62 jBioqraphicdl Notice of the late S. Kurz. [Feb. 



SuLPiz KuRz, Curator of the Herbarium at the Botanic Gardens, Cal- 

 cutta, was born at Augsburg, in Bavaria, on the 5th May 1834. His father 

 died early, and the boy attended school at Munich where his mother had 

 settled. At an early age he commenced collecting objects of natural his- 

 tory, especially insects. After leaving school he attended lectures at the 

 University of Munich, and chiefly devoted himself to the study of Botany, 

 Mineralogy and Chemistry. In 1854 misfortunes in his family compelled 

 him to abandon his studies, and he went to Holland where he worked as an 

 apotlecary and, after mastering the Dutch language, enlisted in the sub- 

 ordinate Medical Service of the Dutch Colonial Army. He landed at Batavia 

 - in September 1856, and was sent to Banka in March 1857, where he remain- 

 ed two years. During that time his work was light, and he was able to 

 explore the island and to make botanical collections. In 1859 he was re- 

 called to Batavia and joined the Military expedition to Bori in Celebes. 

 In September 1859 Kurz returned to Batavia, and was appointed as an 

 Assistant on the Staff of the Botanic Garden at Buytenzoorg. Here for 

 the first time in his life he had the advantage of working under the 

 guidance of other botanists, and with the assistance of a large library and 

 a rich herbarium. He devoted himself principally to Ferns, Bamboos, 

 Musaceae, Pandaneae and other difficult groups. A few years later Dr. 

 Thomas Anderson, the Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, 

 came to Java in order to study the system of Cinchona cultivation which 

 had then for some time been established by the Dutch authorities. He 

 induced Kurz, with the permission of the Dutch Government, to accej)t 

 the appointment which he held at the Herbarium of the Calcutta Botanical 

 Gardens until his death. In October 1863 Kurz left Java, and joined his 

 new appointment at the Gardens early in 1864. 



Before his transfer to Calcutta he had not published much, a few 

 papers only on the vegetation of Banka and other matters had been 

 printed in the ^^ JSfaturhundige TydscJirift voor Nederlandsch Indie.'''' In 

 Calcutta, however, he commenced a series of important botanical publica- 

 tions, which appeared in English and Continental Periodicals, chiefly 

 in the London Journal of Botany, the Proceedings of the Linnean 

 Society, in Miquel's Annales, the Flora of Eegensburg and the Botanische 

 Zeitung. But his later and most important papers were published in the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society, of which he became a member in 1869. 



In 1866, Kurz was deputed by the Government of India to Port 

 Blair, in order to study the vegetation of the Andaman islands. He spent 

 the months of April and May on that duty, and the results of his explora- 

 tions were recorded in a most valuable Report which was published by 

 Government in 1870. While engaged in examining the interior of South 

 Andaman, he was seized by the Burman convicts, whom the Superin- 



