1883,] 287 
this: ‘‘Prof. Dr. Oswald Heer was called to God at the age of 74 years, 
27 days, after a short illness, He died at Lausanne on the 27th.’’ Berth- 
‘ ond, who writes me also on the 29th, gives me a few details on Heer’s last 
days. He says: ‘“‘Icome to be with you to deplore the loss of your friend 
and to share your sorrow. Heer is dead, THe was of late very tired. In 
order to get some rest he went to Montreux, that fine warm place on the 
borders of the Lake of Geneva, where he expected to regain some strength 
| for new works. There he had after a few days an attack of bronchitis. 
Well knowing the danger of that disease for a man advanced in years, he 
hurried to his brother at Lausanne, where he died the day after his 
arrival.’’ 
Heer had worked the whole winter beyond human forces, to bring to a 
close the seventh volume of his Arctic Flora which came out in July. The 
great Swiss exposition of industrial products, held at Zurich, gave him 
constant occupation and some excitement by the numerous visits he re- 
ceived. The meeting of the Society of Natural History of Switzerland of 
which he was President was also held at Zurich, increasing his work of 
course, and forcing him to long and severe exertion. In his last letter, end 
of August, he writes me that his task is nearly finished, and that he feels 
that it is time to close his work. 
A Swiss journal announcing the death of Prof. Heer says, that the loss 
is irreparable, and this expression is echoed by many. The loss of a mem- 
ber of our poor humanity is never ‘irreparable ; that of Meer has left a 
vacant place which will be unoccupied for a long time to come, Why? 
Allow ie to trace a short outline of his career as the more fitting answer 
to the question. 
I know little of the early years of the celebrated Professor of Zurich. 
His family came from St. Gall. He studied first theology in Zurich, I be- 
lieve. But then, prompted by his ardent love of nature, he abandoned his 
calling for the study of entomology and botany, From the beginning of 
his career, he took a high standing in the world of science by the publica- 
tion of a memoir on the relation of the insects with the plants, enumera- 
ting and describing a large number of species of plants with the insects re- 
lated to each by their habitat, their food, their mode of life, ete. He had 
already given his attention to fossil botany, when, in 1848, he began to 
collect, materials for the preparation of a fossil flora of Switzerland and 
the adjoining countries. He went to work, helped by most favorable cir- 
cumstances ; by the rich collections of the Museum of Zurich ; by the com- 
munications of numerous friends, among them the celebrated Alex. Braun, 
j later Professor.of Botany at the University of Berlin, and Director of the 
3otanical Garden ; especially by the resources of a rich lady, Mrs. von 
Bumine. This lady, endowed with a great love of science and of admira- 
tion for the works of Heer, who was already a professor of reputation, 
opened upon her property near Lausanne quarries and tunnels for the dis- 
covery and collection of fossil plants, materials which were sent to Zurich 
by tons to be studied by Heer, A large part of the specimens figured in 
