464 Obituary. 



"The Silva," now publishing, deals to some extent with the 

 economic aspects of our timber trees and in a judicious manner. 

 Such treatises as that by Dr. Mohr supplement " The Silva " in 

 the best possible way, and make, with that, a firm basis for a wise 

 and fruitful Forestry. g. l. g. 



2. Richards on increase of activity in respiration after injury, 

 — Professor Pfeffee gave, at the July session of the Leipzig 

 Academy, an account of certain experiments on living plants 

 conducted by Dr^ H. M. Richards, in his laboratory. These 

 traumatic reactions both as regards respiration and temperature 

 are decided. Dr. Richards has taken up the subject about where 

 it was left by Bohm and Stich, and has made substantial addi- 

 tions to our knowledge. The most telling experiments were per- 

 formed on fleshy and rather fully developed organs, where as a 

 consequence of wounds, there would be an increase in the rate of 

 respiration amounting to even twenty fold. g. l. g. 



Obituary. 



Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, K.C.M.G., Government 

 Botanist of Victoria, died at Melbourne on October 9lh, in his 

 seventy-second year. After completing his studies at Kiel, he 

 went to Australia, very largely on account of his health, and soon 

 engaged in the exploration of his new home. His tastes led him 

 early to collect and examine the plants of Australia, and to this 

 task he devoted the remainder of his life. He took particular 

 interest in the economic advancement of his own colony and con- 

 tributed much to this phase of development in all parts of 

 Australia. His voluminous writings have enriched almost every 

 department of botany and constitute an enduring monument. 

 The present writer made the Baron's personal acquaintance in 

 Melbourne in December 1890, and from that date to this has had 

 very frequent opportunities of noting the goodness of heart by 

 which all controversies were tempered. The Baron felt himself 

 deeply aggrieved at his treatment at the hands of certain public 

 officials in the Colony, but this did not prevent his devoting all of 

 his slender means and all his energies to what he regarded sound 

 and healthy development of his adopted land. 



It is pleasant to note that his scientific associates in Austra- 

 lasia, although diflfering widely from him as to many questions of 

 public policy and scientific interpretation, willingly paid him the 

 honor of electing him in 1889 the presidency of their Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. At the next meeting of the 

 Association, at Christ Church, New Zealand, Baron Mueller had 

 the deep satisfaction of renewing friendly relations with some 

 from whom he had been long estranged, and from that period to 

 the end of his useful life, his arduous labors were lightened by 

 additional reconciliations. Much if not all the old bitterness of 

 real and fancied wrongs had passed away. g. l. g. 



