6 OBITUARY, 



British India. 



>/ 



The twelfth volume (1890-91) of the Proceedings of the Dorset 

 Natural History Society and Antiquarian Field Club— the titles of 

 these local bodies are terribly lengthy !— contains a paper on 

 Dorsetshire Rubi, by the Rev. R. P. Murray, and a presidential 

 address by Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, whose new Flora of Dorset 

 is, we are glad to learn, making satisfactory progress. Mr. Mansel- 

 Pleydell is retiring from the presidency, which he has held since 

 the formation of the Club in 1875. 



OBITUARY. 



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We regret to record the death of Col. James Augustus Grant, 

 which took place at Nairn (where he was born on April 11, 1827) 

 on the 10th of February. His name will most generally be asso- 

 ciated with the Government Expedition to the source of the Nile 

 in 1860, on which occasion he made a valuable collection of plants 

 between Zanzibar and Cairo, which is now in the Kew Herbarium. 

 * * ven as an appendix to Speke's Journal of the Dis- 



covery of the Source of the Nile (1863). This collection, which proved to 

 be of much interest and importance, was the result of what almost 

 be termed an accident. " When I was appointed to accompany 

 Captain Speke," says Col. Grant, "it occurred to me that many a 

 pleasant hour might be spent in collecting plants and seeds while 

 traversing the country to be explored. I confess I did not then 

 anticipate any botanical importance from such a collection. With 

 this idea (more of pleasant occupation than of scientific result), 

 before embarking at Plymouth, I purchased some drying-paper and 

 a couple of books for notes, all for a few shillings. When Captain 

 Speke saw this bundle of paper, he thought it far too cumbrous for 

 such a journey, but he readily yielded to my wish to have it. He 

 afterwards saw with me how the plants were appreciated when we 

 took them to Kew upon our return." This sentence prefaces the 

 important account of " The Botany of the Speke and Grant Expe- 

 dition," which forms vol. xxix. of the Linnean Society's Transactions 

 (1873-5). The enumeration, by Prof. D. Oliver and Mr. J. G. 

 Baker, is enriched by Col. Giant's notes, which show careful 

 observation, and by 136 plates, executed at his expense. Col. 

 Grant joined the Linnean Society in 1871, and was elected F.R.S. 

 in 1873. He is commemorated in Anthericum Grantii and other 

 species, the name Grantia having been already employed by 

 Boissier, in commemoration of Dr. James Grant, a geographer 

 but apparently not a botanist. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. Karl Richter, who 

 died at Vienna on the 28th of December, in his thirty-sixth year. 

 Dr. Richter is best known in connection with his Plants Europeas, 

 winch was reviewed at some length in this Journal for 1891, 

 pp. 85-88. 



