7i THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Bennett, a useful and needed Handbook of Cryptogamic Botany, 

 which was reviewed at great length in this Journal for the same 

 year (pp. 277-286). 



In 1891 Murray published in the Transactions of the Liverpool 

 Biological Society a paper on the distribution of Marine Algae in 

 time and space, which is highly spoken of by Batters in this 

 Journal for the same year (p. 254). In the following year appeared 

 under his editorship the first number of Phycological Me^noirs, 

 which was projected to contain the researches made by a small 

 school of algological students that he had established in the 

 Department ; the second part appeared in 1893, and the third in 

 1895 ; to this he contributed several papers. In the last-named 

 year he became Keeper of the Department of Botany on the re- 

 tirement of Mr. Carruthers and published his Introduction to the 

 Study of Seaiueeds, which at once took its place among useful 

 handbooks. In 1897 he was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society. 



It is not intended to give here a complete list of Murray's 

 numerous contributions to botanical literature : an enumeration 

 of those in this Journal alone which included biographies and 

 reviews — the latter often amusing and good specimens of his 

 literary style — would occupy considerable space. The memoirs on 

 Avrainvillea, Boodlea, and Struvea may be cited as good examples of 

 his systematic work. He was an enthusiastic collector ; under 

 this head I cannot do better than quote a note contributed to the 

 Times of Dec. 21 by one who had been his companion on the 

 voyage described : — 



" He was quite indefatigable in the collection of the minute 

 vegetable organisms present in sea- water, crossing the Atlantic to 

 the West Indies or to Central America several times for the pur- 

 pose of collecting during the voyage. From the Scotch Fishery 

 Board steam yacht, the * Garland,' he collected Diatoms in almost 

 every one of the Scotch lochs. Not only was he enthusiastic 

 himself, but his enthusiasm was so infectious that he was able to 

 persuade several captains of ocean-going steamers to learn the 

 method of collecting Diatoms, and to collect material for his 

 studies while they were voyaging in the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, 

 and Indian Oceans, and in the Bed and the China Seas. In 1898 

 he himself chartered a tug and proceeded in the month of 

 November to a part of the Atlantic three hundred miles west of 

 Ireland, where the depth quickly increases to as much as two 

 miles, to collect organisms at numerous measured intervals between 

 the surface and the ocean bed ; on this voyage he was accompanied 

 by Prof. V. H. Blackman, Professor J. W. Gregory, Mr. L. Fletcher, 

 Mr. J. E. S. Moore, and Dr. L. Sambon. That part of the ocean 

 was so far from the beaten track that no other boat was sighted 

 within a space of ten days. Just as the more important work was 

 finished a gale came on of such violence that a train running on 

 the nearest land was blown completely off the rails." 



As a result of these voyages, the study of plankton began to 

 absorb Murray's attention ; his observations contributed to a 

 Report of the Fishery Board of Scotland are reprinted in this 



