352 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 



rate of book-postage is one cent for four ounces: the 

 American rate is one cent for two ounces. Surely 

 there can be no good reason for such a restriction on 

 the diffusion of literature in this country. Distant 

 subscribers to circulating libraries and book-clubs in 

 England are regularly supplied through the mails. 

 Why cannot we have similar facilities here ? 



A. Melville Bell. 



Washington, D.C. 



Systematic earthquake observation. 



It will give me pleasure to join in any such sys- 

 tematic effort to secure the observation of earth- 

 quakes as is proposed in Science, iv. 334, and to 

 provide, so far as practicable, for establishing seis- 

 mometers, and making observations at this observa- 

 tory. Edward C. Pickeking. 



Harvard college observatory, 

 Cambridge, Oct. 4. 



Abnormal form of Trillium grandiflorum. 



Early in June, 1883, I found at North Ferrisburg, 

 Vt., a curious specimen of Trillium grandiflorum, — 

 a species given to monstrosities, as every botanist 

 knows. In this instance the petals were twenty-one 

 in number, and pale green, edged with purple-pink, 

 in color. I removed the plant to my garden; and in 

 1884 it displayed a blossom with eighteen petals and 

 six sepals. The petals were deeper in color than 

 before, and their general hue was pink rather than 

 green. At neither time were there any traces of 

 organs of fructification. Henry Baldwin. 



Charlotte, Vt., Oct. 3. 



GEORGE BENTHAM. 



George Bentham died at his house in Lon- 

 don on the 10th of September, — a few da}'s 

 before the completion of his eighty-fourth 3 T ear. 

 The event is in the course of nature. His 

 scientific life came to a close in the spring of 

 the preceding year, when he laid down his pen 

 upon the completion of the ' Genera planta- 

 rum.' His work finished, the wearied veteran 

 succumbed to the bodily infirmities of age, 3*et 

 still with mind essentially unimpaired, and has 

 now gone to rest. His earliest publication 

 bears the date of 1826, fifty-eight years ago. 

 The first part of his classical monograph of the 

 Labiatae was issued in 1832 ; and hardly a 

 year of the subsequent half-century has passed 

 without some botanical contribution from his 

 hand. At the age of sixty, when most men 

 seek retirement from service, he courageously 

 entered upon his most formidable labors, — the 

 ' Flora Australiensis,' in which he was assisted 

 by Von Miiller in Australia ; and the ' Genera 

 plantarum,' with Sir Joseph Hooker for his 



colleague, — and he lived to complete them 

 both. Fortunately, he was able to devote all 

 his time and powers to his favorite studies ; and 

 he steadily did so without distracting haste 

 and without delaying intermission, for his short 

 annual holidays were themselves usually made 

 subservient to botanical investigation. Al- 

 though lie shunned official engagements and all 

 time-consuming avocations, he did not refuse 

 to bear his part of the burden in the administra- 

 tion of scientific affairs. When 3-oung, he was 

 for ten } T ears honorary secretaiy of the London 

 horticultural society, with Lindley for under- 

 secretary, in the most active and flourishing 

 days of that institution. Later, he held for 

 thirteen years the presidency of the Linnean 

 societ3 T . In both situations he gave himself 

 with characteristic thoroughness to his duties ; 

 he also brought to them a business tact, and a 

 shrewdness of judgment and power of admin- 

 istration, which his very retiring habits would 

 not lead one to expect. His annual addresses 

 from the chair of the Linnean societ}', always 

 pertinent to the time and the occasion, are 

 models both in thought and in statement, and 

 are of permanent value. 



Mr. Bentham came of a notable stock. He 

 was the nephew (and heir) of Jerem}' Ben- 

 tham ; his father, Gen. Sir Samuel Bentham, 

 was a naval engineer of remarkable talents ; 

 and his mother, if we mistake not, was a 

 daughter of Dr. Fothergill. Some years of 

 his boyhood were passed in Russia ; the re- 

 mainder of his 3-outh in France, where his 

 earliest botanical production was written and 

 published. On his return to England he en- 

 tered at Lincoln's Inn, and was admitted to 

 the bar. About this time, to please his uncle, 

 who had discerned his ability, he wrote a 

 small and now very rare book upon logic, in 

 which was first introduced the quantification 

 of the predicate. Bat he soon returned to his 

 early love, and devoted himself to phaenoga- 

 mous S3 r stematic botan3 r , in which, since his 

 compeers, Brown, the elder Hooker, and Lind- 

 ley have passed awa3 T , he has been facile prin- 

 ceps. His remarkable gift for languages, nearly 

 eveiy European tongue being at his command 



