xox Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 
his views about Home Rule. He was therefore nominally a supporter of the 
Government, and spoke and voted on that side. His speeches, mainly on 
scientific matters, were always received with great attention, and his 
influence in the House was considerable. When, however, the Education 
Bill of the Government was brought forward, he found himself so strongly 
opposed. to their views on the religious question that he felt he could no 
longer sit on that side of the House, especially as, in addition, he had no 
sympathy with any suggestion of Tariff Reform. Instead of resigning, he 
crossed the floor of the House, urging that he was elected as an Inde- 
pendent Member to represent the University of London, that he was 
known by all to be a Liberal in politics, not a Conservative, and had been 
sent to Parliament to supply a crying want—the representation of science. 
His opponents made the most of his non-resignation, with the result that in 
1906, when he was again a candidate, he was defeated, though by the narrow 
majority of twenty-four votes. 
In many ways his entrance into Parliament was unfortunate. The 
impossibility of attending to his Parliamentary duties without neglecting 
his professional ones, or vice versd, combined with the fact that he represented 
London, not Cambridge University, brought about his resignation of his 
professorship, in 1903. 
In the same year he resigned the Secretaryship of the Royal Society, so 
that in 1906, when he was not re-elected to represent London University, he 
found himself stranded. Still, however, he was by no means devoid of 
occupation, for the Commission on Tuberculosis, of which he was Chairman, 
and the Sewage Commission, provided work and interest. 
It is a matter of great regret that Cambridge University possesses no 
Professorial Pension Fund. If ever there was a man in the University 
whose services should have been recognised by a retiring pension, Foster was 
the man. 
His great delight outside his scientific work was horticulture, and it was 
ever a source of wonder to his many friends that he was so successful in 
making rare plants grow on a bare chalk hill-side. His special fancy for a 
long time was the growing of irises, of which he had a wonderful collection ; he 
was especially successful with the Onocyclus group, of which he manufactured 
many new hybrids. His patience was remarkable, in many cases the seeds did 
not germinate till the fifth year, and in some not till the eighth year or even 
later from the time of planting. In later years he grew especially, in addi- 
tion to irises, Kremurus of different kinds with great success. 
His knowledge of horticulture and his delight in plants was recognised in 
the botanical world by his appomtment as Chairman of the Departmental 
Committee, to report on the botanical collections at Kew, and at the British 
Museum. He wrote many articles, especially in connection with irises, for 
the horticultural journals. 
One of the new studies which he was particularly keen to introduce into 
Cambridge was the scientific study of agriculture. It is mainly due to his 
