estates in 1902 he settled down to the life 
of an English squire and the management of one of the most a estates 
in Britain—for Longner Hall, Salop, is mentioned in Domesday. The 
occupied much of his time, but he also found time to act on public bodies 
and carry out most painstaking observations on the insect-life of Shrop- 
shire, and the cultivation of many New Zealand plants, including orchids, 
from see 
The publication х his observations has chiefly cot abi on others. 
Theobald's Monograph of the Culicidae devotes several pages 
observations on British mosquitoes, and he was of ааны assistance 
to the English authorities in their war-time studies on malarial mosquitoes. 
The Entomologist (June, 1922) states that he aided much in the compilation 
of the preliminary catalogue of English Diptera. The Orchid Review (April, 
1922) stated that he was highly successful in the cultivation of British 
orchids. Much of his mosquito work has been publis in Government 
Public Health Reports and in W. D. Lang's Handbook (1920; British 
Museum). To Shakespearian students he will be remembered as the dis- 
coverer of the Burton Shakespeare, SUARUM the only perfect copy known 
of the 1599 edition of “ Venus and Adonis," and the “ Lucrece " of 1600, 
of which the only other perfect copy is in tbe Bodleian. 
Burton had a charming к. quick, nervous, and energetic, but 
uming, which endeared him to his friends. A ta Il, lean, blonde type 
of Englishman, he reminded you iA an сен Viking. 
He was a most conscientious recorder of all natural phenomena which 
interested him, and it is to be hoped that his notebooks dealing with the 
cultivation of New Zealand plants may be examined and the observations 
published. He married in 1902 Miss Alice Mendelson, of Temuka. He is 
urvived by his widow, a son, and several daughters. He was a life-member 
of the Wellington Philosophical Society. 
B. C. Aston. 
