3G 



JOHN MIERS 



Tlie pages of our Journal contain several papers by Mr. Miers. 

 His contributions in the different scientific journals amount 

 altogether to nearly eighty separate papers. Some of these were 

 reissued in quarto form with carefully executed illustrations, mostly 

 lithographed by his own hand from his original drawings. They 

 consist of his ' Illustrations of South American Plants,' vol. i., 1850, 

 and vol. ii., 1857 ; ' Contributions to Botany,' vol. i., 1861, vol. ii., 

 1869, and vol. hi., 1871. His memoir on the ' Apocynacetc of South 

 America ' was published as a sixth volume, uniform with these, in 

 the year 1878, when its author had attained the great age of 

 eighty nine. 



All his work was characterised by the thorough nature of his 

 investigations, the persevering efforts he made to exhaust authentic 

 materials within his reach, and the fidelity and minuteness of his 

 descriptions. He had a very quick sense of differences, but he 

 sometimes failed to distinguish the real value of the differences he 

 detected. He did not always clearly note whether the differences 

 were due to the absence of analogies or affinities, and hence the 

 characters which he detected and clearly pointed out for his genera 

 were sometimes based on differences which could scarcely claim to 

 be considered of generic importance. On the other hand, the per- 

 sistent differences m the vegetative parts, or modifications in the 

 reproductive organs of allied plants, which he pointed out, fully 

 justified his giving them specific rank, though as long as such 

 different views are entertained in regard to the limits of species 

 systematic botanists will be found who take exception to what they 

 characterise as an unnecessary multiplication of species. 



Mr. Miers was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1843, 

 and was a member of several foreign scientific societies. He served 

 as a juror m the Brazilian section of the Exhibition of 1862, and 

 tie value of his services to Brazil were recognised by the Emperor, 



? n, nf°fl °n l T fi /1 W i th ihe Cross aud 5« with the Grand 

 gross of the Order of the Rose. 



His genial manners and upright character secured for him every- 

 where friends He was entirely devoted to the scientific studies 



his ZZ TT e t- S ° ^i* po / tion of his life - Hc ^atly increased 



X S 0118 by the , addition of the ****** of later collectors, 

 sbetrt w herbarium at his death consisted of more than 20,000 



eveit^?£T} beret . each P lant « a *d repeated this number on 

 to it Iff dissections or separate note or drawing referring 



mpcssiblo nl 01 ! e ° U8 T? a 1 ti0U , 0f detached materials » "ndered 

 3S,t7S f f fme lierb arium, with all his notes 



he , isr I £? l 1 tlle 1 Bl ! tlsl1 M ; lseura ! * ome toe before his death 

 ne ] esented hu t dnphcatea to the Herbarium at Kew. 



active work' Ti'n I - WaS c T l f kd ^ fniIin S *«** to give up 

 when hr^i.ed in1ir e - gl T IU ^ WCaker mitil the 17th 0ctober > 

 in Addtm Cvd, Ken" !"on y " fil ' 6tyear ° f ^ "**' ** Lis ******* 



William Cauruthebs. 



