206 
has rendered by his monumental undertaking. He has for the first 
time brought the botany of the empire into a collective form and placed 
it upon a firm and lasting basis, thus completing the work which he 
began nearly half a century ago in the Himalayas. We would ask your 
Lordship to convey to Sir J oseph Hooker our high appreciation of his 
labours, and of their value and importance as systematising and adding 
to ed Knowledge of the vegetable productions of India; and our hearty 
atulations upon having brought to a satisfactory conclusion a 
ees to which he has devoted so many years of his life 
We have, &c. 
(Signed) ELGIN. 
G. 
The Right Hon. E. H.-H.: COLLEN. 
.. Lord George F. Hamilton, A.-C. TREVOR. 
Her Majesty’s Secretary of State 
for India. 
JDLXIII—MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
n the premature death of Mr. J. THEODORE Bent, the distinguished 
ea geographical and botanical science have sustained a 
home brought on acute pneumonia, and he died on May 5, at the early 
age = 45 years. 
-Bent and his wife, who was his constant companion, were 
eau travellers in the East, in Arabia, and in Africa. The in- 
teresting botanical results of their. memorable Jonas, to Hadramaut 
(in.1893-4), on wur P were accompanied by Mr. William Lunt, a 
member. of the. staff of the Royal Gardens, are given in she Kew 
Bulletin for 1894 geld 398.343), Those of their second journey in 
Arabia Felix in 1894-5, were published in the Kew Bulletin oe 1895 
(pp. 180-186). The materials they obtained brought onh eat the 
relations of the Flora of Southern Arabia to Africa on the and, an 
to Western Asia on the other. They returned last winter js the same 
region, visiting in addition the island of Sokotra. Bat the plants they 
obtained have not yet been worked up. 
Mr. Theodore Bent possessed a singular charm of manner, and an. 
eager intelligence. His own object in travel was mainly archzological. 
But he was. eenly anxious to assist any other branch of science to 
which he could be of u 
Botanical r ApriL—The plants figured are Agave 
Haseloffii, Gentiana Jj DERE Tristania laurina, Gongora tricolor, 
and Senecio Smithii. The Agave isa me species which has been 
in cultivation at Kew for many years, and flowered for the first time in 
1895. The Gentiana is a tall-growing species with leaves sometimes 
18 inches long. The plant figured was raised from seed supplied by 
