33 
labours deserves recording here. In early life he was a tutor at York, 
and during that period he studied the native flora with great success, and 
was a frequent contributor to the Phytologist and other periodicals; his 
first paper appearing in 18 n 1845 he visited the Pyrenees, and 
botanised there, devoting himself specially to the Musci and Hepatice, 
an account of which he published. The thoroughness of his work soon 
gained him the acquaintance and friendship of the principal botanists 
of this country; and this eventually led to his travels across South 
Sir William Hooker was perd instru ental i in pro omoting this j ater 
entleman undertaking the laborious task of arranging and distributing 
the collections as they. arrived in England. Spruce went to America in 
1849 and returned in 1864; and the results were such as have hardly 
been equalled by any other traveller, except Humboldt, in that country. 
It was estimated by Mr. Bentham € his plants alone numbered 7,000 
species ; but this was only a part of his work, all of which was carried 
out in the most methodical and cad manner. The first set of his 
dried plants is at mee aud the Museum was no sie enriched than the 
Herbarium ; the Garden to a less extent. e never published a con- 
nected narrative of his travels, but many of his uous letters appeared 
in Hooker’s Journal of Botany, where also may be found particulars of 
some of the more interesting Museum objects. During the latter 
portion of his sojourn in South America he rendered most important 
services in connexion with introduction of the chinchona into Indif; 
concerning which he wrote an elaborate paar which has ah a in- 
ation. retu 
an invalid. Indeed, previous to his going to America, he was so delicate 
that Sir William Hooker, at the last moment, tried to dissuade him 
from the enterprise. In spite of continued bad health he has accom- 
plishéd an immense amount of valuable work since his return, especially 
on the incisa "ws notably in his Hepatice Amazonice et Andina, 
which forms the fifteenth volume of the Edinburgh Botanical Society's 
Transactions. His last contribution to our knowl ledge of this group 
of plants was read before the Linnean Society of London just one week 
before his death. 
Dry Rot.—A remarkable instance of lis growth of dry rot has 
recently been discovered in the Armoury of the Towerof London. In _ 
orse Guar ar Office, to the effect that on repairing one of the 
w n horses in the Armoury, believed to be more ears 
old, a mass of fungus was found in the interior. It was eut out 
with the portion of wood x xt it was attached and sent to 
w, when it proved to large and scree ant specimen 
of the ordinary dry-rot mga (Merits ae Jacq.). This 
ungus, as is well known, is very destructive to tim bee in close and 
fu 
ill-ventilated situations. The sin es 2 sposta aln in this case is that 
it appears to have been arrested in its growth and killed and desiccated. 
before it had produced the smallest fragment of fructification. 
U 79905. l c 
s 
