xxu 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



importance of authentic microscopic preparations to the student of Crypto- 

 gams, and was instrumental in acquiring several valuable series of mounted 

 slides, for instance, those illustrative of the Fungi and Plant Anatomy 

 of De Bary, the Eed Algae of Schmitz, and the Diatom collections of Deby 

 and of Comber. His first published note dealt with the reproduction of the 

 Ascomycetes and appeared in 1877. He contributed to the 'Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica' an article on Fungi in 1879, and one on Vegetable Parasitism in 

 1885. In 1882 Murray was asked by Prof. Huxley to investigate the 

 Salmon disease, and afterwards published three reports on that important 

 subject. He was lecturer on Botany at St. George's Hospital Medical School 

 for four years (1885-9) and afterwards at the Boyal Veterinary College 

 (1890-5). In 1889 Murray (in conjunction with A. W. Bennett) published 

 a Handbook of Cryptogamic Botany. From 1891, onwards, he was secretary 

 to the West India Islands Exploration Committee — a Joint Committee 

 of the Boyal Society and the British Association — which was instrumental 

 in the collection of* much valuable material, comprising more especially 

 Cryptogamic Plants and insects. 



In 1892 he initiated and edited ' Phycological Memoirs, being Eesearches 

 made in the Botanical Department, of the British Museum,' and several parts 

 were published in that and succeeding years. En 1895, on the retirement of 

 Dr. Carruthers, he was appointed Keeper of the Botanical Department of the 

 British Museum, and two years later elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society. 



Murray was born within a stone's throw of the sea and was at his best and 

 happiest on that element. Hence he was led to make a special study of the 

 marine side of Botany, publishing an Introduction to the Study of Seaweeds 

 in 1895. As a collector of the minute vegetable organisms present in sea- 

 water he was indefatigable, and in 1897, for the special purpose of collecting 

 plankton, he obtained a grant from the Eoyal Society and crossed the Atlantic 

 to the West Indies and Central America, accompanied by his Museum 

 colleague Mr. V. H. Blackman, now Professor at the Imperial College of 

 Science and Technology ; one important result of this expedition was the 

 observation of the hitherto mysterious organism Coccosphaera in the living 

 state and the discovery of its green algal-like nature. This voyage yielded 

 also a rich harvest of new forms of Peridiniae. 



He had previously visited the West Indies in 1886 as naturalist attached 

 to a Solar Eclipse Expedition. From the Scotch Fishery Board steam yacht, 

 the " Garland," he collected diatoms in most of the Scotch lochs ; from 

 material obtained in this way he made a very important discovery, that of 

 the reproduction of a diatom by asexual spore-formation. Not only was he 

 an enthusiastic collector himself, but his enthusiasm was of so infectious a 

 nature that he was able to persuade several captains of ocean-going steamers 

 to learn the methods of collecting plankton, and to bring him material from 

 the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Indian Oceans, and from the Eed and China 

 Seas. In 1898, aided by grants from the Eoyal Geographical Society, the 

 Drapers' Company and the Fishmongers' Company, he chartered a tug (the 



