Ixvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, [vol. Ixxvii, 



His contributions comprise papers on stratigrapliical geology, 

 notably his admirable memoir on the Geology of Spitsbergen and 

 other Arctic regions ; paUieozoology, including his account of the 

 remarkable Cambrian impressions of Medusae ; systematic botany, 

 and plant geography, numerous papers on fossil plants ranging 

 from Devonian to Pleistocene floras. Whatever he did was done 

 with admirable thoroughness ; while careful of details he took a 

 broad philosophical view, and presented his results in a concise, 

 lucid style, wdiether he wrote in Swedish, French, English, or 

 German. Among his better-knoAvn researches reference ma}^ be 

 made to his classic papers on the origin and nature of many of the 

 so-called fossil Algae, his work on the older Palaeozoic floras of 

 Beai" Island, Spitsbergen, the Falkland Islands, Norway, and other 

 regions, on the earlier and later Mesozoic floras of Scania, the 

 Yorkshire coast, Japan, Mexico, Kotelny Island, and other parts 

 of the world, on the Tertiary and post-Tertiary floras of Japan 

 and Northern Europe, his description and apj)lication of improved 

 methods of examining the cuticles of carbonized impressions, and 

 his numerous essays on questions of general scientific interest. 



Nathorst's death is a very serious loss to Geology in the fullest 

 sense ; he will be missed b}^ a wide circle of friends, who felt for 

 him not only the respect due to a master, but a sincere affection 

 inspired by his generous nature and by a personality characterized 

 by a permanently 3^outhful enthusiasm and a joyous devotion to 

 research. He was elected a Foreign Correspondent in 1885, a 

 Foreign Member in 1893, received the Lj^ell Medal in 1904, and 

 died on Januarj^ 2()th, 1921, at the age of sev^enty years. 



[A. C. S.] 



Sir Lazarus Fletcher was born at Salford on March 8rd, 

 1854, and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Balliol 

 College, Oxford. He early developed a talent for mathematics, 

 whence he was led first into physics, and then through crystallo- 

 graphy into mineralog}'. In 1878 he was appointed assistant in 

 the Mineralogical Department of the British Museum, and in 1880 

 was made Keeper of that Department. As such, one of his first 

 duties was the transfer of the whole of the mineral collection from 

 Bloomsbury to South Kensington, and its rearrangement in its 

 new home. This task was taken up with characteristic energy 

 and thoroughness, a talented staff was collected round him, the 

 Department equipped Avith the needs for mineralogical research. 



